That Merkel chick is crazy

With Condi Rice in Europe, we once again get a chance to see U.S. diplomacy at its best. Remember Khaled Masri, the innocent German citizen, "renditioned" by the CIA for a four-month stay in an Afghanistan prison?

The German government, which has not spoken out on his behalf because of pressure from Washington, is doing what all government's do best: cover its backside and that of its allies. It was in this spirit Chancellor Angela Merkel declared at the joint press conference:

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''I'm pleased to say we spoke about [this] individual case, which the government of the United States has accepted as a mistake," Merkel told reporters as Rice stood beside her. ''I'm very happy that the secretary has repeated here that when such mistakes happen, they must be corrected immediately." [Boston Globe]

Not particularly controversial since Condi had just finished making vague noises -- which counts for an apology in this administration -- about "a policy" that "will sometimes have errors," yadda, yadda. And Ms. Rice certainly didn't say a word to contradict Merkel at the time.

Nope, she left it to mysterious "senior US officials accompanying Rice" to flat-out deny that she'd made any such admission in Masri's case: ''We are not quite sure what was in [Merkel's] head."

In other words, the bitch is crazy. Like I said, U.S. diplomacy at its best.