The Bush administration is staying mostly quiet so far on a German court’s arrest warrants for 13 CIA operatives involved in the kidnapping of Khalid El-Masri. Masri was seized along the Serbian-Macedonian border and flown to Afghanistan where he was tortured inside a secret prison. The CIA is declining comment. State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack says the warrants will be reviewed.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack: “But I would just reiterate, just very simply, what the secretary has said many times over on issues of this type. And that is that we respect the sovereignty of our friends and allies. We have a very good relationship with Germany. We have a very good relationship with Germany, working on counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations.”

Masri tried to sue the CIA in federal court, but his case was dismissed on grounds it would reveal state secrets. In Germany, El-Masri’s lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, called for accountability.

Manfred Gnjidic: “Mr. El-Masri needs three things. The first thing is that the American government has to confirm what they have done to him. The second thing he is interested in is that they explain why this happened to him. And the third thing is — because we know now that he is innocent — that they apologize to him.”