CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, 2 November, 2005. Page A01

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.

But the revelations of widespread prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. military -- which operates under published rules and transparent oversight of Congress -- have increased concern among lawmakers, foreign governments and human rights groups about the opaque CIA system. Those concerns escalated last month, when Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Porter J. Goss asked Congress to exempt CIA employees from legislation already endorsed by 90 senators that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoner in U.S. custody.

Although the CIA will not acknowledge details of its system, intelligence officials defend the agency's approach, arguing that the successful defense of the country requires that the agency be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the U.S. legal system or even by the military tribunals established for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation.

The secret detention system was conceived in the chaotic and anxious first months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the working assumption was that a second strike was imminent.

Since then, the arrangement has been increasingly debated within the CIA, where considerable concern lingers about the legality, morality and practicality of holding even unrepentant terrorists in such isolation and secrecy, perhaps for the duration of their lives. Mid-level and senior CIA officers began arguing two years ago that the system was unsustainable and diverted the agency from its unique espionage mission.

"We never sat down, as far as I know, and came up with a grand strategy," said one former senior intelligence officer who is familiar with the program but not the location of the prisons. "Everything was very reactive. That's how you get to a situation where you pick people up, send them into a netherworld and don't say, 'What are we going to do with them afterwards?' " - .washington post

Black sites: Not just Cuba & Diego Garcia: GLOBAL INTERNMENT

CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons

Debate grows within agency about legality, morality of approach

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions

The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad. . - More from MSNBC

Alleged CIA detention camp in eastern Europe sparks MEPs' outrage

02.11.2005 - 17:39 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A media report alleging the CIA runs a secret camp in eastern Europe where it interrogates al Qaeda suspects has caused strong concern in Europe, with MEPs calling for an EU investigation into the matter.

According to an article in leading US newspaper the Washington Post on Wednesday (2 November), the US intelligence branch, the CIA, has detained top Al Qaeda suspects at a compound dating back to the Soviet era and located somewhere in eastern Europe.

The newspaper does not say if the camp is located on existing EU territory or in Romania or Bulgaria, for example.

It is also unclear if there is more than one camp, with the paper sometimes referring to the "eastern European countries" concerned in the plural, adding that US officials advised against publication of the countries' names for fear of terrorist reprisals.

Senior intelligence sources told the Washington Post that the al Qaeda prisoners are held in complete isolation from the outside world, have no recognised legal rights, and are probably subject to the CIA's controversial "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques".

European Commission and EU diplomats on Wednesday (2 November) declined to comment on the report.

"This is an issue between the US and any member states concerned", a commission spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana indicated that "this has nothing to do with the European Union".

MEPs want Brussels to take action But MEPs have called for an urgent EU investigation into the matter.

UK liberal MEP and member of the parliament's civil liberties committee baroness Sarah Ludford said "I will be asking commissioner Frattini to check out urgently this suggestion that EU member states may be implicated in the most barbaric practices of the misguided US 'war on terror'".

She added that if EU member states were involved "this has the most devastating implications for the EU's credibility in upholding human rights and the rule of law".

Dutch green MEP Kathalijne Buitenweg, also a member of the civil liberties committee as well as of the EU-US parliamentary delegation said that "Mr Solana should clarify with the Americans what exactly is going on".

"If human rights are violated in an EU country, or in a candidate member state, than this is an EU issue", she added.

Ms Buitenweg indicated the parliament's civil liberties and foreign affairs committees should discuss ways for the European Parliament to further research the issue itself.

The member announced she would personally raise the question at an EU-US parliamentary meeting in December.

Trauma from Soviet times

The matter looks set to cause outrage in eastern Europe, which is traditionally strongly allied with the US but which also experienced grave human rights violations in the past by former communist secret services.

Slovak centre-right MEP Miroslav Mikolasik said these memories made him "convinced" that the CIA camp cannot possibly be located in his own country.

"We had too painful experiences from the Soviet time with the conditions under which political prisoners were held", he said, adding "We hate these kinds of procedures".

The Wahington Post notes that CIA interrogators abroad are permitted to use the CIA's "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques".

The techniques, prohibited under the US' own military law as well as under UN rules, include tactics such as "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning. - euobserver.com

Poland and Romania marked as likely locations for CIA camps

03.11.2005 - 09:57 CET | By Mark Beunderman

Speculation is mounting on the possible location of camps where the CIA interrogates al Qaeda suspects in eastern Europe, with Poland and Romania being earmarked as the most likely spots.

The question on the exact location of the CIA facilities comes after a Washington Post report on Wednesday (2 November), which revealed that the US intelligence branch has detained top al Qaeda suspects somewhere in eastern Europe.

US officials advised the Washington Post against publication of the names of the host countries for fear of terrorist reprisals against these states.

But Human Rights Watch, a leading US-based NGO, has identified Poland and Romania as likely locations for the camps, according to press reports.

"We have a high degree of confidence that such facilities exist in at least Poland and Romania", said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of the NGO, according to the FT.

Human Rights Watch referred to the flight records of CIA aircraft transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan as one piece of strong evidence.

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza also refers to "sources" earmarking Poland and Romania as the camp locations.

According to the paper, a CIA prison plane, the Boeing 737 N313P, landed in Poland in the north-eastern regional airport of Szymany in August 2003.

Both Poland and Romania are seen as staunch allies of the Americans, having offered full support for Washington's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, Polish military analyst and general Stanislaw Koziej said that Poland is an unlikely location, according to Polish paper Rzeczpospolita.

"Polish intelligence would not take such a risk. It would be impossible to hide", he indicated.

Mr Koziej, as well as security expert Andrzej Wik told Rzeczpospolita that a more probable site for CIA interrogation centres would be central Asia, where the US has military bases.

Meanwhile, Czech interior minister Frantiszek Bublan told aktualne.cz news agency the US approached Prague to build a camp, but this request was rejected by the Czechs.

Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria have denied involvement, according to UK newspaper The Times.

For its part, the US administration has refused to deny the existence of CIA camps in Europe.

President Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley stated "The fact they are secret - assuming there are such sites - some people say that the test of your principles are what you do when no one's looking. The president has insisted that whether it is in the public or in private, the same principles will apply". - euobserver.com

Investigation into reports of CIA prisons

03/11/2005 - Allegations that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate al Qaida suspects today triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted European Union officials, the continent's top human rights organisation and the international Red Cross to investigate. Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles. At work may be a complex web of global politics, in which eastern European countries face choices between the views of the European Union and their interest in close ties with the United States.

