El-Masri ordered to German mental hospital after arson arrest News
El-Masri ordered to German mental hospital after arson arrest

[JURIST] Khaled El-Masri [JURIST news archive], the German citizen allegedly kidnapped by the CIA in 2003, is suspected of arson at a wholesale market in Germany and has been ordered by a judge to be admitted to a psychiatric institution, according to the German police Thursday. Manfred Gnjidic, El-Masri's lawyer, told AP that his client had suffered "a complete nervous breakdown" and added that Gnjidic had been trying unsuccessfully to get El-Masri into a therapy program since 2004. AP has more. Der Spiegel has local coverage, in German.

El-Masri sued [ACLU materials] former CIA Director George Tenet and other CIA officials in 2005, arguing that they violated international human rights law by their involvement in the alleged kidnapping and extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] of El-Masri to Afghanistan. A US federal appeals court upheld [JURIST report] the dismissal of that lawsuit in March 2007, deciding that the case could not be heard in a US court because of the government's state secrets privilege [Sourcewatch backgrounder]. El-Masri says he was first detained by Macedonian officials and subsequently held by the CIA while vacationing in Macedonia in December 2003. He was released in Albania in May 2004 without apology or funds to return to Germany.

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Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

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