Foreign Morals in Foreign Affairs

I just returned from Germany this past Sunday. It was a blast. However, when the discussion turned to US politics, particularly foreign affairs, there was significant resentment among the German people. The German people have been hit very close to home. This is due in great part to the case of Khaled El-Masri. he is a Kuwaiti-born German citizen that was captured and tortured by the CIA because he was suspected of terror-related activity. This was reported by various media outlets on December 4 2005 and again on November 29 of this year. The most interesting part to me is the introduction to the first article: "In May 2004, the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in Germany to pay an unusual visit to that country's interior minister. Ambassador Daniel R. Coats carried instructions from the State Department transmitted via the CIA's Berlin station because they were too sensitive and highly classified for regular diplomatic channels, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation. Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public. The U.S. officials feared exposure of a covert action program designed to capture terrorism suspects abroad and transfer them among countries, and possible legal challenges to the CIA from Masri and others with similar allegations." This gives the distinct impression that the US is either ashamed of its practices, or knows that the general public would be upset by this information and tried to keep it secret. This smacks in the face of everything we have been told; around the same time, the White House had this to say. The White House, at least in public, says that they are well within their rights to detain and question anyone they suspect of aiding terrorism. Why the request for German non-disclosure?