14 nations 'helped US renditions'

[cal04]

EUROPEAN governments collaborated with the US in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects, the BBC has reported. It also said two secret prisons were or are located in eastern Europe. The British broadcaster's flagship political program Newsnight based its claims on an advanced copy of the Council of Europe's report into the matter, which it said it had seen.

The report by Swiss politician Dick Marty, to be published tomorrow, is said to implicate 14 European governments in the practice, which involves the transfer of terrorist suspects to a third country for questioning. Human rights groups have criticised the process for exposing detainees to the risk of torture. According to the BBC, Mr Marty is said to have concluded that rendition was, for Europe, based on an "utterly alien legal approach" and that a "spider's web" of rendition flights had criss-crossed Europe.

Countries including Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Britain were stop-off points for US Central Intelligence Agency flights, the report said. Britain was also accused of passing on information to the CIA about its citizens or residents, who then faced rendition and/or torture. Prisoners had also been captured for rendition in Italy, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, according to the report. But the BBC said mr Marty's most serious charges were levelled against Poland and Romania, where he had reportedly unearthed "new evidence to strengthen suspicions that CIA secret prisons were or are established on their soil".

Both governments have strenuously denied the existence of such "black sites". "It is only through the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners that this 'web' was able to spread also over Europe," the report is said to state. The BBC said Mr Marty's evidence was based on flight plans filed with European air traffic controllers. The data reportedly showed a "clear pattern" of "rendition circuits", or specific missions for the transfer of prisoners
Trips were logged not only to Romania but from Afghanistan to Poland, it said.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19392610-1702,00.html

[sweetheart]

1. Clearly it never happend, condi would never lie

14 nations ruled by the empire, lying for the empire and spreading
slavery for the empire... disgusting... lowlifes.

[leftchick]

2. I just can't believe

that this is not more shocking to Americans. This is soviet era tactics people!

:grr:

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Don't worry

I'm sure Arlen Spector will pass a law making it all legal.

:sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

3. Plausible deniability ("We didn't know")

The hypocrisy of goverments

$$$$$$$$$$$ for torture...$$$$$$$$$$$ for turning a blind eye ....$$$$$$$$$ for a well nurtured ignorance

Is it any wonder the Bush Regime will get away with their crimes?

[Dover]

4. Report: European nations aided CIA

Report: European nations aided CIA


Wednesday 07 June 2006, 13:45 Makka Time, 10:45 GMT


Fourteen European countries - including Britain, Italy and Germany - colluded with the CIA in operating secret prisons and transferring suspects for interrogation, a European rights group said on Wednesday.


On Wednesday, a report by the Council of Europe identified a "spider's web" of landing points around the world used by the US authorities for the practice of "extraordinary rendition", the secret transfer of security suspects to third countries or US-run detention centres.

"The United States ... actually created this reprehensible network. But we also believe to have established that it is only through the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners that this 'web' was able to spread also over Europe," the report said.

"It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the whole truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities," Dick Marty, the Swiss legislator leading the investigation, said in the report.

"Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know," he said in the report's conclusions..cont'd

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/83588267-EF94-41D6-A118-E111FF108C6E.htm

[cal04]

6. Europe 'aided US in CIA flights (today's BBC)

Fourteen European states colluded with the CIA in secret US flights for terror suspects, a report for Europe's human rights watchdog concludes. The document by Swiss senator Dick Marty follows a seven-month inquiry. The report says there is also evidence to back suspicions secret CIA camps are or were located in Poland and Romania - allegations both countries deny. Under the CIA policy of rendition, prisoners are secretly moved to states where they may have been tortured.

The US admits to picking up terrorism suspects but denies sending them to Arab nations to face torture. The BBC's Tim Franks in Paris, where the report is being officially unveiled, says the charges are potentially explosive - but the difficulty remains in securing the proof.

(snip)
Spider's web'

In an interim report in January, he said European governments were almost certainly aware of the CIA's secret prisoner flights via European airspace or airports. The new report says: "It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. "Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know." Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while the UK, Portugal, Ireland and Greece were "stop-off points", the report says. It says Italy, Sweden, Macedonia and Bosnia allowed the abduction of residents from their soil.

The most serious charges are levelled at Poland and Romania, where Mr Marty says there is enough evidence to support suspicions that CIA secret prisons were established. Although the Swiss senator says the US must bear responsibility for the flights, he says the programme could operate only with "the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of the European partners". The "spider's web" of US rendition flights is based on an "utterly alien" approach that breaches human rights, he concludes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5054426.stm

[Laughing Mirror]

7. Another glowing example of whitey's hypocrisy

Ready to invade and destroy a country over so-called human rights violations, while violating those same human rights, even of its own people, because WE are the GOOD guys!! Ain't that a laugh.