# Khalid El-Masri

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Khalid El-Masri," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/khalid-el-masri/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*German grocery-store owner; rendered by the CIA in 2003 because his name, Khaled the Egyptian, happened to match that of a different Khaled the Egyptian whom a sister agency had reported was traveling to Albania to bomb the U.S. embassy. Tortured in Cairo to within an inch of his life. Released when Egyptian interrogators concluded he was the wrong man. Per John Kiriakou, returned to Germany with a waist-length beard and a Quran, telling a reporter: 'All I want to do is kill Americans.'*

- **Nationality:** German
- **Profession:** Grocery-store owner
- **Trigger for rendition:** Argued with his wife, walked out, bought a bus ticket to visit his brother in Montenegro
- **Name collision:** 'Khaled the Egyptian' is a near-generic, 'there are only about 150,000 other guys named Khalid El-Masri'
- **Seized by:** Serbian authorities at U.S. request, on a bus traveling through Serbia toward Montenegro
- **Rendered to:** Egypt
- **Outcome:** Egyptians concluded he was the wrong man; released
- **On release (per Kiriakou):** Beard down to his waist, clutching a Quran

**Khalid El-Masri** is a German grocery-store owner who was rendered by the CIA in 2003 on the basis of a name collision and tortured nearly to death in Egypt before being released without explanation. Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the case is one of two canonical illustrations, alongside [Maher Arar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/maher-arar)'s, of the post-9/11 rendition program rendering the wrong man.[1][2]

## The bus ticket

Per Kiriakou: *"One night he gets in a fight with his wife and he's like, 'Ah, fuck you.' He's so mad he walks out, buys a bus ticket. He's going to go visit his brother in Montenegro. The name El-Masri, it's not really a name. It just means 'the Egyptian.' Misri is Arabic for Egypt. So his name is Khaled the Egyptian."*[1]

## The name collision

As El-Masri's bus crossed Serbia en route to Montenegro, a sister agency informed the CIA *"that there's this Egyptian guy named Khaled, and he's going to blow up the American embassy in Tirana, Albania. And we're like, 'Wait a minute. There's another guy named Khaled and he's Egyptian, and he's on a bus going in the general direction of Albania. It must be him.'"* The CIA asked Serbia to stop the bus, grab him, and turn him over. They did.[3][4]

## Cairo

The CIA sent him to Egypt: *"they torture him to within an inch of his life. And they're like, 'Yeah, this is the wrong guy. This guy's just named Khaled. He happens to be Egyptian.'"*[4]

## After release

Per Kiriakou: *"When he gets out of the torture chamber in Cairo to return to Germany, he's got a beard down to his waist and he's clutching a copy of the Quran. And a German reporter asked him, 'What are you going to do now?' And he said, 'All I want to do is kill Americans.'"*[5]

## See also

- [Maher Arar](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/maher-arar)
- [Mohamedou Ould Slahi](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mohamedou-ould-slahi)
- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)
- [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay)

## Sources

1. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 1:40:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=6045s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
2. John Kiriakou Addresses the 2016 NHLA Liberty Dinner (2016-07-11), at 51:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Un-IY3vlc&t=3116s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-07-11-adventures-in-the-free-sta/
3. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 1:41:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=6076s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
4. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 1:41:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=6108s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/
5. The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 (2026-05-04), at 1:42:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeTlw4Zy3o&t=6140s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-04-cleared-hot-446-cost-of-truth/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/khalid-el-masri/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt