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Posted: 12.1.12: UK:TORTURE: Police to investigate MI6 over rendition and torture of Libyans - Criminal inquiry announced as DPP says there is not enough evidence to prosecute agents over Pakistan and Afghanistan allegations (Guardian, link)
Posted 12.12.11: CIA-ROMANIA: CIA 'secret prison' found in Romania - media reports (BBC News, link): "Former CIA operatives said the building was used to interrogate terrorism suspects, including Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.... The CIA operated a secret prison in the Romanian capital Bucharest where terrorism suspects were interrogated, an investigation by the Associated Press and German media has found."
Posted 30 November 2011: GERMANY: UN Committee concerned at failure to investigate rendition and secret detention and the rendition of Khaled El-Masri: Committee against Torture: fifth periodic report of Germany: concluding observations (pdf) On 25 November, the UN Committee against Torture issued its concluding observations on the compliance of Germany with the international obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Committee expressed concern at the lack of implementation of the recommendations of the 2009 Parliamentary Inquiry on extraordinary renditions and secret detention complicity. The Committee also expressed at the failure to investigate and provide a remedy for the rendition of Khaled El-Masri. See also: Denmark: Review of US rendition flights over Greenland “toothless (AI, press statement, link) and Finland must further investigate USA rendition flights (AI statement, link)
28 October 2011: Lithuania faces legal action over prisons set up for CIA rendition programme - Lawyers acting for detained militant Abu Zubaydah have begun proceedings in the European court of human rights (Guardian, link)
2 October 2011: Amnesty International: Unlock the truth in Lithuania: Investigate Secret Prisons Now (pdf):
"In the continuing absence o f any meaningful accountability in the USA, and increasingly disturbing signs that the same may happen in other European countries, the Lithuanian government should re-open its criminal investigation into both its own involvement in these operations, and that of the USA and its agents on Lithuanian territory, and conduct an independent, impartial, thorough and ef fective investigation that will serve as a model for accountability across the region."
1 September 2011: How US firms profited from torture flightsCourt documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies
US agents operated illegally in Sweden (Radio Sweden, link): "US undercover agents carried out surveillance of suspected terrorists in Sweden, without the authorisation of Swedish authorities, the daily Svenska Dagbladet reports."As Poland’s Legacy of CIA Torture Erupts, Europe’s Human Rights Court Must Act (OSI, link)
15 May 2011: UK: Torture inquiry will 'not cover US rendition' - Campaigners condemn decision not to include 'murky' issue of detainee transfers in investigation as 'only doing half the job' (Independent on Sunday, link): "An inquiry into Britain's involvement in torture during the "war on terror" will not investigate whether UK forces handed over suspects to be transported to other countries for interrogation by the Americans – despite David Cameron's assurance that it would probe all aspects of the controversy. The head of the Detainee Inquiry ordered by Mr Cameron has confirmed that he will not consider the issue of detainees transferred between forces fighting in Iraq and elsewhere, which has been identified by many critics as one of the murkiest elements of the "extraordinary rendition" saga."" See also: The Detainee Inquiry (Foreign and Commonwealth Office, link); and Joint Submission the Detainee Inquiry by eight NGOs (pdf), which notes that: "Every effort must be made to seek and secure information regarding torture violations, including from other states and despite their unwillingness to cooperate"
12 May 2011: POLAND-USA: Poland faces torture charges: - Poland accused of complicity in torture by US intelligence operatives of Saudi national (European Voice, link)
Renditions: Italy/Morocco: Britel released from prison following pardon: On 18 April 2011, Abou Elkassim Britel's wife Khadija Anna Lucia Pighizzini broke the long-awaited news that her husband, an "extraordinary rendition" victim who had Italian citizenship and was kidnapped in Pakistan in March 2002, was released from Kenitra prison on 14 April following a pardon granted by the King of Morocco, hopefully putting an end to the family's ordeal.
For further news about the Britel case
Previous Statewatch coverage:
- Italy: Documents sent to European Parliament committee allege other renditions and details of Abu Omar cover-up and the Britel rendition
- The "Longhi file" - collection of documents on the Britel case
- English translation of letter to Italian authorities from Britel in prison (January 2007)
- US/Italy: Boeing subsidiary to face lawsuit for servicing CIA rendition flights
- Renditions: Italy / Morocco: Italian authorities drag their feet in Britel case
- Italy/Morocco: Renditions: Italian and European MPs set to request pardon for Abou Elkassim Britel
- Italy: Renditions: Britel announces hunger strikeEuropean Parliament: More follow-up needed to secret rendition pracitces says report (Press release, pdf): "A landmark investigation by the European Parliament in 2007 on the use of European airspace for secret CIA rendition flights has not been properly followed up. That's the finding of Amnesty International report by Julia Hall and a related report by former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak. A workshop on human rights on Tuesday (25 January) debated what had been learned from the original report by ex- MEP Claudio Fava."
