Reykjavik Transit

Abdel Hakin Belhaj, a commander of the rebel forces in Libya, says he was tortured after being arrested in 2004. He says that he was taken from Bangkok to Libya by a joint CIA and MI6 operation which was set up to help Col Muammar Gaddafi round up his enemies.
In the statement, the Metropolitan Police said that it had received a complaint from him relating to his rendition to Libya and information relating to a second similar case.

The statement said: "The allegations raised in the two specific cases concerning the alleged rendition of named individuals to Libya and the alleged ill-treatment of them in Libya are so serious that it is in the public interest for them to be investigated now rather than at the conclusion of the Detainee Inquiry."
Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service said MI5 and MI6 officers would not be charged over separate torture collusion claims.
He is also suing the UK over his transfer to Libya and subsequent torture.

The government has set up an inquiry into claims of rendition.

Labels: Abdel Hakin Belhaj, libya, metropolitan police, MI5, MI6, rendition

Guardian quotes Wikileaks:
A senior Irish civil servant warned the US embassy in Dublin that Irish government lawyers might be forced to conclude that Ireland was in violation of torture conventions if aircraft were found to have used Shannon airport for rendition flights involving terrorist suspects, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The 2004 cable was sent as the Irish government was beginning to come under particularly intense pressure over the appearance at Shannon of a Gulfstream jet allegedly used to transport prisoners which allegedly had its tail number changed. The senior civil servant told the diplomats some Irish ministers felt they were "going out on a limb defending US use of Shannon".

There have been a series of WikiLeaks releases on Shannon. In a 2007 cable (published last month) the then Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, was described as "convinced" during a meeting with US diplomats that at least three flights involved in renditions had refuelled at the airport.

The allegations surrounding the jet referred to in the 2004 cable had "raised suspicions and caused confusion" with the Irish government, according to the senior civil servant.

He cautioned that if it were ever to be discovered that the US was not good on its word or had transported prisoners through Shannon in the context of the war on terrorism, there would be enormous political pressure on the government.

As for the legal issue, he said that were a plane to include Shannon in an itinerary that also included transporting prisoners, GOI [government of Ireland] lawyers might be forced to conclude that the GOI itself was in violation of torture conventions

The cable stated that the Jonathan S Benton, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Dublin, told the senior civil servant: "that the USG [US government] would be in no position to respond to the detailed questions asked about particular planes, such as the Gulfstream jet, but stood by its commitment to abide by Irish law, consult with the Irish and avoid actions that would bring embarrassment to the Irish government."

Labels: Dermot Ahern, Dublin, Guardian Wikileaks, Gulfstream IV, Ireland, Jonathan S Benton, rendition, Shannon

“The Ghost Writer” plays off the British public’s disillusion with Tony Blair and the recurring complaints about Blair’s alleged collaboration with the C.I.A. Yet, when Lang is cornered by the Ghost, the P.M. speaks with impressive conviction. In effect, he defends the use of torture; he takes the Cheneyesque hard line, ridiculing liberals who want safety and, at the same time, the luxury of high-mindedness. The answer to the question of why he’s so acquiescent to the Americans is worked out in thriller (rather than policy) terms. It’s the kind of supposition that may strike viewers, here and in Britain, as frivolous, or just plain wrong, but it’s a fine piece of mischief—suggestive, wounding to Blair, and, as a fiction, emotionally gratifying in the way of le Carré’s conspiracy plots.

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a fine piece of mischief

Labels: Britain, CIA, detainee, extraordinary rendition, flight, Ghost Writer, rendition

An Italian court on 04 November convicted 22 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel of orchestrating the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric here in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he said he was tortured. The case is the only instance in which CIA operatives have faced a criminal trial for the controversial tactic of extraordinary rendition, under which terrorism suspects are seized in one country and forcibly transported to another without judicial oversight. A similar case involving a German citizen kidnapped in the Balkans has resulted in arrest warrants and a civil lawsuit but has not gone to trial.