According to a report in yesterday's Washington Post, the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaida captives at Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has had exclusive rights to visit terror suspects detained at a US military base at Guantanamo, took strong interest in the claims - having long been concerned about reports US officials were hiding detainees from ICRC delegates. Red Cross chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said the organisation had asked Washington about the allegations and requested access to the prisons if they exist.

Europe's top human rights organisation, the Council of Europe, said it, too, would investigate the claims.

Notari said the Red Cross, which also monitors conditions at US detention centres in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been unable to find some people who have reportedly been detained. She said the Red Cross was "concerned about the fate of an unknown number of persons detained as part of what is called the 'global war on terror' and held in undisclosed places of detention."

Human Rights Watch in New York said today it has evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.

The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the organisation.

Human Rights Watch said it matched the flight patterns of the CIA aircraft with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the United States.

"The indications are that prisoners in Afghanistan are being (taken) to facilities in Europe and other countries in the world," Garlasco, a former civilian intelligence officer with the Defence Intelligence Agency, told The Associated Press.

He would not say how the organisation attained the flight logs, but he noted that two destinations of the flights in particular stood out as likely sites of any secret CIA detention centres: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near the headquarters of Poland's intelligence service; and Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania, Garlasco said.

The group also obtained the tail numbers of dozens of CIA aircraft to match them with the flight logs, Garlasco said.

On one of the flights, a Boeing 737 in September 2003 flew to Kabul, Afghanistan from Washington via Ruzyne in the Czech Republic and Tashkent, Uzbekistan he said. On September 22, the plane flew to Szymany Airport, then to Mihail Kogalniceanu, proceeded to Sale, Morocco and finally landed at the US Naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, Garlasco said.

As far as he knew, Human Rights Watch has not found and interviewed detainees who were held in any alleged facilities in Poland and Romania.

Romania is one of the countries that had an agreement with the United States to use its air space during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and the US has used he Kogalniceanu air base in Romania.

But the Defence Ministry issued a statement saying it was "not aware that such a detention centre … existed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base," and invited journalists to come see for themselves.

"I repeat: We do not have CIA bases in Romania," said Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu.

In Poland, an aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said authorities there had "no information" of such facilities.

Other European countries also issued denials.

Boglar Laszlo, a spokesman for Hungary's prime minister, told AP that an official report would be drawn up following consultations with air transportation officials and others "so we can bring this mattr to a close."

Baltic countries Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia also denied the allegations as did now-independent former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Armenia.

EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told reporters that the European Commission, the EU's executive office, would launch an informal probe, requesting answers from all 25 member governments and EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.

The investigation could create tensions between Washington and EU governments, many of which have been outspoken critics of how the US has been handling terrorist suspects at its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. EU heavyweights France and Germany led international opposition to the U.S. decision to invade Iraq.

According to the Post's report, a covert prison system was set up by the CIA nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story. U.S. officials have refused to confirm or deny the allegations.

Roscam Abbing said said such prisons could violate EU human rights laws and other European human rights conventions.

Matjaz Gruden, a spokesman for the Council of Europe, said the human rights watchdog would also be following the issue "very closely". - IOL

EU diplomats sceptical on CIA detention camp reports

03.11.2005 - 17:40 CET | By Andrew Rettman EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU diplomats do not believe the CIA has secret al Qaeda detention camps in Poland or Romania, but the European Commission will quiz member states informally on the subject.

The Washington Post and NGO Human Rights Watch broke the story on Wednesday (2 November), indicating that northeast Poland and the Romanian Black Sea coast are likely sites.

Warsaw and Bucharest has categorically denied the claims however, with policy advisors to EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana accepting the rebuttals at face value.

"They wouldn't have said it in that tone if there was a shred of truth in it. Having this level of denial means it didn't happen", the Institute for Security Studies' eastern Europe expert Marcin Zaborowski told EUobserver. "If they are lying, they have put themselves in very deep trouble", he added.

The Paris-based institute advises Mr Solana's cabinet on security policy and is funded by member states.

The Polish president's spokesman Waldemar Dubaniowski told news agency PAP on Thursday: "There have never been special prisons for terrorists in Poland and there never will be".

Romanian prime minister Calin Tariceanu said to Reuters on Wednesday night that "There are no CIA bases in Romania".

Commission asks questions

Meanwhile, the commission plans to seek its own confirmation of events. Brussels' justice and home affairs spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said commission director generals are empowered to quiz member states' senior politicians on the subject, but the questions would amount to "research" rather than an investigation.

"I don't think we have such things in eastern Europe, at least not as far as I know", he said.

EU human rights machine laid bare

As far as EU candidate member states like Romania are concerned, the commission's competency in human rights is limited to monitoring compliance with the so-called Copenhagen criteria.

These enlargement criteria state that EU candidates must guarantee democracy, the rule of law and human rights, among other economic conditions.

"The Copenhagen criteria are rather clear. I don't think the existence of secret prisons would be compatible with that", Mr Roscam Abbing remarked.

Beyond this, current member states can be punished for human rights violations by having their EU voting rights suspended under article 7 of the Treaty. But the process requires one third of the other 24 member states to agree that there is "a persistent breach" of basic EU values.

"I don't think we are quite there yet", Mr Roscam Abbing quipped. - euobserver

Romania denies air base used as CIA prison

04/11/2005 - Romanian aviation officials and the military denied reports today that the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in south-east Romania was used by the CIA as a detention facility for suspected terrorists. The Kogalniceanu base, near the Black Sea port city of Constanta, was used by the US to transit troops and equipment during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The US military evacuated its remaining forces in June 2003.

"When the Americans were here there were so many civilians working there, people would have found out about it," said Dan Buciuman, the base commander.

The base, which extends over about 800 acres, has since been used for joint military exercises with the US, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Britain. The US is expected to take it over later this year to stage training exercises.

Human Rights Watch in New York said Thursday it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to the Szymany Airport in Poland and the Kogalniceanu base. The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group. Both Poland and Romania have denied they hosted such detention centres.

Human Rights Watch said it matched the flight patterns of the CIA aircraft with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the US. The head of the International Mihail Kogalniceanu airport, where planes carrying detainees are alleged to have landed, gave AP computerised flight logs with details of all landings between 2003-2005.