Italy prevents trial of intelligence agents over Abu Omar rendition (AI, link)
WikiLeaks cables: Turkey let US use airbase for rendition flights -Turkey allowed use of Incirlik airbase as refuelling stop, US embassy cable reveals, after Turkish denials of involvement (Guardian, links) and DocumentLeaked Cables Cast Light on Bungled CIA Kidnapping (Inter Press Service, link): "the documents reveal that U.S. officials, including the U.S. ambassador, William R. Timken Jr., sharply warned Germany in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers involved in a bungled operation in which an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant was mistakenly kidnapped and held for months in Afghanistan."
POLAND: CIA detainee gets victim status
Warsaw Appellate Prosecutor granted victim status to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi alleged terror suspect. This enables his claim to demonstrate that he was mistreated by the CIA. Al-Nashiri says he was transported by "Guantanamo taxi" to Poland in December 2002 where he was to be held in a secret CIA site in northeast Poland. Representing al-Nashiri, Polish law office Pietrzak & Sidor in Warsaw demanded last September investigation in the case of possible abuse of power by Polish public officials in connection with the secret activities of the CIA and prosecution of persons responsible for al-Nashiri's transfer and detention in Poland. Source: Terror suspect gets victim status in Polish probe (AP,link)POLAND: Former Polish leaders could face charges over CIA prisons (euobserver, link) "Polish prosecutors are considering bringing charges of war crimes against the country's former prime minister and former president over allegations of secret CIA prisons."
Poland: Fresh evidence regarding CIA rendition flights: Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) provided fresh evidence of cooperation between the Polish Government and the CIA on renditions
EU: Amnesty International: Dangerous deals: Europe's reliance on "diplomatic assurances" against torture (link)
European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR): CIA 'EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION' FLIGHTS, TORTURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY: A EUROPEAN APPROACH (link)
EU-CIA: MEPs and AI reiterate call for action on CIA secret flights and renditions (pdf): "Amnesty International and MEPs Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK), Ana Gomes (SD, PT), Raul Romeva (Greens, ES), Willy Meyer (GUE, ES) today called on European institutions and EU Member States to take further action after recent developments involving Europe’s role in the CIA rendition and secret prison programme."
CIA RENDITION: Polish authorities deny allegations of FOIA campaigners: Poland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs denied statement of the Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Open Society Justice Initiative providing fresh evidence of cooperation between the Polish Government and the CIA on Renditions). The Foreign Office spokesman described evidences presented by FOIA campaigners as 'speculations' and called for 'restraint' until the confidential investigation conducted by the National Prosecution Office was closed. The investigation was launched in August 2008 and, as a prosecutor in charge of the investigation pointed out, 'it should not be expected to draw quickly near the end'. Since 2006 Polish government officials have consequently claimed that the allegations of their involvement in the secret CIA rendition programme were unfounded. This time such a tough stance is hardly reliable given that proves of at least six CIA rendition flights which landed in Poland in 2003 have come from official flight records made available by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA). Documents: Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) flight logs; HFHR/OSJI Explanation of Rendition Flight Records released by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency
UK-USA: Binyam Mohamed torture appeal lost by UK government (BBC News, link): "Binyam Mohamed has been involved in a lengthy legal battle The foreign secretary has lost an Appeal Court bid to stop the disclosure of secret information relating to the alleged torture of a UK resident." and British Government attempts to change Court of Appeals judgment after losing Binyam Mohamed secrecy case (Reprieve, link): "In an extraordinary and disturbing development in the Binyam Mohamed case, it emerged that the British Government’s barrister wrote a note to one of the Court of Appeal judges in an attempt to manipulate the draft judgment." Full text of court judgment (pdf) and Full text of censored paragraphs (pdf)
ITALY-CIA: Judge: Italian spies likely knew of CIA kidnap (link)
GERMANY-CIA: Extraordinary Rendition Plot: CIA Had Secret Plan to Kidnap German-Syrian Suspect in Hamburg (Spiegel Online, link) and Germany will probe CIA murder and rendition plots on its soil (New Europe, link)
28.1.10: UN: Human Rights Council: Joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention in the context of countering terrorism: Executive Summary (pdf) and Full-report (221 pages, pdf)
Lithuania hosted secret CIA prisons (BBC News, link), Lithuania: Discovery of CIA prisons should prompt further investigation (Amnesty International, link) and Panel: Lithuanian security approved CIA prisons (AP, link)
