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Spanish police expose more CIA links to secret flights of detainees
· 42 operatives traced going through Palma airport
· Names unearthed match Italian and German inquiries
By Giles Tremlett in Madrid
11/15/05 "The
Guardian" -- -- Spanish police have traced up to 42
suspected CIA operatives believed to have taken part in secret
flights carrying detained or kidnapped Islamist terror suspects to
interrogation centres and jails in Afghanistan, Egypt and elsewhere.
A Spanish police report seen by the New York Times provides the
names of the mainly American crew and passengers of a dozen suspect
flights that landed in Palma de Mallorca in 2003 and 2004. The
flights were allegedly part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition"
programme, in which, say human rights groups, suspected extreme
Islamists are taken to be interrogated in countries where US human
rights rules on torture do not apply.
The police report was drawn up at the request of a local magistrate
after some citizens asked for an investigation into the mysterious
flights landing at Palma airport. The magistrate has now asked
Spain's powerful national court whether it wants to take over the
inquiry.
Germany and Italy are already investigating similar flights, with
Rome having formally requested the extradition of a dozen alleged
CIA operatives allegedly involved in the kidnapping of an Egyptian
cleric in 2003. The aircraft that went through Palma reportedly
included a Boeing 737 and two Gulfstream jets. The report names
Tennessee-based Stevens Express Leasing as the aircraft operator. It
said one crew had followed a route that matched one described by an
alleged detainee, Binyam Muhammed. At least 18 people in the police
report left addresses in Virginia, near to CIA headquarters.
"We have to demand an explanation from the US state department and
ban the entry of these flights to Spain," Miguel Roselló of the
United Left party told journalists yesterday.
Prosecutors in Munich have reportedly asked Spanish police for a
copy of their report. They are looking into the kidnapping of a
German citizen, Khaled al-Masri, who was snatched in Macedonia in
January 2004 and taken to a jail believed to be in Afghanistan. Al-Masri
says he was shackled, beaten, injected with drugs and questioned
persistently about his alleged links with al-Qaida. He was returned
to Albania six months later, apparently after his kidnappers
realised they had the wrong man.
One flight from Palma reportedly travelled on to Skopje, the
Macedonian capital, on the date of the kidnapping. It then flew to
Baghdad and Afghanistan.
Spain's Civil Guard police were able to trace the crews through the
names and addresses left behind at two luxury hotels in Palma. They
spent their spare time playing golf, the Diario de Mallorca
reported.
Some names reportedly match those of suspected CIA operatives being
investigated by Italian police for the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric
Abu Omar, who was snatched in Milan in February 2003. In both the
Italian and Spanish cases it seems the flight crews made little
effort to cover their tracks, although it is by not certain that the
names they provided were real.
Italian police tracked them through the mobile phones used when Omar
was bundled into a van. Some calls were made to Virginia. They
suspect the cleric was taken to a US air base at Aviano before being
taken on to Egypt.
The aircraft which landed at Palma may also have been used in
transporting prisoners to secret detention centres in eastern
Europe. The Boeing 737 that landed several times at Palma reportedly
travelled on a separate flight from Afghanistan to Poland in 2003.
This is when the US was allegedly moving groups of high-profile
prisoners out of Afghanistan. Poland has denied running secret
detention centres for the US.
Deputies from Spain's United Left party called on the defence
minister, José Bono, to explain why the flights were allowed into
Spain. "It is still not proven that Spanish airports have been used
by the CIA for illegal kidnappings," the government said in a recent
parliamentary reply.
The Guardian has established that some 210 flights involved in the
"extraordinary rendition" operation have also passed through British
airports.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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