July 7th People's Independent Inquiry Forum -> CIA Rendition & Torture Flights

CIA Rendition & Torture Flights, & Secret Jails

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freedomfiles

Posted: Feb 10 2007, 09:51 PM

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QUOTE

Spain to hand judge documents on secret CIA flights
By Jane Barrett Fri Feb 9, 10:30 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070209/ts_nm/...renditions_dc_1

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain agreed on Friday to hand a judge intelligence documents about secret CIA flights that transported terrorism suspects to third countries where investigators say they may have faced torture or abuse.

The documents, which include details of flights that stopped off on the islands of Mallorca and Tenerife, will be handed to High Court Judge Ismael Moreno who is investigating whether suspects flown via Spain were held illegally or were tortured.

The government said it would ask the judge to use the papers only for the investigation and treat the data with "maximum protection," suggesting the information will not be made public.

Last month, Moreno ordered the CNI intelligence agency to release any documents it had on the so-called "rendition" flights by the United States, dozens of which stopped over on the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca.

"The government has approved the declassification of all the documents requested by the courts," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told reporters.

Spain has said it has no evidence that international law was broken on its soil but that it may have been used as a "stopover on the way to commit crime in other territories."

The rendition cases have sparked a series of political rows and potential trials in Europe. European Parliament investigators say up to 50 people were moved across Europe on their way to jails in third countries.

Germany has issued arrest warrants for 13 suspects in the abduction of a German national of Lebanese descent, Khaled el-Masri, who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA.

In Italy, a judge is deciding whether there is enough evidence to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, and six Italians for their role in a 2003 kidnapping of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar.

Washington acknowledges the secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries but denies torturing them or handing them to countries that did.

Last year, Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty said Spain might have acted in "collusion, active or passive," with secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers.

Marty said Palma de Mallorca was one of eight "staging points" for launching secret transfers. One flight he said flew via the island to pick up Masri in Macedonia and take him to Kabul.

freedomfiles

Posted: Feb 22 2007, 01:41 AM

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QUOTE

Switzerland Approves Probe of CIA Flight
By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; 2:53 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7021401048.html

Bridget

Posted: Feb 28 2007, 02:56 PM

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QUOTE

U.S. Warns Against EU's CIA Flight Probe

Wednesday February 28, 2007 12:31 PM

By JAN SLIVA

Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - A senior U.S. administration official on Wednesday warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence cooperation between the United States and European nations.

The European Parliament accused Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries.

In a report that concluded a yearlong investigation, the parliament identified 1,254 secret CIA flights that entered the European airspace since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

It said that these flights were against international air traffic rules and suggested some of them may have carried terror suspects on board in violation of human rights principles.

John Bellinger, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the European Parliament report ``unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair'' and called on the EU governments to challenge the suggestion that Europeans need to be concerned about secret CIA flights.

``I can understand concerns about specific incidents but we should not somehow suggest that all intelligence activity is something illegal or suspicious,'' he said.

Germany, Italy and several other EU countries have been carrying out their own inquiries into secret CIA activities in Europe, probes Bellinger said ``have not been helpful with respect to necessary cooperation between the United States and Europe.''

``I do think these continuing investigations can harm intelligence cooperation, that's simply a fact of life,'' Bellinger told reporters after meeting legal advisers to EU governments in Brussels.

EU parliamentarians have rejected Bellinger's criticism and called on the United States to address concerns that some flights have carried kidnapped terror suspects.

``People are imprisoned without being tried first. That is unacceptable. (The U.S.) should open up to us and tell us where they're flying and who they're carrying,'' said Kathalijne Buitenweg, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

The EU legislature has given no direct proof that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe, an accusation that prompted the inquiry in November 2005. Bellinger refused to comment on reports that Poland and Romania housed clandestine detention centers, but said a lot of allegations concerning U.S. intelligence activities have been ``just rumors.''

Bellinger also said the United States would refuse any Italian extradition request for CIA agents indicted in the alleged abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, one of the cases the European Parliament focused on in its inquiry.

``We've not got an extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite U.S. officials to Italy,'' he said.