European Parliament: Question to the Council and the European Commission from the ALDE (Liberal group): New developments on CIA extraordinary renditions programme and secret prisons on EU soil (pdf)
LITHUANIA: Secret CIA prison revealed in Lithuania (euobserver, link) and Lithuania investigates facility that may have been CIA 'black site' (Washington Post, link)
CIA-ITALY: Rendition trial ends with Milan CIA chief given eight years (Guardian, link) Italian court convicts Robert Lady and 23 others in absentia - First prosecution for US abduction of suspects to torture states and EXCLUSIVE: Convicted CIA Spy Says "We Broke the Law" (ABC News, link)
No Justice for Canadian Rendition Victim Maher Arar: Court Refuses to Hold US Officials Accountable for Complicity in Torture Abroad (link) See Statewatch's Observatory: The use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners and Documents
CIA-FLIGHTS-SHANNON: Shannonwatch website (link)
1 November 2009: UK-USA-CIA: Jet named in torture flight report is met by SAS at British airport (Mail Online, link): "A US plane that featured in a European Parliament report into the 'extraordinary rendition' of terror suspects was met by two SAS helicopters in a secret operation at one of Britain's biggest airports. The Gulfstream jet landed at Birmingham International Airport on Friday, October 2, having flown in from an undisclosed location, and was seen by a member of staff being met minutes later by the Special Forces regiment aircraft. Records show that the jet is owned by a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, a multi-billion-dollar defence corporation based in New York, whose clients include several American government departments, among them the Department of Homeland Security."
ITALY-CIA: Italy seeks jail for US spies in rendition trial (Reuters, link): "An Italian prosecutor called on Wednesday for 26 Americans, all but one believed to be members of the CIA, to be jailed for between 10 and 13 years each for the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in 2003. Public Prosecutor Armando Spataro also asked a Milan court to sentence four Italians, including the former head of Italy's Sismi secret service, to up to 13 years in prison for the abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr."
Portugal/CIA flights: In-depth report: Investigation "buries" Portuguese role in Guantánamo flights: On 6 July 2009, Socialist party MEP Ana Gomes criticised the investigation into flights to Guantánamo and rendition flights that passed through Portugal, in response to the case being shelved on 29 May 2009 because "no unlawful practices of a criminal nature" were carried out in the "national territory". Gomes claimed that the investigation appeared to have the "political objective of burying the issue of Portugal's role in the CIA flights" and filed a complaint requesting that judicial investigations continue and new verifications which had "inexplicably" not yet taken place be conducted into the CIA flights to Guantánamo.
UK: Report by the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights: Allegations of UK Complicity in Torture (140 pages, pdf):
"Complicity in torture is a direct breach of the UK’s international human rights obligations. In our view, complicity in torture exists where a state:
- asks a foreign intelligence service known to use torture to detain and question an individual
- provides information to a foreign intelligence service known to use torture, enabling that intelligence service to apprehend an individual
- gives questions to a foreign intelligence service to put to a detainee who has been, is being or is likely to be tortured
- sends interrogators to question a detainee who is known to have been tortured by those detaining and interrogating him
- has intelligence personnel present at an interview with a detainee in a place where he is being, or might have been tortured
- systematically receives information known or thought likely to have been obtained from detainees subjected to torture."
See: MPs and peers call for inquiry into torture (Guardian, link)UK-TORTURE: How UK's torture policy was traced back up political ladder• MI5 officer's testimony led to police investigation - Report shows Blair knew of interrogation guidelines (Guardian, link) and Tony Blair knew of secret policy on terror interrogationsLetter reveals former PM was aware of guidance to UK agents (link). See too: Breaking the rules on tortureThe details of the government's post-9/11 torture policy are shocking. A full investigation must be carried out (Guardian, link) by Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve. Backround: Intelligence and Security Committee: The Handling of Detainees by UK Intelligence Personnel in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq (2005, pdf)
SWEDEN-CIA FLIGHTS: Sweden spied on CIA 'terror flights': report (The Local, link)
POLAND-CIA: New Evidence of Torture Prison in Poland (Spiegel Online, link) and Uncovering the Veil Over 'CIA Prison' (Interpress, link) "An official investigation shows that it is more and more likely that a CIA prison existed in Poland at the height of the "war on terror"."
USA: Government Cannot Claim State Secrets To Deny Torture Victims Day In Court (ACLU, link) NEW YORK – A federal appeals court today ruled that a landmark American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. for its role in the Bush administration's unlawful extraordinary rendition program can go forward.
