12 January 2006

Extraordinary rendition

The New York Times has the story - so why is there nothing in the British media? Here is an extract:
"Switzerland is conducting criminal investigations to track down the source of a leak to the Zurich-based newspaper SonntagsBlick of what it reported was a secret document citing clandestine C.I.A. prisons in Eastern Europe.
The Sunday weekly published what it reported was a summary of a fax in November from Egypt's Foreign Ministry to its London embassy that said the United States had held 23 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners at a base in Romania. It also referred to similar detention centers in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Ukraine.
"The Egyptians have sources confirming the presence of secret American prisons," said the document, dated Nov. 15 and written in French to summarize the contents of the fax.
"According to the embassy's own sources, 23 Iraqis and Afghans were interrogated at the Mikhail Kogalniceau base at Constanza, on the Black Sea."
The leaked fax, which the newspaper said was sent by satellite and intercepted by the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service, was signed by Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the report said.
Christoph Grenacher, the newspaper's editor in chief, said that before the article was published, newspaper officials met with high-ranking Swiss government officials, who urged the paper to withhold the information. "We concluded that the discussion about so-called secret prisons is much more important than the interests of the secret service in Switzerland," he said."

This seems to constitute firm evidence of CIA prisons in Europe.

1 comment:

Gary said...

Nimby
"Not in my backyard" The US is probably now avoiding controversy by using non-stop flights to North Africa for rendition. That eliminates pressure from locals around the world.The CIA was used for rendition to be secret, using civilian planes. If that cover is broken, it is a simple matter to use military planes under the companion agency Joint Special Operations Command.
Premier Executive Transport Services has a Boeing 737. Alameda Corporation has an MD82, and there are many other sources for CIA civilian planes to travel from the US to, say, Casablanca, non- stop. Lockheed Martin had a contract for a series of P-3 Orion ABSA (Advanced Base Support Aircraft) with a range of 6,000 miles, supposedly cancelled. That is a flight from Johnson County so anywhere.