"It would be practically impossible for them to land here without a record because we operate by international rules and we are part of an international network of aeronautical information," said Cornel Balan, the director of the airport, which serves both civilian and military planes. "These records cannot be erased or altered."

At the nearby air base, officers reacted with disbelief to the allegations that Kogalniceanu's facilities were used to keep secret CIA prisoners.

"It's incredible what is being said and to remove all doubts we have decided to open our doors, so that anyone can see that we have no detention facilities," said Lt Cmdr Adrian Vasile, a spokesman for the base.

The base, awaiting new owners, appears deserted. The Pentagon wants to use it for training and quick deployments. The US military has made repairs and upgraded the base, which includes troop accommodation facilities and about 140 small administrative buildings. - IOL

Poland denies link to alleged CIA bases

04/11/2005 - At midnight on an autumn night two years ago, a Boeing passenger plane with seven people carrying US passports touched down at a little-used airport deep in the pine forests of north-eastern Poland, officials say. Confirmation of the mysterious arrival comes after a human rights group said evidence pointed to Szczytno-Szymany airport as a CIA transfer site for al-Qaida prisoners.

Airport officials and border guards said the plane landed at the former military base on September 22, 2003 - the date Human Rights Watch said a Boeing 737 that was part of the prisoner transfer scheme was at the airport.

But authorities - including the airport's former director - denied any knowledge of prisoner transfers.

New York-based Human Rights Watch says the US government may have used Sczytno-Szymany airport for secret transfers of terror suspects captured in Afghanistan, citing flight logs and unnamed sources.

Polish government officials dismiss the report, and US officials have refused to confirm or deny the claims.

Border guards spokesman Maj Roman Krzeminski said records show that on September 22, 2003 a plane landed at the airport carrying seven people with US passports, and took on board five other people with US passports who were waiting at the airport and whose documents said they came to Poland on business.

He said the plane spent about an hour at the airport before taking off.

Former airport director Mariola Przewloczka described the plane as a Boeing and said border guards drove out to meet the plane on the runway instead of having the occupants enter the airport terminal.

"After the plane landed two vans drove out to meet it with border control officials," said Przewloczka. "The whole thing lasted a little over a half an hour."

But she and other officials said they didn't know where the plane came from or where it went.

Human Rights Watch said yesterday it has evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the organisation.

In Romania, aviation officials and the military denied the rights group's allegations that the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base may have been used by the CIA as a detention facility.

The Kogalniceanu base, near the Black Sea port city of Constanta, was used by the United States to transit troops and equipment during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The US military evacuated its remaining forces in June 2003.

"When the Americans were here there were so many civilians working there, people would have found out about it," said Dan Buciuman, the base commander.

Garlasco said one of the flights was a Boeing 737 that in September 2003 flew from Washington to Kabul, Afghanistan, via Ruzyne in the Czech Republic and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he said.

On September 22, the plane flew to Szczytno-Szymany Airport, continuing to Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base and Sale, Morocco, and finally landed at the US Naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, Garlasco said.

The Szczytno-Szymany Airport is in extensive forests outside the town of Sczytno near Poland's Masurian Lakes in north-eastern Poland. It's not an operating airport, but planes can land if prior arrangement is made; only one small single-engine plane was parked there Friday, and there were no take-offs or landings. - IOL

Germany's Intelligence Service Faces New Allegations

Under pressure for allegedly spying on journalists, the BND now faces a new scandal

23.11.2005- While investigations into alleged spying on German journalists continue, the Federal Intelligence Service has now been accused of interrogating a German national in a Syrian jail for torture.

The on-going scandal involving members of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the alleged shadowing and surveillance of journalists took another turn Monday when the parliamentary commission in charge of overseeing security operations publicly rebuked the BND.

The BND was accused of exceeding its powers by carrying out surveillance on reporters to identify their sources. Volker Neumann, the chairman of the Bundestag's secret service committee, told reporters that the German government must do everything in its power to prevent such incidents.

"The government must publicly explain the details (of such cases) when it doesn't betray secrets or endanger people," said committee member Hans-Christian Ströbele.

The cases currently under observation by the committee date back to the early 1990s, but it was revealed earlier this month by BND chief August Hanning that more current examples of journalists coming under observation could not be ruled out. Hanning admitted that there was a possibility that reporters may have more recently been put under surveillance to identify "disloyal staff" behind leaks of sensitive information.

Secret questioning?

The embarrassment of the public parliamentary criticism was exacerbated by an article published in the German news magazine Der Spiegel which reported BND agents had secretly questioned a German national in a Syrian jail for torture.

The report states that BND and federal police officers traveled to Syria in November 2002 to question Mohammed Haydar Zammar in the Far-Filastin prison in Damascus.

Zammar, a German citizen and associate of the Hamburg terror cell that led the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, was captured by the CIA in Morocco in 2001. The report suggests that he was interrogated by the German agents over a period of three days after Syrian authorities had broken down his resistance.

It is alleged that the BND was granted access to Zammar after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's office agreed to back down over the prosecution of two Syrian-born spies. A group that included Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat secretly visited Berlin in July 2002 to arrange the deal.

Zammar family lawyer Gül Pinar is quoted in the report as saying that the German authorities had repeatedly told her and the suspect's relatives that they had no idea where Zammar was being held and that they had no way of contacting him. Pinar told Der Spiegel that if the reports of the BND visit were true then the authorities "obviously lied."

"You can't say on the one hand 'we can't get to him and the Syrian authorities are blocking everything', and then go in together with them and question him," Pinar, who is planning to file a legal complaint to establish if German officials had indeed interrogated Zammar, told Reuters.

Controversial prison

Far-Filastin, a facility in the basement of the Syrian military intelligence headquarters, has a notorious reputation with human rights groups which claim to have documented evidence that it is a torture center. Amnesty International has documented 38 different torture methods, including electric shocks and beatings with wires, being used there.

Human rights groups say the United States and its Western allies deny the use of torture by their own agents but are happy to use intelligence obtained under torture by third countries.

Washington denies outsourcing torture but has acknowledged secretly moving suspects between countries to be interrogated in the "war on terrorism," a process known as rendition.

The BND and federal police, as well as the German foreign ministry, have so far declined to comment on the magazine report. Deutche Welt

Premier Executive Transport Services Boeing 737 CIA prisoner transport in Estonia

Wayne Madsen Report - November 24, 2005 -- CIA torture flight controversy rages on in Europe. From Sofia, Bulgaria to Vienna and Lisbon to Reykjavik, Malta, Helsinki, and Stockholm, government and opposition leaders are calling for a full investigation of the use of airspace and airports by CIA proprietary aircraft companies to transport prisoners for purposes of torture. Recently, former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner called Vice President Cheney the "Vice President for torture." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, Col. Larry Wilkerson, said the torture orders came from Cheney's office through the Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld and that the torture is likely still occurring.