CIA-USA: CIA torture exemption 'illegal' (BBC News, link): "US President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a violation of international law, a UN expert says. The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it." Abuse of Power: The Bush Administration's Secret Legal Memos (link to ACLU), Obama exempts CIA 'torture' staff (BBC News, link) and ACLU statement
CIA: RENDITION: After repeated denials: Polish media uncover evidence of CIA prison (euobserver, link): "Journalists from Polish TV station TVP and daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita say they have obtained new evidence that Poland ran a secret CIA prison used for extra-judicial extradition of terrorism suspects."
ITALY-CIA: Judges deal blow to CIA 'kidnap' trial (Guardian, link, 12.3.09): "A trial in which 25 CIA agents are accused of kidnapping a terrorism suspect ran into serious difficulties last night when Italy's constitutional court upheld key objections raised by the Italian government."
EP-CIA: 19 February: European Parliament plenary session: Extraordinary rendtiion: EU Member States also responsible say MEPs (Press release, pdf): Resolution adopted with minor amendments by 334 votes in favour, 247 against and 86 abstentions. Resolution tabled by the ALDE (Liberal group), PSE (Socialist group) Verts (Green group and GUE (United Left): On the Alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (pdf)
UK-CIA: MI5 fed questions to CIA for interrogation (Guardian, link) and Letter from Attorney-General to Chair of Joint Human Rights Committee (pdf). See also: Whitehall devised torture policy for terror detainees - MI5 interrogations in Pakistan agreed by lawyers and government (Guardian, link)
EP-CIA: Resolution tabled by the ALDE (Liberal group): On the Alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (pdf)
USA-TORTURE: Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry into the treatment of detainees in US Custody (pdf)
10 December 2008: Renditions/Italy: Interpretation of "state secret" leads to suspension of Abu Omar trial
4 December 2008: Renditions/Spain: Damning evidence surfaces of Aznar government collusion in Guantánamo flights
European Parliament-CIA: Question to the Commission by the ALDE group (Liberal) (pdf)
USA: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Documents Reveal U.S. Knowingly Transfers Detainees To Countries That Torture (link) The documents obtained by the ACLU and Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic (link)
UK: Mohamed Raissi falsely imprisoned (Press release, pdf) and Full-text of Court Judgment (pdf):
"Today the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment confirming that Mohamed Raissi was falsely imprisoned by officers of the Metropolitan Police when they arrested and detained him at Paddington Green Police Station on 21 September 2001.
Mohamed Raissi is the brother of Lotfi Raissi who was wrongly accused of training the 9/11 hijackers. The Court of Appeal confirmed in February this year that Lotfi was “completely exonerated” in a strongly worded judgement that was critical of the part played by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police in the failed attempt to extradite him."PORTUGAL-CIA FLIGHTS: Jornal de Notícias, Portugal, 9.10.08. Secret CIA flights: Along with other European countries, Portugal granted fly-over rights in the past for CIA planes carrying presumed Islamic terrorists. Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado explained yesterday that if Portugal's government has not made a statement on the matter, it was to avoid prejudicing EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who was Portuguese prime minister at the time. Jornal de Notícias critices this position: "Luís Amado is entirely right, Barroso should be spared inconvenience. He is an important man in the EU, and we are always proud when one of our emigrants is successful. ... As citizens, however, we have the right to know whether our government was aware at least of this one flight between Guantánamo and Cairo with a stop-over at the Portuguese military base [on the Azores Islands]. ... We have the right to know if the government authorised these flights or not, and if so under what conditions." See also: REPRIEVE submission to Portuguese Inquiry into rendition, 2 April 2008 (pdf)
SWEDEN: Ahmed Agiza "rendered" by US agents from Sweden - although still in prison in Egypt - to get compensation. Ahmed Agiza, one of the two Egyptians who was "rendered" from Bromma airport by US agents, with the assistance by the Swedish secret service (security police) to Egypt, and there tortured and sentenced to 25 years (later changed to 15 years) prison, is to get approximately 330,000 euro in damages from the Swedish state. He is still in prison, and had demanded 35.000.000 Swedish crowns (about 4.000.000 euro) in damages, but now the Chancellor of Justice has come to an agreement with his lawyer to accept 330.000 euro.
