The Telegraph reports:
Abu Musab al-Suri had been held in Syria for six years after being captured by the CIA in 2005 and transported to the country of his birth under its controversial extraordinary rendition programme.
But he is now said to have been released as a warning to the US and Britain about the consequences of turning their backs on President al-Assad’s regime as it tries to contain the uprising in the country.
Al-Suri, also known as Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, was al-Qaeda’s operations chief in Europe and has been accused of planning the London bombings, in which four British-born terrorists detonated three bombs on the Underground and another on a bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700 others in 2005.
In a statement released after the attacks, al-Suri said: “[In my teachings] I have mentioned vital and legitimate targets to be hit in the enemy’s countries … Among those targets that I specifically mentioned as examples was the London Underground. [Targeting this] was and still is the aim.”
A mechanical engineer, he is also wanted in Spain in connection with the Madrid train bombings in 2004, which left 191 dead, and for links to an attack on the Paris Metro in 1995.
…..
Al-Suri, who had a £3 million US State Department bounty on his head, was reportedly captured in Pakistan in November 2005 and handed to the CIA.His hideout was thought to have been identified after US intelligence intercepted a call from his wife.
In a move that has never been officially confirmed, the Americans then reportedly turned him over to Syria where he had been held for the past six years in the Aleppo prison, on its border with Turkey.
Quoting local sources, Syrian opposition website Sooryoon.net revealed al-Suri’s release last week.
If true, this is another example of the utter failure of the “extraordinary rendition” program carried out by the George W. Bush administration. Remember the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian who ended up being tortured in Syria after US officials grabbed him in 2002 on a stopover in New York? A Canadian investigation cleared Arar of any involvement in terrorism.
So “extraordinary rendition” to Syria has had the dual effect of allowing an actual terrorist to go free while an innocent man was imprisoned and tortured.
During his campaign for president, Barack Obama promised to end “extraordinary renditions,” although it’s unclear how completely this is being fulfilled.
