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View Full Version : European governments knew of “CIA torture flights”



sonz
01-24-2006, 05:05 PM
The United States outsourced torture to other countries, and European government almost certainly knew about it, the head of an EU probe into reports of CIA secret prisons in Europe said Tuesday in a report, according to Reuters.

"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," Swiss senator **** Marty said in a report submitted to the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog investigating the covert prisons.

The report said at least 100 foreign suspects may have been transferred to countries where they faced torture or ill treatment in recent years.

"Acts of torture or severe violation of detainees' dignity through the administration of inhuman or degrading treatment are carried out outside national territory, and beyond the authority of national intelligence services...

"It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware," Marty said.

The Council of Europe opened its investigation in November after reports that CIA agents held foreign suspects at covert prisons, known as “black sites” in eastern Europe, Thailand and AFGHANISTAN, and moved some detainees to other countries through European airports, a process known as "extraordinary rendition".

The New-York based Human Rights Watch identified Romania and Poland as possible sites of clandestine CIA prisons. Both countries have denied involvement. Covert prisons would violate European human rights treaties.

Marty's report said there was no "no formal, irrefutable evidence” of secret U.S.-run detention facilities in either country, or anywhere else in Europe."

"On the other hand, it has been proved that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and all rights and transported to different destinations in Europe to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture," the report said.

The report also analyzed the case of an Egyptian cleric kidnapped by the CIA in Italy in 2003, and sent to Egypt where he was tortured. It also cited another case of a German man who was captured in Macedonia and taken to AFGHANISTAN.

* Iraq general's killer won’t be jailed

A U.S. officer convicted of killing an Iraqi general by stuffing his head into a sleeping bag will not be jailed, BBC reported.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr, who faced up to three years in jail for killing Maj Gen Abed Hamed Mowhoush in 2003, has been punished with a reprimand and a $600 fine, according to the sentence handed down by a six-member court-martial board or jury. He was also ordered to be confined to his base and place of worship for 60 days.

Prosecutors said Gen Mowhoush was tied, placed headfirst in a sleeping bag and died with an officer sitting on him.

Welshofer, the highest-ranking officer charged in connection with PRISONER ABUSE abuse in IRAQ, originally faced a more serious charge of murder which could have seen him jailed for life. But he was found guilty of the lesser charges of negligent homicide and dereliction of duty, which carry a jail term of up to three years.

* Two Germans kidnapped in Iraq

A group of armed men dressed in Iraqi army uniforms abducted two German engineers outside their workplace in the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, police said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Lieutenant Colonel Kadhem Abbas said the Germans were kidnapped at about 8:30 a.m. outside a detergent plant in an industrial complex around IRAQ's biggest oil refinery in Baiji.

The deputy governor of Salahaddin province, Abdullah Jubara, identified the two, transliterating their names from Arabic, as Thomas Wischke and Rebiti Drata.

Thomas de Maiziere, the German chancellor's chief-of-staff confirmed the kidnapping, saying they were both from the city of Leipzig.

At least 40 Westerners and hundreds of Iraqis are being held hostage in IRAQ, including U.S. Journalist Jill Carroll as well as four Christian aid workers. There has been no word on their fate.
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