Path Corporation CIA Dash 8 seen in Amsterdam last week.

Bush at suspected secret prison camp on July 24, 2001, a month and a half before 9-11.

More US bases in Eastern europe - strategic connections

On November 17, Romania and the United States agreed on installing American military bases near the Black Sea. The same day, Washington started a new round of talks with Bulgaria in order to finalize a deal granting the United States use of Bulgarian military bases (the Bezmer airfield and the Novo Selo firing range).

As expected, the positive trend in political and strategic relations between the U.S. and the two southeastern European countries of Romania and Bulgaria is continuing. During the 2003 preparation of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in the middle of a serious European diplomatic split in front of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq, Bucharest and Sofia openly said that Washington could count on them for future strategic cooperation. [See: "Bulgaria, Romania and the Changing Structure of the Black Sea's Geopolitics"]

The 2005 advancement in establishing a U.S. military presence in the two countries signals the consolidation of the new American geostrategic initiative in the Black Sea region and will have important consequences for the European Union, U.S.-Russian relations, and the West's strategy toward the "Greater Middle East." Moreover, it also confirms that Washington now seeks small, flexible bases for the possible deployment of forces in Europe, instead of Cold War-style bigger, permanent facilities.

U.S. Geostrategic Needs

The U.S. appears to be accelerating the process of its post-Cold War military redeployment, especially in the European theater of operations. Many predicted that such moves would be performed in the early 1990s. During the 1945-1990 period, the main U.S. military presence in Europe was in Germany, coupled by crucial air facilities in Italy, Great Britain and Turkey. This was seen as increasingly anachronistic due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

However, even after the Berlin Wall fell, Washington delayed a major change in its deployment strategy. The Balkan region wasn't "normalized" until 1999, when N.A.T.O. crushed the last communist nation-state (Serbia and Montenegro) and opened a new era in the former Yugoslav region. Also, the process of N.A.T.O.'s and the E.U.'s eastward enlargement was still underway in the past decade.

After the September 11 attacks, however, Washington's security perceptions changed. It wasn't that the Middle East was not considered a source of threats before September 2001, but it certainly became the first priority for U.S. strategists after that date.

Moreover, the American goal of tackling Islamic revolutionary movements in a broad "Arc of Instability" connects with Washington's need to successfully compete with rising power centers such as China and India, both of which are increasing their cooperation with Moscow. [See: "Washington's Long War and its Strategy in the Horn of Africa"]

- more at pinr.com

November 11, 2005 -- BREAKING NEWS U.S. "crating" prisoners and flying them around Eastern Europe in C-130 prison planes.

Although The Washington Post failed to report on the details of CIA (now Pentagon-run) "black" interrogation sites in eastern Europe, WMR is able to report on the particulars of the covert operation. According to a well-placed intelligence source who served in eastern Europe, prisoners from Iraq and elsewhere have been flown from airport to airport in eastern Europe on board C-130 planes. Placed in what were described as "dog-sized" cages, the covert operation became fully operational after the disclosures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Baghdad and Camp Bucca, Umm Qasr, Iraq. The "crated" prisoners were either removed from the C-130s for interrogation at Soviet-era detention centers that were in various states of repair or were kept on board the aircraft and subjected to brutal interrogation by U.S. and/or contractor personnel, who, in some cases, were ex-members of the Soviet KGB, Stasi, and other eastern European security services. C-130s are used because of their short take-off and landing capabilities on short air strips located in remote regions.

The source, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, witnessed the ground work being laid for the "black sites" in a number of countries and locations. These include the Taszar airbase in south-central Hungary, near the town of Pecs; Lv'iv, Ukraine; Szczynto-Szymany, Poland; Skopje, Macedonia; Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania; Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; Shkoder, Albania; Burgas, Bulgaria; and the Markuleshti air base in Moldova.

Crating prisoners hearkens back to the Vietnam War when the U.S. used "tiger cages" installed by the French on Con Son island off Vietnam to hold political prisoners. The U.S. used the tiger cages to detain and torture suspected Viet Cong sympathizers. Many of the prisoners were merely innocent Buddhists and anti-war activists. The flying of caged prisoners from airport to airport on chartered C-130s is yet another indication of what military judge advocate general (JAG) lawyers have cited as the Bush administration's penchant for placing prisoners in "law free zones."

Crating prisoners for Eastern European "frequent flyer torture" -- The latest outrage from an administration that brought us white phosphorous chemical weapons, sodomizing teen prisoners, and naked human pyramids.

November 20, 2005 -- CIA torture flights remain in operation. On November 18, a CIA aircraft, a CASA CN-235-300 turboprop, tail number N196D, operated by front company Devon Holding and Leasing, Inc. of Lexington, North Carolina, was recorded as traveling from Iceland to St. John's, Newfoundland, to Manchester, New Hampshire and finally to Johnson County Airport in Smithfield, North Carolina.

N196D stopped in Malta, on May 17, 2004 -- its itinerary was Halifax-St.John's-Keflavik-Edinburgh-Frankfurt-Malta-Amman-Afghanistan. Paper work filed indicated two owners: Devon Holding and Leasing and Stevens Express Leasing Company of Tennessee, another front company being investigated by the Spanish Interior Ministry for fronting for torture flights through Mallorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

CIA Torture Flight N196D

A similar Devon-owned aircraft, tail number N168D, flew a route from St. John's to Keflavik, Iceland and on to Prague on April 6, 2005. It was also reported to have landed in Malta on August 12, 2005; Palma de Mallorca on January 16, 2005; and Ponta Delgada in the Azores on January 11, 2005 for a stop while en route from St. John's to Cagliari, Sardinia.

A former Piedmont Airlines Boeing 737, now CIA torture plane, tail number N313P (re-registered as N4476S), was spotted on the runway at Palma de Mallorca on January 23, 2004. CIA front owners have been variably listed as Premier Executive Transport Services and Keeler and Tate Management, both linked to Jeppesen Dataplan of California. The Boeing 737 was also spotted in Tulsa; Geneva; Oporto, Portugal; and Frankfurt.

