Germany's external intelligence service, the BND, said yesterday (June 1, 2006) that it knew about the American seizure and detention of a German citizen 16 months before the country was officially informed of his mistaken arrest. It was unclear whether that information had been passed on to senior officials.

Germany had previously maintained that it did not learn of the abduction of its citizen, Khaled el-Masri, until he returned to Germany in May 2004. (NYT)