13 CIA Agents Sought By Germany

A German court has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents accused of participating in the kidnapping of Khaled El-Masri (pictured), a German citizen of Lebanese decent. El-Masri alleges he was taken while on vacation in Macedonia in 2003 and eventually flown to Afghanistan where he was held in a secret prison for months. He also alleges he was beaten several times before being dumped on the side of a road in Albania five months later. The warrants are of course not valid in the US, but should any of the 13 agents enter the European Union they will be arrested.

These allegations closely mirror those made by an Egyptian cleric in which both Italian and American agents are charged with kidnapping Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from Milan. Read the latest on that case here.

New UN Secretary-General Begins Work

Ban Ki-moon had his first day of work as the new UN Secretary-General today, as New Year's Day is a UN holiday. He takes over for Kofi Annan at a time when the UN is being looked to more and more to handle international human rights conflicts and weigh in on rule of law issues. Ban promised to rebuild international trust in the UN and address the North Korean nuclear problem.

I believe that Ban's tenure is going to be a very important one for the UN. The UN cannot afford to have a poor leader at this juncture, as the UN is already a target of much criticism. Ban faces some very difficult challenges in Darfur, North Korea, and the Middle East, among other problems.