Another CIA front company is called Prescott Support. Its  C-130, the L-100-30 Hercules, (the same aircraft type reported to be involved with flying around "crated" prisoners) has been spotted at Frankfurt, Singapore (Changi), Kuala Lumpur's Subang Airport (parked in an isolated position away from other aircraft just a few weeks following the Indian Ocean tsunami), Malta, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Kuwait, Oporto (Portugal), Helsinki (Vantaa), and Kenya. Another Prescott Support plane, a DeHavilland Twin Otter/VistaLiner, was identified on a long flight in October 2004 from North Las Vegas to Prescott, Arizona to Starkville, Mississippi to Florence, South Carolina to Wilmington, North Carolina to Goose Bay, Labrador to Reykjavik's city airport in Iceland to Stansted, London, England to Cairo to Kenya.

CIA aircraft on ground at Helsinki's Vantaa Airport May 16, 2003

November 23, 2005 -- CIA torture flight controversy spreads to Finland. WMR reported on Nov. 20 that a C-130 Hercules, registered to CIA front company Prescott Support, landed at Vantaa airport in Helsinki. Prescott is among several companies in Arizona, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas that have been linked to operating CIA prisoner flights. The revelations about Vantaa have resulted in a flurry of government denials and a call for an investigation by the Finnish government. Finnish media are now reporting on the story.

Meanwhile, Dick Marty, the chief Council of Europe investigator of the CIA torture flights, announced in Paris that he received from Human Rights Watch a list of 31 suspected CIA aircraft reported to be involved in torture.

November 24, 2005 -- CIA torture flight spotted in Estonia. A Boeing 737 once registered to Premier Executive Transport Services, Inc. (registration N313P and also N4476S), and reportedly sold to two limited liability corporations -- Bayard Foreign Marketing and Keeler and Tate Management, was photographed in Estonia (thanks to T.P.). The 32-seat Boeing, reportedly another plane used by the CIA to transport prisoners for torture, was spotted at a number of airports around Europe, including Shannon in Ireland, Prague, Palma de Mallorca, Tulsa, Geneva, Oporto, and Frankfurt.

Bern. A fax message from Cairo to the Egyptian Embassy in London and caught by the Swiss intelligence claims that there are CIA detention centers in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Kosovo and Macedonia where Al Qaeda supporters are kept. That is written in the Sunday Swiss tabloid but the info has not been confirmed yet, Swissinfo reports. The document was caught on 10th November last year through the used by the secret services satellite system Onyx. According to the info 23 Iraqi and Afghanis citizens were questioned in Romanian military base in Constansa. According to Egypt there were similar centers in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria. - focus-fen.net

'Egyptian message' may be proof of secret CIA prisons

09/01/2006 - European investigators looking into allegations of secret CIA-run prisons in Europe said today that a purported Egyptian government message naming countries where such prisons existed could amount to indirect proof of the claims.

However, the investigators from the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body, said they were still trying to confirm that the Egyptian document was genuine. The document's existence was reported yesterday by the Swiss weekly SonnstagsBlick.

The newspaper reported that the document said Egypt had confirmed through its own sources that the US intelligence agency had held 23 terror suspects at a military base in Romania. The message also said there were similar US detention centres in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria, according to the newspaper.

The message, a fax sent by satellite transmission from Egypt's Foreign Ministry to its embassy in London, was intercepted on November 15 by Swiss intelligence, the newspaper reported.

The Swiss Defence Ministry said yesterday it was investigating the leak of the secret document.

Two of the European investigators said today that, if authenticated, they would consider the faxed message to be indirect proof that the facilities existed and an additional indication that some governments in Europe may not have revealed everything they know. The two officials said that lead investigator Dick Marty, who is also a Swiss lawmaker, received a copy of the document from the Swiss secret service and was trying to confirm independently that it was genuine. Marty could not be reached for comment today.

Officials at Egypt's Foreign Ministry were not available to comment because of a holiday.

The Strasbourg, France-based council began its investigation after allegations surfaced in November that US agents interrogated key al-Qaida suspects at clandestine prisons in Eastern Europe and transported some suspects to other countries via Europe.

Marty is to present his findings to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe later this month. European officials say such secret prisons would violate the continent's human rights laws.

New York-based Human Rights Watch identified Romania and Poland as possible sites of secret US-run detention facilities. Both countries have denied involvement.

European Commission spokesman Friso Abbing Roscam said the EU's executive office has not been informed of the Egyptian fax and would not comment on its content. He said the commission was supporting the council probe.

"We need to get all the facts as straight as possible," he said.

But the council has complained it still has not received satellite pictures of the Sczytno-Szymany airport in north-eastern Poland and the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in eastern Romania, two possible sites of CIA detention centres.

Marty requested the pictures from Eurocontrol, the EU organisation in charge of managing pan-European air traffic, more than a month ago to determine whether any secret detention centres existed at the sites. Member states sent Eurocontrol their flight logs of both civilian and military flights. - IOL

Council of Europe Calls for Stricter Oversight of Foreign Intelligence Activities

By VOA News 01 March 2006

The Council of Europe says European nations need to introduce tougher laws to regulate the activities of foreign intelligence agents operating on their territories.

Council Chairman Terry Davis told reporters in Strasbourg Wednesday most of Europe is, "a happy hunting ground for foreign security services."

His comments came as he released a report detailing European nations' oversight of foreign intelligence activities.

At issue is the CIA, which is under fire in Europe over reports that it secretly flew terror suspects across the continent, and operated secret prisons in Eastern Europe to house and question the suspects. Washington denies any wrongdoing.

The report did not include any evidence of the existence of secret prisons in Europe.

Chairman Davis said Italy, Poland, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina did not provide requested information for the report. - Voice of america

Torture hunter's US quest

Bradley S. Klapper - 01apr06 - GENEVA -- The UN's special investigator on torture is demanding access to what he says are secret US jails in Europe.

Manfred Nowak said he was "100 per cent sure" the prisons existed. Prof Nowak refused a US invitation to visit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being denied interviews with detainees.

He said he hoped Washington would reconsider its policy on terror suspects and allow him to investigate allegations of torture in detention centres outside the US. Prof Nowak said this included detention centres in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said he had evidence of secret prisons in Europe, citing US refusal to provide details or records of interrogations used in terrorism trials in Germany.

"I am 100 per cent sure," Prof Nowak said.

Allegations of secret US detention centres in Europe have sparked separate investigations by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog.

