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'* * * MEDIA ADVISORY * * *
Khaled El- Masri, Victim of CIA Kidnapping and Abuse, to Speak of His Ordeal at Washington, DC News Conference

German National’s Case Comes Before Federal Appeals Court on November 28

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENovember 15, 2006

CONTACT: Erica Pelletreau, ACLU, (212) 519-7829, 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK - In his first-ever trip to the United States, Khaled El-Masri, who was unlawfully abducted, detained and abused by the CIA under its rendition program, will speak at a news conference on Wednesday, November 29 at the National Press Club in Washington, hosted by his attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union.

El-Masri comes to the United States for the appeal of the ACLU’s landmark lawsuit on his behalf charging former CIA director George Tenet, other CIA officials and U.S.-based aviation corporations with violations of United States and universal human rights laws. El-Masri was on vacation in Macedonia when he was kidnapped, abused and rendered to a CIA-run “black site” in Afghanistan. After several months of confinement in squalid conditions, he was abandoned on a hill in Albania with no explanation, never having been charged with a crime.

Earlier this year a federal district court in Alexandria, VA dismissed El-Masri’s lawsuit based on the government's argument that allowing it to proceed would jeopardize state secrets. The ACLU argues that the government is invoking state secrets to avoid accountability rather than to protect national security, and that the case can be decided based on the vast amount of information already disclosed about the illegal rendition program and El-Masri's abduction specifically. The ACLU will argue the appeal of the case Tuesday, November 28 at 9:00 a.m. before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA. El-Masri and his attorneys will make brief comments immediately following the hearing.

El-Masri’s rendition is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation in his homeland, Germany, as well as investigations by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament into European nations’ complicity in the rendition program. El-Masri’s case has also been featured in numerous media reports and documentaries, including Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror’ produced by WITNESS.

More information about Outlawed is online at: www.witness.org/outlawed. Beta SP is available.

Background and briefs on the ACLU case are online at: www.aclu.org/rendition

WHAT: News conference about the ACLU’s appeal of Khaled El-Masri’s lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet and U.S.-based aviation corporations that owned and operated the aircraft used in his abduction and unlawful detention

WHO: Khaled El-Masri, rendition victim
Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, ACLU
Jenni Wolfson, Deputy Director, WITNESS
Steven Watt, Human Rights Attorney, ACLU
Manfred Gnjidic, El-Masri’s German attorney

WHEN: Wednesday, November 29, 9:00 a.m. EST

WHERE: National Press Club
529 14th street, NW
First Amendment Room, 13th Floor
Washington, D.C.

CALL IN: 1-800-741-3792 Listen only
Questions can be e-mailed to media@aclu.org '