The decision to allow the rendition was taken by Anna Lindh (at the time Minister for Foreign Affairs, later assassinated) and Thomas Bodstram (Minister of Justice) and led to Sweden being criticised by the UN Committee against torture (pdf). The head of the Security Service (SS) at the time, Klaes Bergenstrand (who was involved in the Leander case, where he together with Hans Corell produced statements that later forced the Government to give a public apology and Leander appr 45.000 € in tax free damages) died a couple of years ago. Background: 1. Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt; 2. Full-transcript of "The broken promise", TV4, Monday 17 May 2004: Transcript (pdf); 3. Ambassador's report: Report (in Swedish, 1.32 MB) which includes the following: TV4:s translation of Embassy report 1, classified part on Page 2: 23 January 2002UK: MI5 criticised for role in case of torture, rendition and secrecy (Guardian, link)
UK-USA-RENDITION: Reprieve Press Release: As New Evidence Emerges that ‘War on Terror’ Prisoners were Held on Diego Garcia, Reprieve Demands Immediate Action from the British Government (pdf)
USA: RENDITION-TORTURE-US ASSURANCES: Report from the UK House of Commons foreign Affairs Committee: Human Rights Annual Report 2007 (pdf). It includes the following Conclusions:
"We conclude that, given the clear differences in definition, the UK can no longer rely on US assurances that it does not use torture, and we recommend that the
Government does not rely on such assurances in the future.""We conclude that it is extremely important that the veracity of allegations that the Government has “outsourced” interrogation techniques involving the torture of British nationals by Pakistani author authorities should be ities investigated."
"We conclude that the Government has a moral and legal obligation to ensure that flights that enter UK airspace or land at UK airports are not pa part of the “rendition
rt circuit”, even if they do not have a detainee on board during the time they are in UK territory. We recommend that the Government should immediately raise questions about such flights with the US authorities in order to ascertain the full scale of the rendition problem, and inform the Committee of the replies it rece receives in its response ives to this Report."Council of Europe: New book: CIA above the law? Secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees in Europe (300 pages, link to ordering page, hard-copy 23 euro, pdf 8 euro)
MASRI-UN-MACEDONIA: The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) and the Human Rights Committee (HRC) have advised the Macedonia government to undertake a new and thorough investigation into the abduction and ill-treatment of Mr Khaled El-Masri when held by CIA agents in secret detention:
- HRC report (pdf)
- CAT report, 21 May 2008 (pdf)
- CAT report, 20 May 2008 (pdf)EU countries obstructing investigations into CIA renditions, report says (euobserver, link) "The "most important" of the CIA's secret detention prisons, or 'black sites', in the years immediately following the 11 September attacks was situated in Szymany, some 160km north of Warsaw, according to officers with the US intelligence service. In a weekend article in the New York Times newspaper, unnamed CIA officers tell of one of the presumed dozens of sites, hitherto vehemently denied by the Polish government as having been located within the country."
CIA-RENDITION: Rights groups demand investigation of CIA’s Extraordinary Rendition Program: Lawsuits against Germany, US and Macedonia seek justice for Khaled El Masri (pdf)
"The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Berlin, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), both based in New York, met today in Berlin with lawyers from Germany, Macedonia and the United Kingdom to discuss the latest developments in the CIA rendition case of German citizen Khaled El Masri.
ECCHR filed today a lawsuit against the German Government at the Berlin administration court for its failure to demand the extradition of 13 CIA agents suspected of having illegally “rendered” Mr. El Masri from Macedonia to a US prison in Kabul, Afghanistan."EU capitals ignore Brussels' questions about rendition flights (euobserver, link)
Italy: Abu Omar trial to go ahead as government is accused of "disloyalty"
USA-UK: Homeland Security's Chertoff, Britain's Interior Minister Discuss Travel Security Issues (US Mission in the EU, link) Mr Chertoff was asked about reported US demands that it will require passenger details for all flights from the EU over-flying the USA. His response is interesting in the context of the difficulties faced by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe requesting information from EU governments on over-flying CIA flights: "Under the Chicago Convention, which I think goes back almost 50 years, anybody who wants to come into the airspace of a country has to submit to the rules and regulations of the country whose airspace they're entering, whether it’s to land or to overfly. We generally require, and will require, under a program called Secure Flight: name, passport number, and maybe one or two other items of information from the manifest of anybody who is going to overfly the United States – and that’s pursuant to this international arrangement.
UK-RENDITION FLIGHTS: Reprieve report: Enforced disappearance, illegal interstate transfer and other human rights abuses involving the UK Overseas Territories (pdf) UK apology over rendition flights (BBC, link) "David Miliband has admitted two US "extraordinary rendition" flights landed on UK territory in 2002. In a statement to MPs the foreign secretary said in both cases, US planes stopped on the UK dependent territory of Diego Garcia to refuel."