"It is totally unacceptable, even in the fight against terrorism, that a highly democratic country such as the US is keeping secret places of detention," said Prof Nowak, an Austrian law professor who reports on torture allegations to UN rights bodies and the General Assembly. "Secret means nobody knows who is there, where the people are, families have no access, and not even the Red Cross has access. "This is not only unacceptable in Europe. It is unacceptable anywhere in the world."

US officials were not available to comment. The US refuses to confirm or deny the allegations of secret prisons, because it refuses to comment on intelligence matters. But it notes a Council of Europe report found no specific evidence to support claims of detention camps in Europe such as Guantanamo Bay. - heraldsun.news

US seeks EU backing on rendition flights

By By Sarah Laitner in Brussels and Daniel Dombey in London - msnbc / FT

The top legal adviser to Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, has urged European Union governments to help Washington refute claims that hundreds of CIA flights used European airspace and airports to transport detainees to countries in which they may face torture.

John Bellinger was reacting to claims by a European parliament investigation that hundreds of CIA flights have crossed the Continent - a process it linked to the practice of "rendition" or extra-legal abduction.

Amnesty International, the human rights group, has also alleged that almost 1,000 CIA flights have called at third-country airports, including European ones. The figure has been repeated by members of the European parliament.

Mr Bellinger said: "The unchallenged allegation that all of these flights have got detainees on them is absurd. Someone needs to challenge that. It is not possible for the US to prove a negative. But responsible European officials need to say this has got out of hand."

Amnesty responded: "No one's made the comment that all flights contain detainees. The issue clearly is that a huge number of flights are being made into European and other airports by CIA planes, some of which are known to be linked to rendition."

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The issue of rendition has cast a shadow over US-European co-operation since allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe emerged last year. Many European campaigners argue that Washington has disregarded basic human rights in its eagerness to extract information from terrorism suspects. The US says rendition is a well-established procedure that has no connection with torture.

Mr Bellinger would not say how many flights had taken place but said some carried only agents or evidence. The suggestion that a big number had detainees on them destined for mistreatment was absurd. Asked whether flights were continuing, he said: "I would not necessarily assume that at all. The last allegation of a rendition was something like three years ago."

Mr Bellinger said it was impossible for the US to do more to refute the claims and it was wrong to assume that intelligence flights were somehow improper. But Amnesty says it has evidence of rendition of suspects as recently as 2004.

Mr Bellinger said: "We have thought about trying to deny individual allegations because so many were wrong. Ultimately we concluded it was not possible to go into the business of confirming or denying."

'CIA planes used emirates airports' in covert global 'rendition' programme

By KT Scrutiny Investigations Team - khaleejtimes.com - 16 May 2006 DUBAI -

As the US Central Intelligence Agency comes under increasing criticism for its controversial renditions programme and alleged network of secret 'black site' prisons, a Khaleej Times review of evidence presented against the CIA reveals emirates airports were used at least 13 times by the spy agency's fleet of aircraft.

Three aircraft publicly linked to the CIA - a Boeing 737, and two Gulfstream executive jets - made multiple take offs and landings from Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, the evidence shows. All three planes are thought to have been used in the controversial practice of renditions - snatching suspects from one country and transporting them to detention facilities elsewhere.

A security official at Abu Dhabi airport last night denied the report, while an official at Dubai airport declined to comment.

The practice has attracted widespread criticism from human rights group after allegations prisoners were being 'disappeared' by holding them in secret CIA prisons in Europe, or were being taken to countries such as Egypt and Syria, where torture is allegedly used to extract confessions and information.

Last week, a group of European politicians investigating the scandal accused the US of trying to cover up the programme by refusing to cooperate with investigations. And intelligence agencies in Italy and Germany have now been dragged into the controversy after evidence emerged they had assisted the CIA's rendition operations.

According to records of approximately 3,000 flights obtained by Amnesty International and the research group TransArms, planes owned or chartered by the CIA and linked to the renditions programme, made stop offs in the UAE. The first plane, a Boeing 737, made a total of 5 stops in the UAE: four in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. The plane was first registered by a company called Stevens Express Leasing (SEL), then by Premier Executive Transport Services (PETS) and finally in 2004 by Keeler & Tate Management (KTM).

Amnesty says all three firms are front companies set up by the CIA.

SEL has a mailing address in Tennessee, but no physical office. PETS lists corporate officers who have no addresses other than PO Box numbers near Washington D.C and who apparently have no credit or publicly identifiable personal histories. KTM owns no other planes, no premises and has no website. Nevertheless, both SEL and PETS had, until 2005, licences to land at US military bases worldwide.

The Boeing 737 was used to take Khaled el-Masri from Macedonia to Afghanistan in January 200, where he was held for five months before being dumped in Albania when the U.S. realized it had grabbed the wrong man.

El-Masri, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, is now suing the U.S. government claiming he was not only kidnapped, but tortured as well while in captivity.

A second plane, a Gulfstream V executive jet, was also run by PETS before being transferred to a company called Bayard Foreign Marketing which, according to Amnesty, is a 'phantom company' whose 'named corporate officer, Leonard Bayard, cannot be found in any public record.'

The Gulfstream made at least 590 landings and takeoffs between February 2001 and September 2005, including four in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. The plane was put up for sale in late 2005, as per the evidence.

And "three flights were recorded in Dubai for a Gulfstream IV plane whose owners have admitted was leased to the CIA". The plane, which also held a licence to land at U.S. military bases, was allegedly used in the abduction of terror suspect Abu Omar. That rendition has resulted in Italy issuing 22 arrest warrants for CIA operatives implicated in Omar's abduction. Omar was eventually taken by the CIA to Egypt. Vincent Cannistraro told Newsday newspaper in 2003 that an al-Qaeda detainee flown from Guantanamo Bay to Egypt was tortured. "They promptly tore his fingernails out and he started telling things," Cannistraro is quoted as saying.

Last week, members of a European Parliament committee investigating CIA activity in Europe travelled to the US to try and uncover more details. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice refused to meet them, as did former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

One of the MEPs, Italian Claudio Fava, said: "we came here with a mandate to find the truth and we got 'no comment' as a response." Two other MEPs, Jean Lambert and Cem Ozdemir issued a joint statement saying: "One thing to clearly emerge from this visit is the concerted effort on the part of the U.S. administration to keep a lid on the issue of CIA abuses.

Officials have been pressured not to cooperate with the investigation." The committee plans to hold a formal press conference about its findings tomorrow (Tuesday May 16).

