Algerian Tells of Dark Odyssey in U.S. Hands(secret detention program)

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Two years ago, a motley collection of prisoners spent night after night repeating their telephone numbers to one another from within the dark and dirty cells where they were being held in Afghanistan. Anyone who got out, they said they agreed, would use the numbers to contact the families of the others to let them know that they were still alive.

At least two of those men are now free and, thanks to the memorization exercise, are back in touch with each other.

The case of one of them, Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was held as part of the United States' antiterrorism rendition program, was revealed last year, and German and American officials have acknowledged that he was erroneously detained by the United States. But the tale of the other, an Algerian named Laid Saidi, has never been told before, and it carries a new set of allegations against America's secret detention program.

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In a recent interview, Mr. Saidi, 43, said that after he was expelled he was handed over to American agents and flown to Afghanistan, where he was held for 16 months before being delivered to Algeria and freed without ever being charged or told why he was imprisoned. He acknowledged that he was carrying a fake passport when he was detained, but he said he had no connection to terrorism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/world/africa/07algeria.html?hp&ex=1152244800&en=ac8e2d0a9986852b&ei=5094&partner=homepage