Milan prosecutors want the Italian government to forward their request for the extradition of the 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents. The previous government in Rome - led by Silvio Berlusconi - refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has indicated it would not press Washington on the issue. The Americans all have left Italy, most before prosecutors sought their arrest.

Their trial opens in June. It will be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program to secretly transfer terror suspects to third countries, where critics say they may have been tortured.

Bellinger also said the U.S. government was keen on closing the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba but has not yet figured out what to do with the inmates.

The base began receiving terror suspects in 2002, and its treatment of the detainees has come under strong criticism from human rights groups. The EU has repeatedly called for immediate closure of Guantanamo.

``We have not seen Europe has been willing to help. We have seen many statements from European governments saying Guantanamo must be closed immediately. It's not clear how Guantanamo would be immediately closed. Europe has been prepared to criticize ... but has not been prepared to offer a constructive suggestion,'' Bellinger said.

He added that the United States has been looking to Europe for help with inmates from the Middle East who cannot, for various reasons, return to their home countries, but has not received any offers from European countries to accept these people.

numeral

Posted: Mar 11 2007, 01:21 AM

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QUOTE

America And Britain Asked Poland To Host Secret CIA Gulag
by David Simonetti
Global Research, March 10, 2007
Blair Watch

Britain's collusion with the CIA rendition and black sites program has been well documented. However, what seems to be emerging now is not so much a story of collusion but full involvement.

The CIA operated an interrogation and short-term detention facility for suspected terrorists within a Polish intelligence training school with the explicit approval of British and US authorities, according to British and Polish intelligence officials familiar with the arrangements.

That sounds like more than just turning a blind eye and allowing CIA torture flights to use British airspace and territory. If this is true then it looks like Tony Blair will have more questions to evade. It would be interesting to hear his response to this:

"According to a confidential British intelligence memo shown to RAW STORY, Prime Minister Tony Blair told Poland's then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller to keep the information secret, even from his own government."

Hmm! So much for Tony's enthusiasm for open government. Not only does he mislead the British Government but he's telling leaders of other countries to behave as badly. And this news comes just weeks after the European Parliament voted to approve the report conducted by MEPs (.pdf) into the collusion of EU states in rendition and black sites. In that report, the UK was slammed for its lack of co-operation with the investigation as well as being second in the list of the ten countries accused of allowing stopovers (Germany came first). Back in January Margaret Beckett was forced to admit that the Government knew about the secret prisons used by the CIA.

So can we now expect another admission from Margaret Beckett, in which she tells us that Britain along with the USA, actively encouraged the Polish Prime Minister to use a Soviet-era compound and intelligence centre as a gulag for the CIA and to keep it secret from the Polish government? I doubt it somehow, but the question still needs to be asked. And whoever answers will have to be a bit more convincing than in previous responses because the Americans don't seem to be denying the story apart from protesting (a little too much I think) about how it does not conduct or condone torture.

US intelligence officials confirmed that the CIA had used the compound at Stare Kiejkuty in the past. Speaking generally about the agency�s program, a former senior official said the CIA had never conducted unlawful interrogations.

�We never tortured anyone,� one former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. �We sent them to countries that did torture, but not on this scale.�

Despite denials by the Polish authorities that the country is involved with the rendition program, the former head of Polish intelligence, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, has gone on record as saying that the CIA had access to two internal zones at the Stare Kiejkuty training school. When the EU delegation went to Poland as part of their investigation, they reported that key government officials refused to meet with them after having previously agreed to do so. The delegation wanted to investigate both Szymany airport and the facility at Stare Kiejstuty. Mariola Przewlocka, the then airport manager at Szymany revealed that:

...whenever one of the suspected flights was scheduled to land, �orders were given directly by the regional border guards� emphasizing that the airport authorities should not approach the aircraft and that military staff and services alone� would handle landings.

�Money for the services was paid in cash, sometimes as much as four times the normal charge,� the former airport manager added. �Handling of the passengers aboard was carried out in a remote corner of the Szymany airstrip. People came in and out from four-wheel drive cars with shaded windows.�

The cars were seen traveling to and from the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence facility, where British and Polish intelligence officials say US agents conducted short-term interrogations before shuffling prisoners to other locations.

Sounds like a really legitimate operation doesn't it? And if Blair not only knew but also requested this, it begs the question: how much further was he involved in this program? Presumably he intends to obfuscate until he is out of Downing Street, but the questions are not going away and details continue to emerge. If the operation was as innocent as the Americans are insisting, why did they try to silence the EU over rendition flights? And why would the Bush administration seek to prevent suspected terrorists who have been abducted and 'interrogated' from revealing details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that were used on them?

The Antagonist

Posted: Jun 11 2007, 02:10 AM

Antagonista

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Both the government and the Association of Chief Police Officers are lying about the State's complicity in torture flights. Where's the political representation against these issues? What about the Stop the War coalition? In, fact, where is anyone making any effort to bring these fascistic practices to an end?

QUOTE

The picture that proves 'torture flights' are STILL landing in the UK
By GLEN OWEN -
Last updated at 09:07am on 10th June 2007

Daily Mail

The row over CIA 'torture flights' using British airports has deepened following fresh evidence that a plane repeatedly linked to the controversial programme landed in the UK just days ago.

The plane was logged arriving at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk last weekend, and watching aviation experts said the aircraft, piloted by crew clad in desert fatigues, was immediately surrounded on the runway by armed American security forces.

user posted image

Its registration number, clearly visible on the fuselage, identifies it as a plane which the European Parliament says has been involved in 'ghost flights' to smuggle terrorist suspects to shadowy interrogation centres abroad.

Records show the plane is owned by Blackwater USA, a CIA contractor described as "the most secretive and powerful mercenary army on the planet". An eyewitness, who previously worked as an RAF electronic warfare expert, said that as the plane - a CASA-212 Aviocar - taxied to a stop on the runway it was met by a US military Humvee.

The vehicle contained four US security policemen armed with M16 assault rifles, who accompanied the camouflaged crew to the airport terminal.

The man, who did not want to be identified, added: "I thought it was curious that they would give a civilian plane an armed guard."

Another spotter, who took the picture of it landing, recorded it touching down at 4.36pm on Saturday.

The disclosure follows damning findings by the Council of Europe human rights organisation, which accused Tony Blair on Friday of colluding in a CIA operation to run secret prisons in Poland and Romania by allowing the agency to use UK airports.

The study was contradicted on the same day by a report from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), which concluded that there was no evidence to support the claims.

But the director of the human rights group Liberty revealed that ACPO had admitted it restricted its inquiry to a review of media reports on the issue.

She accused them of rushing out their �cursory� findings as part of a politically-motivated 'spin' operation.

The US plane's arrival was also logged by Touchdown News, a group of enthusiasts who record the movements of military aircraft at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath.

The group said the plane used its civilian call sign when talking to air traffic control and took off again early on the morning of Sunday June 3, flying east.

user posted image

A report last November by a European Parliament committee placed the plane - registration number N964BW - on a list of "companies and aircraft used by the CIA for extraordinary rendition flights". The plane was previously registered with the Bolivian army, and has been pictured on the ground in the Afghan capital Kabul within the past year.

The American Federal Aviation Authority lists the plane as being operated by two companies, Aviation World Wide Services and a sister company, Presidential Airways.

The European Parliament report describes these as shell companies operating as subsidiaries of Blackwater USA, "an important contractor for the CIA and the US military" which bases the planes in Malta.

Research by a further group, The American Centre for Media and Democracy, claims that flight-tracking internet technology shows the plane landed at least twice in the first six months of 2006 at Camp Peary, the U.S. naval reservation in Virginia known as The Farm and widely alleged to be a CIA training facility.

Tracking technology shows that the plane was en route from Canada to Greenland two days before it was sighted at Mildenhall: the internet software does not extend beyond American airspace, but the expert explained that its route would be consistent with a refuelling stop in the Arctic - it only has a range of about 2,000 miles - followed by a further refuel in East Anglia, before heading to Malta.

From there it could 'leapfrog' from US bases in the the former Soviet states bordering Afghanistan on to Kabul.