John Bellinger, a legal advisor to Condolezza Rise, has dismissed the allegations over CIA renditions activity as 'absurd'. Bellinger said the flights were not necessarily carrying detainees, but could have been simply transporting intelligence officials or evidence. "There have been very few cases of renditions .. the suggestion that there has been a large number of flights is simply an absurd allegation." He claimed the last U.S. rendition flight occurred 'something like three years ago.'

A security official at Abu Dhabi International Airport denied the airport had received CIA rendition flights. He said flights to and from the airport were supervised by international as well as local teams, who prepare reports supported with pictures to show details of the flight including its destination. He added airport authorities did not involve themselves in political affairs. "This is a civilian airport and has nothing to do with politics," he said.

A source at Dubai declined to comment, saying he had 'no information available' on such flights at the airport.

An Interior Ministry official said the UAE's leadership rejected any kind of activity that might 'stain' the country's reputation. "The UAE has repeatedly rejected such operations and our country's position is known to everyone," he noted.

Probes into CIA flights "stonewalled": UN official

May 16, 12:39 PM (ET) By Mark John BRUSSELS (Reuters) -

Inquiries into allegations that CIA flights through Europe carried people to countries where they faced possible torture are encountering a stonewall by officials, a U.N. official said on Tuesday. Martin Scheinin, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights issues related to the fight against terrorism, said it could be decades before the full truth about the allegations emerged.

"There is a stonewall," he said of the lack of firm evidence turned up by European investigators to support allegations that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe and flew suspects to states where they would have been tortured. "There is a huge degree of ambiguity and secrecy and I seriously believe it will take several years or even decades before we have enough to make an assessment of the magnitude of the phenomenon," Scheinin told a news briefing.

A European Parliament probe concluded last month that more than 1,000 CIA flights had transited the EU and that the CIA had been responsible for kidnapping several people and illegally detaining them on EU soil.

However the inquiry, launched in January with no legal powers, has attracted little testimony from top-level officials. Lawmakers have accused national EU governments and institutions of wanting to sweep the affair under the carpet.

European rights watchdog the Council of Europe has said at least one European state admitted to its investigators that it had handed over terrorism suspects to foreign agents, but the body has so far been given no further details.

Washington denies any wrongdoing. State Department lawyer John Bellinger said this month there had been "very few" cases of what he called extraordinary renditions -- the transfer of terrorism suspects from one country to another.

A Washington Post report last year said the CIA had run secret prisons in Europe and flown suspects to states where they would have been tortured.

Human rights group Amnesty International said this month torture and inhumane treatment were "widespread" in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere despite Washington's denials.

Europeans knew of CIA flights: US officials

May 17, STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) -

A wave of CIA flights that secretly transferred terrorist suspects across Europe could only have been carried out with the knowledge of host nations, EU investigators on Wednesday quoted U.S. officials as saying. Up to 50 people were moved across the continent to jails in third countries where they faced torture and other abuses, officials from a European Parliament probe into the flights, known as renditions, told a news conference.

"All the people we met (in the United States) suggested or confirmed that the program of renditions in Europe could not have been carried out without the knowledge and support of the governments," said Carlos Coelho, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament commission probing the flights.

"Officials from the State Department told us, in more diplomatic terms, that the United States had never violated the sovereignty of European Union member states. "Others admitted the European governments' involvement more directly," said Coelho of meetings during the commission's trip to the United States from May 8 to 12.

Fellow investigator Claudio Fava of Italy said 30 to 50 people had been handed over by the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the launch of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

"We also have confirmation from a reliable source within the CIA that the sequestration of Abu Omar in Milan could not have happened without the knowledge of the Italian intelligence services," Fava said.

Italian and German prosecutors are investigating the case of Omar, an Egyptian man they believe was snatched on a Milan street by a team of CIA agents in February 2003 and flown via Germany to Egypt, where he later said he was tortured. A German national, Khaled el-Masri, is suing the former head of the CIA over his alleged rendition from Macedonia to Afghanistan, where he says the United States held him in jail for months as a terrorist suspect in 2004. German prosecutors are also probing that case.

Sweden's parliamentary ombudsman has criticized the security services over the expulsion of two Egyptian terrorism suspects who were handed over to U.S. agents and flown home aboard a U.S. government-leased plane in 2001.

Dick Marty, a Swiss investigator from the Council of Europe human rights watchdog which is separately probing the renditions, has branded the transfers as "outsourcing of torture."

'CIA prisons in Asia, Africa'

17/05/2006 20:41 - (SA) Strasbourg - news24.com

Since 2001, the United States central intelligence agency (CIA) has sent up to 50 suspects to countries where they could face torture.

A European Union investigator probing the CIA's actions in Europe, Claudio Fava, said members of his team were given the information by US intelligence officials during a visit to the country last week.

The sources had also said the agency ran secret prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The US has come under intense fire over the past year, following press reports that the CIA has flown suspects in the US "war on terror" across European airspace since the September 11 2001, attacks.

The prisoners were taken mostly through Europe to third countries. This process is known as "rendition", in which the transfers take place outside the legal framework of an extradition agreement.

Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, said: "More than one source in the CIA, senior officials, explained to us that there were 30 to 50 renditions, not including people arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay."

'The renditions were acceptable'

He could not say whether the suspects had been picked up in Europe, were flown through the continent's airspace or transported through its territory, or if any were of European origin.

Fava said the intelligence officials had said the renditions were acceptable in that they were part of the "war on terror".

Senior US officials have acknowledged that a few renditions have taken place.

Fava said the officials were asked about the secret prisons in Europe - in particular facilities, now thought closed, in Poland and Romania - and that "they told us there were prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa".

Fava also accused the White House of putting pressure on the US media not to make the names of countries suspected of allowing secret CIA prisons on their territory public.

The head of the inquiry, Portuguese lawmaker Carlos Coelho, said information gathered in the US showed that the "transfer programme would not have been possible without the help of European governments".

CIA carried out up to 50 'renditions': EU official

Published: Thursday, 18 May, 2006, 10:45 AM Doha Time - STRASBOURG: AFP

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has sent up to 50 suspects since 2001 to countries where they could face torture, a European Union investigator probing the CIA's actions in Europe said yesterday.