RENDITIONS- Background: Portugal: Over 700 prisoners flown to Guantánamo through Portuguese airspace
REPRIEVE: The “Journey of death” - Over 700 prisoners illegally rendered to Guantanamo with the help of Portugal (pdf) "Reprieve can now conclusively show that the Portuguese territory and airspace has been used to transfer over 700 prisoners to torture and illegal imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay."
Interview with the Wife of Abou Elkassim Britel (Cageprisoners, link)
23 January 2008: CoE-TERRORIST LISTS: PACE demands review of UN and EU blacklisting procedures for terrorist suspects, which ‘violate human rights’ (press release, link). See below for Marty report and recommendations.US-CIA: Detention sites (press release) Full-text of report (link, pdf)
Italy: Renditions: Britel announces hunger strike
11 December 2007: CIA RENDITION-IRISH HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION report: "Extraordinary rendition" inspection and monitoring regime must be established as a matter of urgency: Diplomatic assurances not enough says Irish Human Rights Commission (Press release, 11 December 2007, pdf). The full text of the IHRC Report (20 MB, link)
"The report concludes that diplomatic assurances received from the US Government are not sufficient for Ireland to satisfy its human rights obligations with regard to the issue of ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights passing through Irish territory.
The Commission recommends that an effective inspection regime be put in place to ensure that no foreign aircraft which might be suspected of involvement in the illegal practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ may land and refuel in Ireland. An effective inspection regime will ensure that no prisoners are transited through the State en route to a situation of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
COUNCIL OF EUROPE: Procedures for blacklisting individuals suspected of terrorist links are unworthy of the UN Security Council and EU (12 November 2007, full-text of report, pdf) says PACE. The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which today approved a report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE). These procedures, which are "unworthy" of the UN and EU, must urgently be overhauled to make them fairer. Earlier report by Marty: UN Security Council black lists (March 2007, pdf)
Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated - Legal charity urges action on Diego Garcia claims · Prisoners may have been held in ships off coast (Guardian, link)
Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee denounces secret detention: "Strasbourg, 14.09.2007 - In its 17th General Report published today, the CPT denounces secret detention, an illegal practice that has been resorted to in particular in the context of the fight against terrorism. Secret detention amounts in itself to ill-treatment and – due to the removal of fundamental safeguards which it entails - inevitably heightens the risk of resort to other forms of ill-treatment. Responding to reports that certain secret detention facilities were located in European countries, the CPT invites anyone who is in possession of information concerning such facilities to bring it to the attention of the Committee.
The CPT also comments on the related issue of extra-judicial transfers from one country to another, so-called "renditions". The Committee is particularly concerned by the practice of rendition for the purposes of detention and interrogation outside the normal criminal justice system. "Operations of this kind inevitably involve a risk of ill-treatment for the person concerned that no 'assurances' can ever fully remove; it follows that the authorities of Parties (to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture) should never offer assistance in the context of such operations". (CoE, press release)
Full-text of General Report (pdf)
August 2007: SCOTLAND-RENDITION: Report from Reprieve: Scottish involvement in extraordinary rendition (pdf)
Dick Marty submission to the US Supreme Court where he presents argumnet concerning the kidnapping of German citizen Khaled El-Masri by the CIA: Marty submission (pdf)
European Parliament inquiry (TDIP) on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners - documents and reports - and follow-up
25 July 2007: UK-USA RENDITION: Damning report from the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee: UK agencies and Rendition (pdf) Committee press release (pdf) Government's response to the report (pdf)- in the case of Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna where UK agencies provided evidence to the USA with the caveat "speicifcally prohibiting any action being taken - this was disregarded by the USA and Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna triggered their arrest and "Rendition to Detention". Moreover, the Security Service failed to tell Ministers about their relationship with Bisher al-Rawi and that it: "took *** years, and a court case, to bring it to their attention"
- the SIS (MI6) and Security Service (MI5) were "slow" to appreciate the "change in US rendition policy": "the Agencies should have detected the emerging pattern of renditions sooner and used greater caution in working with the U.S. at an earlier stage."- "in fighting international terrorism it is clear that the U.S. will take whatever action it deems is necessary, within U.S. law, to protect its national security.
Although the U.S. may take note of UK protests and concerns, it does not appear materially to affect their strategy"
- the Committee had difficulties in a number of areas getting information: GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters, which runs - with NSA - a global communications surveillance system) passed intelligence to the US National Security Agency (NSA) which could have passed it to the CIA. The Committee simply had to accept that the GCHQ-NSA agreement that this required "explicit permission" actually worked. Similarly "General Aviation Reports" on flight plans "appears to be systematically flawed" so complete data on flights was not available.
