Investigations into CIA 'torture flights'

The CIA have used airports in Ireland and across Europe in the transfer of enemy prisoners. Now several European countries are holding inquiries – while Ireland accepts US 'assurances' that they have not transferred prisoners through here
By Colin Murphy

There are now four inquiries underway in Europe into the use of European airports and facilities in covert CIA prisoner transfers, but no inquiry in Ireland.

Spain, Germany, Italy and now the Council of Europe are each conducting judicial probes into the CIA practice of "rendition", where prisoners in the "war on terror" are transferred from countries where they have been apprehended to third countries where, in some cases, prisoners have allegedly been tortured.

Sweden previously completed a similar inquiry, which criticised Swedish authorities for cooperating with the US in the rendition of two Egyptian asylum seekers to Egypt. According to Human Rights Watch, there is "considerable evidence" they were subsequently tortured. The Swedish inquiry identified the aircraft involved, which has passed through Ireland on numerous occasions.

As reported previously in Village, aircraft used by the CIA have passed through Ireland en route to, or returning from, rendition missions elsewhere in Europe, the middle east and north Africa.

No inquiry or investigation has taken place in Ireland, and none of the aircraft involved, which are identifiable by their registration numbers and logged as civilian craft in official logs, have been searched by the Garda Siochána, according to Government statements.

The Irish Government and the US State Department have stated that the US has assured the Government that it has not and would not transfer prisoners through Ireland without permission. The Government has said that an investigation would be conducted where there was evidence of a crime being committed.

The Department of Transport has previously confirmed to Village that aircraft identified by Village as having been used in CIA renditions were registered as civilian aircraft and had landed in Ireland without seeking authorisation. The Department said it had "not received any information regarding the purpose of these flights as the flights were of a technical nature".

Dermot Ahern told the Dáil in October 2005: "If a government of the stature of the US government, which has such a connection with this country, gives us an absolute assurance in this regard, we accept it".

Green TD John Gormley said, "if the Minister had the bottle to arrange for the carrying out of searches on these planes, I am convinced he would find that people are being transported to Guantanamo Bay". Dermot Ahern replied that "no evidence has been brought to our attention by anybody (of the transport of prisoners)".

The Spanish national court has just launched an inquiry into the alleged use of airports in Mallorca and Tenerife by the CIA. The details of this case are similar to what is known about the use of Shannon by CIA aircraft.

A local newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, reported that more than a dozen CIA flights had passed through Palma airport in Mallorca. In one case, it said, a CIA plane involved in the alleged kidnapping of a German-born Lebanese national, Khaled al-Masri, in Macedonia early last year, had taken off from Palma airport en route to Macedonia. A local magistrate asked police to follow up the newspaper's reports. The subsequent police report, which identified 42 suspected CIA operatives who were on the flights, has been referred to the national court.

The New York Times obtained the police report and tried to trace the people named in it. It found at least 18 shared addresses at a handful of mailboxes in Virginia, close to the CIA's headquarters, and many had social security numbers issued within the past five years – an anomaly which is associated with fake identities created by the CIA.

The Spanish Interior Minister has promised "complete transparency" and said the allegations, if proven, would harm Spanish-US relations.

The allegations would be particularly harmful to the Spanish government if any cooperation between the Spanish authorities and the US in the CIA missions was identified. The socialist party, which is currently in government, was elected in the immediate aftermath of the Madrid bombing in apparent protest at the previous Popular Party government's participation in the Iraq war.

The Council of Europe probe is being led by a Swiss senator, Dick Marty, who has received from Human Rights Watch a list of 31 flights through European airports believed to have been operated by the CIA. He has asked the Eurocontrol air safety organisation to provide further details of the flights, it has been reported.

Earlier this month, Italian prosecutors formally requested the extradition from the US of 22 people, said to be CIA operatives, who are linked to the suspected kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003.

This case is also the subject of an inquiry in Germany, as the Egyptian was allegedly flown from Aviano air base in Italy to Ramstein air base in Germany, and then on to Cairo.