Germany says citizen held in US military custody in Afghanistan

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) -- U.S. authorities in Afghanistan have been holding a German citizen in custody since early January over accusations that he was on a U.S. base without authorization, Germany's Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

A ministry spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in contact with the U.S. on the issue and is working to secure the release of the German, a man of Afghan origin.

He said that German Embassy staff in Kabul have been able to visit the man.

The ministry did not give further details.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.com/News/200804190108

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German Held in US Custody in Kabul
The US military have been holding a German citizen in custody in Kabul after he tried to buy a shaver in a military supermarket. German intelligence agencies have found no grounds for suspecting he could be a terrorist and the German foreign ministry is now working to secure his release.

Gholam Ghaus Z., a 41-year-old of Afghan origin from Wuppertal in western Germany, had travelled to Kabul to visit relatives. When he entered a US military supermarket to buy a shaver in January he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism. The fact that he had banknotes in different currencies and telephone cards from several countries seemed to be enough to warrant his arrest. Although hours of interrogations did not provide any evidence that he was a terrorist, Z. man has been in US custody for the almost four months.

Officials with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, have already questioned him in Kabul. Meanwhile Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has looked into his background in Germany and found no grounds for suspicion. "It was all totally clean," a high-ranking security expert told SPIEGEL.

German agents and diplomats now fear a new Kurnaz case. The young German born Turk Murat Kurnaz (more...) spent almost five years in US military camps in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, after being arrested on suspicion of being a member of the Taliban. He was eventually released in 2006.

more:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,548442,00.html

[maddezmom]

1. Germans say U.S. is holding innocent man

Germans say U.S. is holding innocent man


Published: April 21, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:BERLIN, April 21 (UPI) -- German intelligence officials say they believe a German national held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan is innocent of terrorist charges.

U.S. soldiers arrested the man, identified as Gholam Ghaus Z, a German citizen of Afghan dscent, when he tried to enter Bagram Air Base to buy cheap American goods, Der Spiegel reported Monday.

A search uncovered foreign telephone cards, a brochure of London's Tower Bridge and foreign currencies totaling more than $1,500. U.S. officials suspected he was involved in a terror plot.

German intelligence officials said they found no evidence the man, who has been held since January, was linked to terrorism and point to his history of mental illness as possibly raising the suspicions of the U.S. military.

more:http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/21/germans_say_us_is_holding_innocent_man/9360/

[High Plains]

2. Typical US anti-terrorist bullshit.

They probably knew within minutes this guy was not a threat. Yet they hold him indefinitely. How many others?