Claudio Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, said members of his team were given the information by US intelligence officials during a visit to the US last week. The sources had also said the agency ran secret prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The US has come under intense fire over the last year following press reports that the CIA has flown suspects in the US “war on terror” across European airspace since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The prisoners were reported mainly to have been taken through Europe to third countries in a process known as “rendition”, in which the transfers take place outside the legal framework of an extradition agreement.

“More than one source in the CIA, senior officials, explained to us that there were 30 to 50 renditions, not including people arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay”, the US naval base prison in Cuba, Fava said.

He could not say whether the suspects had been picked up in Europe, were flown through the continent's airspace or transported through its territory, or if any were of European origin.

He said the intelligence officials told investigators that the renditions were acceptable in that they were part of the “war on terror”. Indeed senior US officials have acknowledged that a few renditions have taken place.

The Italian deputy said the officials were asked about the secret prisons in Europe – in particular facilities, now thought closed, in Poland and Romania – and that “they told us there were prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa”.

Fava also accused the White House of putting pressure on the US media – an editor of the Washington Post and television stations – not to make public the names of countries suspected of allowing secret CIA prisons on their territory.

The head of the inquiry, Portuguese lawmaker Carlos Coelho, said information gathered in the US showed that the “transfer programme would not have been possible without the help of European governments”.

South Africa is secretly cooperating with CIA rendition flights

by Wayne Madsen - Friday, May. 19, 2006 at 12:08 AM

May 18, 2006 -- According to South African sources, South Africa is secretly cooperating with the Bush administration in facilitating rendition flights from Africa, including South Africa, to secret CIA prisons in North Africa, the Middle East, and other regions. The fact that South Africa, which, under President Nelson Mandela refused U.S. warships docking rights in the country, is now cooperating with the Bush administration is sending shock waves through South Africa and the African continent. Rashid Khalid, a Pakistani national, went missing seven months ago. According to current and former South African intelligence personnel, Khalid was abducted by South African security personnel and turned over to British special forces. It is now suspected that Khalid ended up in one of America's numerous gulags and may have been tortured and killed.

Khalid's family took the case to the Pretoria High Court. Last Sunday, a group of seven Pakistanis who showed up at the High Court to show support for Khalid's family were whisked off by South African Home Affairs agents. In addition, South African security police arrested a man named Yaseen Suliman, a fast food vendor who delivered food last week to Khalid's lawyers in the court building. When he returned home with one of the empty food containers, Suliman found it contained a Home Affairs Ministry file containing very sensitive information concerning the disappearance of Khalid. Suliman informed the Court that the file was in his possession but he was later charged with theft. Suliman made an official statement to the court about the incident, but his statement is being suppressed by the court and the government. The judge in the case ordered the "food container file" placed under court seal.

South African fast food container scandal: South Africa's role in U.S. extraordinary rendition prisoner apprehensions and flights exposed.

According to South African sources, recently fired National Intelligence Agency chief Billy Masetlha has charged that South African intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies are working closely with the CIA, MI6, and the private U.S. security firm Kroll. Informed South African observers claim that elements of the ruling African National Congress and the neo-con Democratic Alliance opposition are in lock step with neo-con operatives in the United States, Israel, and Britain.

WMR has obtained the details of the food container "brown file," now sealed by court order:

Law student and fast-food vendor Yaseen Suliman delivered food to lawyers at Pretoria High Court on May 10. He sat in on the case and listened for a while, whereafter he retrieved his empty food containers and went home. Next morning he discovered lawyers had deliberately or accidentally placed a brown folder labeled "Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai" in the container. (Jeebhai is the name of the Muslim Moulana who was abducted with Khalid in November 2005 by men with foreign accents, and later released from South Africa's notorious Lindelani deportation camp.)

The folder contained correspondence between lawyers for Home Affairs and Foreign Ministry officials requesting the "urgent assistance" of South Africa Consular services in getting Pakistani officials to confirm that Rashid was deported on November 6,

It contained an e-mail dated February 16, 2006 from South Africa Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's lawyer, Lee-Anne DeLaHunt, to Home Affairs civil servant Maggie Mahuma, saying that counsel for the minister, Advocate Vas Soni, had advised that they needed an unclassified letter from Pakistan dated subsequent to an earlier court order. DeLaHunt said Foreign Affairs advised that the formal request must be directed from their director general to South Africa's director-general of consular services, Mr D Naidoo, which would be followed up by the South African consular staff in Islamabad.

The folder also contained a request from South African acting Foreign Affairs director general P Nkambula, dated February 16, 2006, requesting Naidoo to urgently help procure such a letter, which should be unclassified as it would form part of court proceedings.

Finally, the folder also contained a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Imran Yaqub, director of operations of the National Crisis Management Cell of the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad, duly "signed" on 31 Jan 06, stating that Khalid Mehmood arrived in Pakistan subsequent to his November 6 deportation and was "with the exception of a skin ailment (eczema) in good health."

On May 16, Presiding Judge Justice Poswa ordered the Home Affairs Ministry to produce information on Khalid's deportation. The government indicated Khalid was deported to Pakistan but Poswa said it is "well known that, around the world, people were disappearing and then showing up in US detention camps," adding, " the manner in which human beings disappear is of concern."

The Pretoria High Court has also ordered a halt in deportation proceedings against the seven Pakistanis detained at the High Court by security police.

German spy agency rocked by CIA affair

BERLIN (Reuters) via Yahoo News - 1 June Germany's spy agency admitted on Thursday that one of its staff knew, but had failed to report, a German citizen had been arrested abroad and handed over to the United States as a terrorist suspect.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) said the employee was told in Macedonia in January 2004 that authorities there had arrested the man, Khaled el-Masri, and handed him to the United States.

The German government has previously said it learned only in May 2004 about the case of Masri, who says he was held by the United States for months in an Afghan jail before being released without charge and dumped in Albania. He is seeking compensation for alleged abduction and torture.

A spokesman said the man was a low-ranking official who had not realized the significance of the information.

He said the new information had come to light in the past two days, as a parliamentary investigation prepares to question Masri and others about the affair.

"This information breakdown within the service is being thoroughly worked through with all those involved in order to prevent any repetition," the BND said in a statement.

The Masri case has focused international attention on the U.S. practice of "extraordinary rendition" -- the secret transfer of terrorist suspects between countries which human rights groups say is a recipe for abuse and torture.

Washington has acknowledged such secret transfers but strongly denies torturing suspects or handing them over to countries that do.

The admission was a further embarrassing blow to the BND, already under investigation over its role in the Iraq war and reeling from disclosures it spied until recently on German journalists.