A recent book on Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill, an American author, described the company as the world's "most secretive and powerful mercenary firm", carrying out quasi-military operations on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and within the U.S.

It was founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, a former elite Navy Seal and fundamentalist Christian millionaire who bankrolls far-Right causes.

This newspaper first cast doubt on the Government's claim to have no knowledge of the CIA�s activities 18 months ago when we published pictures of three planes at Scottish airports which had been linked by human rights activists to rendition.

user posted image

Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater mercenary firm

Flight records showed the planes had been given landing rights by the MoD, despite there being no record of passenger lists or details of the purpose of the flights.

The Council of Europe dossier, compiled by Swiss senator Dick Marty, said the U.S. had used Britain's help to establish a "global spider's web" of jails and airports to pursue a war on terror without rules.

It claimed the secret centres had been set up so it could use interrogation techniques amounting to torture which are illegal in the US.

These include "waterboarding" � the dunking of blindfolded suspects so they believe they are drowning � solitary confinement, shackling in confined cells and exposure of naked captives to extremes of heat, cold and noise.

Separately, the Washington Post newspaper has reported that mercenaries working for Blackwater were at the centre of an infamous firefight in Iraq in April 2004 when guarding the U.S. headquarters in Najaf - despite never having applied to operate as a private security company in the country, The report said that in the battle, footage of which circulated on the internet, the troops had opened fire on Shia Iraqi civilians protesting outside, unleashing rounds so rapidly they had to pause every 15 minutes to allow their gun barrels to cool down.

In his book, Scahill claims that the Blackwater employees in the country are using "experimental ammunition' made of 'blended metal, which shatter on impact to create untreatable wounds".

Shami Chakrabati, the director of Liberty, alleges that 210 CIA flights carrying terrorist suspects for possible torture have entered Britain since 2001.

She called for a full investigation, claiming the ACPO probe was unsatisfactory.

"ACPO have admitted to me in a private letter that their investigation amounted to little more than a cursory review of reports on the issue � which they issued, 18 months after I requested it, to coincide with the Council of Europe�s report," she said.

"Maybe now The Mail on Sunday has produced this photographic evidence they will conduct a proper inquiry."

An ACPO spokeswoman said: "These planes could be empty - there is no evidence that prisoners were on board."

She denied Liberty�s claim that their inquiry had been limited and driven by spin.

"There has been a full examination to see if there was any evidence to suggest criminal activity, and there wasn't," she said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have been through the records, and there is no evidence of detainees being rendered through the UK since 1997."

No one at RAF Mildenhall was available for comment.

Kier

Posted: Jul 1 2007, 05:25 PM

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QUOTE

Ministers accused of turning a blind eye to torture flights
Last updated at 15:58pm on 26th June 2007

The Government was accused today of turning a blind eye to extraordinary rendition flights through the UK amid calls in Parliament for a full inquiry.

Tory Andrew Tyrie said there was "enormous" anecdotal evidence that UK airports had been used for the so-called "torture flights".

"Initially when challenged the Government said it had no knowledge of any renditions," he told a Westminster hall debate.

"Then a little later they identified two renditions plus a couple of applications that had been refused. Then a little later on they identified at least one other request of an informal nature."

The MP for Chichester added: "I think the truth is, and the truth will out as it does in most democracies, that the UK Government has almost certainly been turning a blind eye to rendition.

"It has been determined not to allow a cigarette paper to come between it and its US ally."

He called for new legislation to formalise how any future requests for rendition through the UK would be dealt with.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Richard Younger-Ross demanded a full and proper inquiry into the allegations.

Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells insisted ministers would not approve the transfer of individuals through the UK to places where they risked torture.

Extensive searches of official records had found no evidence of detainees being rendered through the UK or its overseas territories since 1997 when such a risk was substantial, he added.

Mr Howells said he was not persuaded of the need for new legislation and refused to criticise US policy on rendition.

But he stressed the UK would only sanction such transfers as accorded with UK law and international obligations.

Earlier this month an inquiry found no evidence that British airports were used by the CIA flying terrorist suspects for torture in other countries.