- the Committee recommends that despite "caveats and assurances" any future requests which could lead to rendition should be referred to Ministers for approval.CoE: CIA secret detentions in Europe: PACE urges oversight of military and foreign intelligence services (CoE, link)
Council of Europe: Clandestine CIA operations authorised through NATO including those in Poland and Romania: Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states: Second report (link to press release). Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving CoE members: second report by Dick Marty (full-text, pdf) and - Disguised CIA flights to Poland (link to graph); - The "secure zone" for CIA transfers and secret detentions in Romania (link); - Flight logs related to the secret "homeward rendition" of Khaled El-Masri in May 2004 (pdf); - The investigation into secret detentions in Europe: a chronology (link)
US-DISAPPEARED-DETAINEES: Leading Human Rights Groups Name 39 CIA “Disappeared” Detainees & Three Groups File Lawsuit Seeking Information about “Ghost” Detention (press release) Briefing: Off the record: US responsibility for enforced disappearances in the "war on terror", full-text with names (pdf)
In the most comprehensive accounting to date, six leading human rights organisations today published a briefing paper revealing the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown.
The list - drafted by Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve - provides new names of missing detainees, new information about those known to be disappeared, and names relatives of suspects who were themselves detained in secret prisons, including children as young as seven.US: Firm to be sued over 'torture flights' (Guardian, link)
Poland: UN Committee against torture - report on Poland (pdf)
EP-USA-CIA: Press release from the European Parliament on the delegation to the USA (pdf)
15.4.07: Renditions: Italy / Morocco: Italian authorities drag their feet in Britel case
ITALY-CIA-RENDITION: Americans and Italians are indicted in CIA kidnapping case (International Herald Tribune, link) MILAN, Italy: An Italian judge on Friday indicted 26 Americans and five Italians for what will be the first criminal trial over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The judge set a trial date for June 8. Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans - almost all CIA agents - to abduct terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.
UPDATE: EP: The European Parliament has adopted (14 February 2007) a highly critical report on CIA renditions and detentions and on the activities of a number of EU governments including the UK, Austria, Italy, Poland and Portugal. The report: "gives detailed evidence of investigations of illegal rendition or CIA flight cases involving Germany, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bosnia and Romania." Full-text of the European Parliament Resolution adopted on 14 February 2007 on CIA rendition and detention (pdf) Press release on the CIA rendition debate and amendments agreed (pdf). Excellent summary in Working Document no 9 of the key evidence (eg: cases and flights) gathered on Italy, UK, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania and Poland to back up the Resolution above: Evidence gathered on key EU states - CIA rendition and detention (pdf) This should be read in conjunction with: Working Document no 7 (extraordinary renditions) and Working Document no 8: Companies working for the CIA and stop-overs in the EU. Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "The European Parliament's committee of inquiry has done a great public service in gathering evidence to show not just the extent of CIA renditions through and abductions in the EU but also the collusion - by "turning a blind eye" - of EU governments. This have been achieved with little or no help from the other EU institutions (European Commission and the Council of the European Union)."
USA, UK, Germany, Spain and Italy have refused to sign up to the UN Convention on banning disappearences and secret detention. Fifty-seven countries joined at the treaty signing in Paris on 6 February 2007. The Covention was adopted by the general assembly on 20 December 2006 and becomes operational when a minimum of 20 states have ratified it. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons and Enforced Disappearance places an "absolute ban" on on secret detentions, provides for tracing the whereabouts of the "disappeared" and for the right of reparation. France led the initiative for the Convention and its officials estimated that 51,000 people have been disappeared by governments in over 90 countires since 1980. International Convention for the Rptection of All Persons and Enforced Disappearance - full-text (pdf) UN press release (pdf) US refuses to sign UN ban on renditions and secret detention (World Socialist Website, link)
Italy: Renditions: Abu Omar freed in Egypt: Rendition victim Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, aka Abu Omar, was released on 11 February 2007 from Tora high security prison in the outskirts of Cairo. He was kidnapped on 17 February 2003 in Milan, in a case that has resulted in arrest warrants being issued against 13 CIA officers and charges being brought against Nicolò Pollari, the head of the Italian military secret service (SISMI), and other high-level SISMI officials. Abu Omar's Egyptian lawyer noted that the depression that he had experienced in prison had led to three suicide attempts, and his wife, Nabila, expressed her happiness while noting that "He is happy but tired… the prison and torture have deeply marked him. They have changed him". (Repubblica, 12.2.2007).
