Entire continent' linked to CIA's torture flights

Ann Cahill + FPF

Entire continent’ linked to CIA’s torture flights

Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:26

Entire continent’ linked to CIA’s torture flights

It is of course unbelievable that in the year 2006 neocons in the US make people scream in torture and agony and believe that people will ever forget what they have done to the rest of the world.

They will strike back and one may hope the attacks succeed in explaining that this treatment of fellow human beings for the rotten profit of this group usuring moneymonsters is unforgivable! - [http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq]

The group responsible for this - whoever they may be, or think they are - must be stopped and jailed immediately. They are a danger to mankind and are not only guilty of torture but of geocide too.

"Action taken by the American service considered to constitute a criminal offence."

Entire continent’ linked to CIA’s torture flights

By Ann Cahill

25/01/06 - “The entire continent is involved,” the man investigating whether Europe’s governments are facilitating the CIA in the kidnap and torture of terror suspects claimed in his first report yesterday.

Dick Marty, the Swiss senator and lawyer given the job by the Council of Europe, was highly critical that governments had not instigated formal investigations about the allegations which first arose over two years ago.

Europe has been affected by more than 100 kidnappings of terror suspects by CIA agents while hundreds of CIA-chartered flights have passed through European countries, he said.

"It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware. And a number of revelations have already been published by the press, especially in America, over the past few years," he said.

The US have never denied they kidnap suspects but statements made by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, during and before her European visit last month, and by her predecessor, Colin Powell, always maintained they respected national sovereignty, suggested its European allies were aware of the situation.

"Their statements are taken by some as both a reprimand and a warning: 'Stop being hypocritical,' and 'Do you really want us to say what happened?'" Mr Marty said in his report.

The evidence that US agents are kidnapping people in Europe has been well publicised, but has not resulted in governments taking any action, he said, citing the case of Abu Omar.

"In the case of Abu Omar, it was obvious the CIA acted without informing the Italian judicial and police authorities.

"The Milan public prosecutors explicitly state that the action taken by the American service, which they consider constituted a criminal offence, prevented them from completing investigations which they were conducting against Omar and which were on the verge of identifying a network of activists considered potentially dangerous.

"The Italians' meticulous and highly professional work had thus been undone by the unexpected intervention by CIA agents.

"This 'rendition' is a glaring illustration of the fact that such actions, which infringe the principles of the rule of law, are not only unacceptable from the legal and ethical point of view, but also ineffective, or indeed damaging, to the fight against terrorism," the report states.
He added the US authorities are refusing to cooperate with the German prosecutor responsible for the German strand of the Abu Omar case, on Washington's orders.
"It is difficult to believe that such an approach to relations between authorities in different countries can provide any valid basis for genuine cooperation among states endeavouring together to combat the worst threats facing us in modern times," Marty says.
He suggests that the link between rendition and torture is known and accepted by Europe's governments, citing a number of former US intelligence officials who detailed resources used against actual and suspected terrorists.
"These clearly confirm that the current US administration seems to start from the principle that the principles of the rule of law and human rights are incompatible with efficient action against terrorism.
"Even the laws of war, especially the Geneva Conventions, are not accepted or applied. The relocation of prison camps to Guantanamo and elsewhere indicates that even American legal standards are seen as obstacles by the US Administration."
Michael Scheuer, one of the architects of the rendition system during the Bush and Clinton administrations admitted last March knowing that suspects were tortured in Egypt, adding it was "very convenient" finding "someone else to do your dirty work", the report said.
Vincent Cannistraro, CIA former head of counterespionage was reported to have said that a Guantanamo detainee suspected of belonging to al-Qaida and who was refusing to cooperate provided better information after being rendered to Egypt. "They tore his fingernails out and he started to tell things," he said.
Mr Cannistraro also reportedly said Egyptian prisons were full of men without nails.
"It's crude, but highly effective, although we could never condone it publicly."
Mr Marty said there is a great deal of "coherent, convergent evidence" pointing to the existence of a system of relocation or outsourcing of torture and this leads to the question if European countries were unaware of it.
Mr Marty said that plain honest answers were needed and he hoped that evidence from a number of sources, including a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, would help.
Investigations by the European Parliament and a legal opinion from the Venice Commission due in mid-March will be very important in the search for truth. The 46-member governments of the Council of Europe are to return the questionnaire by February 21.
But the Council of Europe must go beyond ascertaining the existence or non-existence of secret detention centres in Europe.