The investigation by the Association of Chief Police Officers followed allegations by campaign group Liberty that 210 CIA flights carrying terrorist suspects for possible torture had entered Britain since 2001.

But a report by the Council of Europe alleged flights did pass through the UK and other European countries.

Source

There's also an article today headlined "Destroyed: Secret records of the CIA 'torture flights'" about how confidential records listing the names, addresses and passport details of all passengers and crew on suspected CIA torture flights have been destroyed by government officials. It should be available online later. Unfortunately, the Mail seems to be the only source covering this issue regularly.

Kier

Posted: Jul 2 2007, 10:31 PM

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Okay well after waiting over 24 hours for this story to become available online, I'm going to have to transcribe the story from a copy of the paper I got yesterday. Any kind of search for this story from another source has also proved fruitless. Here goes:

QUOTE

Destroyed: Secret records of the CIA 'torture flights'

by Jason Lewis, Whitehall Correspondant
July 1st 2007

Confidential records listing the names of all passengers and crew on suspected CIA 'torture flights' using British airports have been destroyed, it can be revealed.
Until now, Ministers have insisted no records had been kept of who was on the aircraft suspected of carrying alleged terrorists to and from secret interrogation centres.

But last night the Home Office revealed that all the names, addresses and passport details of passengers and crew had been collected when they landed in and left the UK. However, officials said the information was held under strict data protection rules and had now been destroyed.

Last night Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Rendition, attacked the decision to wipe the records. He said "I am appalled to learn that all records relating to these suspect flights appear to have been destroyed by government officials.
"I am amazed at the claim that this is a requirement of data protection rules. At best this defies logic, at worst it drives a coach and horses through our national security."

The Mail on Sunday has discovered that no border or law enforcement officials were involved in checking the identities of those on board. Instead it was left to civilian handling agents servicing the jets at individual to compile the crucial reports for customs and immigration officials.

One of the key men responsible for collating the lists of passengers and crew on the jets was Bert Greer, 76, boss of Greer Aviation, which serviced suspect flights, secretly operated by American intelligence, flying in and out of Prestwick Airport, near Glasgow.

Between 2001 and 2005 it was the only company offering fixed-base services, including crew facilities, at Prestwick when at least 49 flights allegedly involved in the covert US extraordinary 'rendition' programme landed. On at least one occasion flight logs show the firm secured landing rights for a Hercules operated by Tepper Aviation, a CIA front company.

And it is believed that each time other suspect aircraft flew in and out of Prestwick - one of the main refuelling and engineering centres used by the CIA-operated flights - it was Greer's job to check who was on board and alert the authorities. Under anti-terrorism and immigration law, UK handling agents like Greer Aviation are legally required to compile a 'General Aviation Report' for Customs and Immigration officials.

The report, which includes all crew and passenger details, their addresses and passport details, has to be signed by the pilot of the aircraft and the handling agent.
According to an investigation by the European Parliament, on at least three occasions CIA aircraft on rendition operations landed at Prestwick. However, it is not believed the suspects were still on board the aircraft when they reached Scotland.

Last week Mr. Greer was reluctant to answer questions about his role within the CIA flights and whether his firm had completed General Aviation Reports for the suspect aircraft. In a statement to the Mail on Sunday he said "We are unable to comment on individual flights handled through our Fixed Base Operation at Prestwick. However Greer Aviation complies with all regulatory legislation concerning the operation of its business."

He did not respond to questions about whether he or his staff had ever seen anything suspicious when they were servicing the CIA aircraft or if they had seen any prisoners on board.

Yesterday a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the law required General Aviation Reports to be completed for the suspect flights. She said "They are a multi-agency flight document designed to capture aircraft and flight details of crew and passengers travelling through the UK."
She said the reports were designed to be shared between the police, the immigration service and customs.

Customs officials checked the details against its database and also passed the details on to the local port officials. Immigration officials also registered the names and details of passengers and crew.

However, the spokeswoman added that information was kept under strict data protection rules which required it not to be kept indefinitely and in some cases it was destroyed within six months.
A spokesman for HM Revenue & Customs refused to say when it had destroyed its copy of the flight records.

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