Portugal: Renditions: Judicial investigation into CIA flights begins
GERMANY-CIA RENDITION: A German court in Munich has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents involved in the kidnapping and rendition of Khaled al-Masri who was abducted in 2003 in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and tortured: Speigel Online (link) and BBC News (link).
ITALY-CIA: Italian judge issues arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents involved in the kidnapping and rendition of Abu Omar to Egypt where he was tortured: Abu Omar: Evidence as presented to the courts (pdf, 210 pages) See also Statewatch's Observatory on CIA renditions and detention (documents) and CIA team wanted over Milan 'kidnap' (Guardian, link)
European Parliament inquiry into CIA rendition and detention: Inquiry report as adopted by the Committee on Civil Liberties (pdf). The report now goes to the plenary session. Press release on committee report
January 2007: EU-CIA-RENDITION: Deep in Le Carré country, the remote Polish airport at heart of CIA flights row - Former director tells how planes were met by vehicles from nearby military base (Guardian, link) Confirmation that Szymany airport was used extensively for CIA rendition flights.
EU-CIA Inquiry: Furious exchange of letters between Mr Solana (Council of the European Union) and the European Parliament's Inquiry chair (French) and Statewatch translation (English, pdf)
Report in Unita newspaper: Secret CIA flights, lo and behold, the secret papers (pdf)
Sweden: UN Human Rights Committee finds that Sweden broke the international prohibition against torture. The case concerned the rendition of two Egyptians from Sweden 2001 by undercover US and Egyptian agents. The UN Committee also states that the treatment of the two men on Swedish soil (Bromma Airport in Sweden) in connection with the rendition was a breach of the ban on torture and inhuman treatment: Full text of: UN Human Rights Committee Decision, 6 November 2006
Latest documents added include:
Correspondence between the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Irish government (4 documents): Documents submitted - full-text
Draft report of the year-long inquiry (pdf)
Two substantive working documents of inquiry: On extraordinary rendition (Working documents no 7, including details of cases considered) and On the companies linked to the CIA, aircraft used by the CIA and the European countries in which CIA aircraft have made stopovers (Working document no 8, 64 pages) See for full background and documentation: Statewatch's Observatory on CIA rendition
ABC News on those detained and sbjected to "enhanced" interrogation techniques
The "de longhi" file on the Britel case (37 documents plus 2 notes) Explanatory analysis: Italy: Documents sent to European Parliament committee on renditions allege other renditions and details of Abu Omar cover-up and the Britel rendition
News:
EU-CIA-Inquiry: Former Guantanamo detainee meets MEPs investigating CIA renditions (European Parliament press release). "When Murat Kurnaz - a German resident of Turkish origin - travelled to Pakistan in late 2001 to "find himself and deepen his faith", he told MEPs on Wednesday, he was arrested by the Pakistani police. "They caught me and sold me to the Americans for 3,000 or 5,000 dollars," he said. Mr Kurnaz was transferred to a prison in Afghanistan and later flown to Guantanamo, where he remained until August this year when he was released without charge.
Italy: SISMI (Defence Ministry) Pollari leaves, Bruno Branciforte appointed (link)
CIA-Rendition: European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) “Extraordinary rendition - a European Perspective" speech by Olivier Dutheillet de Lamothe (Substitute member, France) (Cardozo School of Law, 25 September 2006 - "Bauer Lecture")
Italy: Documents sent to European Parliament committee on renditions allege other renditions and details of Abu Omar cover-up and the Britel renditionPortugal: Evidence of illegal CIA rendition flights surfacing
Portugal: Renditions continue: Algerian prisoner abducted and deported
Italy: Renditions: Judge notifies defendants of the state of play in investigations into Abu Omar rendition: High-level SISMI and CIA officials involvedLatest agenda: 28 November 2006 and 30 November 2006
Calendar of meetingsDocuments submitted - full-text - 222 to date
Interim report: Text report as adopted by the Committee of inquiry: Interim report
Reports from Council of Europe and NGOs - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Redress, Cagedprisoners
Agendas archive:
13.11.06
23.10.06
9.10.06
25-09-06
14-09-06
04.09.06
10.07.06
03.07.06
12.06.06
01.06.06
30.05.06
15.05.06
04.05.06
25.04.06
20.04.06
03.04.06
23.03.06
21.03.06
13.03.06
06.03.06
23.02.06
13.02.06
26.01.06Verbatim transcripts of hearings
Members of the Temporary Committee
EP decision to set up the CommitteePlease send: contributions. comments, broken links etc to: office@statewatch.org
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