"The issue at stake is even more important than that. The current US administration obviously considers that the traditional instruments of the democratic state governed by the rule of law are inappropriate for facing up to the terrorist threat.

"Is Europe prepared to accept such an approach?" the report asks. The full report will be finalised towards the end of March.

[andend] - Url.:

FPF-comment: Earlier a prosecutor in Italian already wanted to arrest 13 CIA terrorists to start with - [ http://tinyurl.com/bcc4m]

The US management's 'front man' - George Bush - was quoted by former journalist Bob Woodward in the Washington Post on Thursday, November 22, 2001 on page A01:

"On Oct. 1, Bush made reference to the foreign arrests in a speech at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington.

Smirking, George Bush said that the American people "aren't going to see exactly what's taking place on their TV screens," but he added that: "slowly, but surely, progress was being made." And, Bush declared menacingly:

"You see, we've said to people around the world: This could happen to you, this could have easily have taken place on your soil, so you need to take threats seriously, as well."

After all those years NONE of the people tortured, jailed and in hungerstrike dying at the United States' Guantanamo concentration camp, has even been charged or found guilty by the US-SS.

The 'progress' which Bush falsely keeps referring to was by Amnesty International described: "As evidence of torture and widespread cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment mounts, it is more urgent than ever that the US Government bring the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and any other facilities it is operating outside the USA into full compliance with international law and standards. The only alternative is to close them down." - [Amnesty International - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/caut7]

'REGIME CHANGE' IN THE UNITED STATES

Woodward, who over three decades ago with Bernstein in the so called 'Watergate scandal' helped 'the people running the US' with 'regime change' in the United States, has since also published a book about how great 'Commander George Bush' is; thereby forgetting the criminality of the man who twice stole the presidency with his ilk, and who in the rest of the world is looked upon as War Criminal # 1.

Trying to also justify the American Gulag - [Solzjenitsyn spent 10 years in the Soviet- Gulag - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8qb88] - and torture, Bush's copywriter Woodward in November 2001 wrote an article:

"50 Countries Detain 360 Suspects at CIA's Behest", in which he describes the illegal and inhumane torture flights: "Roundup Reflects Aggressive Efforts of an Intelligence Coalition Viewed as Key to War on Terrorism". [ http://tinyurl.com/9zcdw]

RELATED:

07/10/04 - "Global Terror by Secret US Death Squads" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9oq6q

Google search on torture flights - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bmkgm

Seymour Hersh – Url. full story + webcast Hersh, 1 hour 22 minutes - Url.: www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1021.htm

US 'Death Squad Protection Act' Url.: tinyurl.com/6xdfw

Secret Task Force 121 – Url.: tinyurl.com/6pzpo

Sweden-expulsion-Url.: www.statewatch.org/news/

'Black' Gulfstream jet N379P : tinyurl.com/6gswg (picture)

It is supposed to be owned by:

PREMIERE EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES INC 339 WASHINGTON ST STE 202, DEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, USA

US companies that often flies/operate the plane: Aero Contractor Ltd Johnson County Airport – Smithfield, North Carolina, USA

STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING, INC. – 8130 COUNTRY VILLAGE, DRIVE S101, CORDOVA, Tennesee, USA

French source: another 'Black Jet: tinyurl.com/7x22n

Dutch war criminals court hearing: tinyurl.com/662pp

FEMA and Concentrationcamps: tinyurl.com/63hua

Military Intelligence – Special Operations: Url.: tinyurl.com/5pe6g

The DIA and the military services maintain a large number of military attachés and a much smaller network of clandestine case officers to satisfy foreign intelligence requirements. The Defense HUMINT Service became operational October 1, 1995, to consolidate the human intelligence (HUMINT) capabilities of the DIA, Army, Navy, and Air Force. [tinyurl.com/5xapq]

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
tinyurl.com/3crhn
Henk Ruyssenaars
tinyurl.com/2ghoh
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

The Dutch author has this far worked abroad for 4 decades for international media, as foreign correspondent, of which 10 years – also during Gulf War I – in the Arab World and the Middle East.

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