Should US Compensate for Abduction?

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After a civil liberties organization called for compensation for Washington's wrongdoings, DW asked if the US government should be held responsible for the abduction of Khaled el-Masri, who was taken to Afghanistan and interrogated for five months before being released for allegedly mistaking his identity.

"In a right and just world, of course we should compensate the man and his family for what he's been put through. But if the US was to try and compensate everyone we've put through hell, there wouldn't be enough yen and yuan available to do it! Thank God it appears Ms. Merkel may not totally roll over for Condi and the Bush gang. You guys have to DO something about this bunch; WE seem to have lost all control of them." -- USA

"No compensation for el-Masri. Usually in a case like this an individual like el-Masri was detained for questionable activities of some sort. It is apparent that el-Masri was not totally innocent." –Anonymous

"Yes, I think my country should pay compensation to this gentleman as well as make a public apology. I am embarrassed as an American for what happened to him." -- Michael N., NJ, USA.

"George Bush and his father before him have brutally murdered innocent men, women and children in their war against the Iraqi people. The current administration, bound to uphold American policy and American values, has lied to the American people time and again. Lies are much easier for us to shoulder, however, compared to the lives that have been taken with total disregard for the innocents. It is nothing short of crimes against humanity. In the latest round of discoveries, it appears that the United States is willing not only to jeopardize the US Constitution, but it will also blatantly disregard the international law and the decrees of foreign powers. In this manner, the US has acted in much the same way as any terrorist has, with disregard for human life, with disregard for public opinion, with disregard for international law. If any other government in the world did this, you can be sure there would be international outcry and action by vested sources. Yes, the USA should compensate this man, and all other men and women it has harmed, tortured, and it should pay the families of those it has killed in acts of savagery and it must be brought before an international tribunal." -- Anonymous

Condoleezza Rice in Berlin with German Cancellor Angela Merkel

"If this administration had to pay compensation for every 'mistake' it has made in the 'war on terror' it would bankrupt the government. .... Come to think of it, that might not be bad idea!" -- Anonymous

Should Germany put more pressure on the US government to reveal details about CIA prisons and secret flights?

"More pressure? That's Germany's call. Whether it gets more answers is another question, since minds seem to already be made up. It doesn't matter how the US answers, it will be found guilty, as the rest of world believes and now knows through the Washington Post that the US is the worst human rights violator in the world. There is this statement: "Torture methods of any kind have to remain banned from the repertoire of the military and the intelligence community -- even if you risk failure in preventing a planned terrorist attack because of it. The violation of human rights cannot be weighed against even worse human rights violations that could potentially be prevented this way." (DW Opinion: Europe Needs to Pressure US on CIA Scandal) So it's not ok to violate terrorist human rights even if they turn around and kill you? This is dumbest thing yet I have read in your paper, with logic like that western civilization is doomed." -- Anonymous

"From my point of view, I believe that not only the German government should seek answers from Ms Rice, because the USA government is violating the essential right of people, they can not kidnap a person and then release him, without giving any explanation!" -- Jose Monroy, Italy

US base 'Bondsteel' in Kosovo, a detention camp allegedly similar to the Guantanamo Bay facility

"The US government should not do anything that the American people would not be proud of in the light of day. As an American, I think these CIA camps are secret. By the very fact they are overseas, means the CIA believes the American people would be ashamed of them. They have to hide them like rats in the night!" -- Anonymous

"I live in California in the US, and I believe the US needs to be as internationally respectful and respectable as this current administration purports it to be and follow, at the very least the Geneva Convention." -- USA