The CIA and other U.S. officials have contended that extraordinary renditions, which began during the Clinton administration and accelerated under the Bush White House after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are permissible under U.S. law to capture terrorism suspects in foreign countries.
"I am not guilty. I am only responsible for following an order I received from my superiors," R. S. Lady said. "It was not a criminal act. It was a state affair."

Labels: CIA, egypt, extraordinary rendition, John le Carré, Lady R S, rendition

The Bush administration declined to endorse a treaty meant to bar and punish "enforced disappearances" so that those overseeing the CIA's secret prison system would not be criminally prosecuted under its provisions. At least 81 countries have now signed, including all members of the European Union and many nations with checkered human rights records, such as Algeria, Argentina, Cuba and Guatemala.

A White House official said the Obama administration is reviewing the previous U.S. stance on the treaty as part of a wider look at international human rights accords that Washington has not signed. The official did not say when a decision might be made.

Labels: "enforced disappearances", black site, cia flights, detainee, extraordinary rendition, flight, John le Carré, rendition

Obama hasn't banned the process known as "extraordinary rendition." This technique has been used by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies for more than 30 years to seize people overseas, either unilaterally or with permission of the host country, and take them somewhere else for interrogation and possible judicial action. That authority hasn't changed, nor has the CIA's ability to work with foreign intelligence services that are interrogating terrorist suspects.
"The Obama team agrees with Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson that the Constitution isn't "a suicide pact," and it understands that there are extreme situations where the rules on interrogation might have to be stretched." David Ignatius

Labels: CIA, extraordinary rendition, flight, Panetta, rendition

Two members of the banned group Lashkar e Tayyiba, which has links to al-Qaeda, understood to be Pakistani nationals, apprehended by UK forces in Iraq had been transferred to US custody in 2004 then transported to Afghanistan. They are still being held in Afghanistan, where they are classified as "unlawful enemy combatants". Defence secretary John Hutton said there was no "substantiated evidence" that they had been mistreated or subjected to abuse there. "There is a underlying charge of complicity with serious abuse of people detained by British forces on operations overseas."

Labels: Afghanistan, flight, Iraq, John le Carré, Lashkar e Tayyiba, rendition

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Middle East Field Office-Bahrain is aboard the USNS Lewis and Clark "conducting witness and suspect interviews."

Labels: black site, lewis clark, NCIS, pirates, rendition, usns

The U.S. Embassy in Kenya has contacted authorities in Somalia's self-governing State of Puntland to 'transfer' over a group of suspected pirates, The U.S. Navy apprehended the pirate suspects in the Gulf of Aden and has been holding them aboard USNS Lewis and Clark. The implication is that Kenya doesn't want them.

Labels: black site, extraordinary rendition, Kenya, lewis clark, pirates, prison, Puntland, rendition, usns

On February 11, the navy said, the MV Polaris, sailing under a Marshall Island flag, sent a distress call saying that seven men on a skiff had tried to force their way on board using a ladder. The Vella Gulf intercepted the skiff, found weapons and seized the suspects. For now the group is being held aboard the Lewis and Clark, a U.S. Navy ship equipped with bare-bones holding cells. Pentagon video footage showed thin black pallets and pillows spread on the floor and surrounded by coils of barbed wire.

USNS Lewis and Clark
Crew124 civilian, 11 naval, helicopter detachment when required
Overall Length210m
Length Between Perpendiculars199.55m
Beam32.2m
Design Draught9.12m
Scantling Draught (Maximum to Which Vessel is Loaded)9.50m
Displacement at Design Draught

The ships, which are not armed and are classified as non-combatant ships, are capable of operating independently for extended periods at sea while providing underway replenishment services and contribute to the US Navy's ability to maintain a forward presence.

Labels: black site, detainee, John le Carré, lewis clark, prison, rendition, T-AKE+1, usns

Justice lawyer, Douglas N. Letter, made the state-secrets argument on February 9, startling several judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hearing the Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. case.

“Is there anything material that has happened” that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views, asked Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.
“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied.
Judge Schroeder asked, “The change in administration has no bearing?”
Once more, he said, “No, Your Honor.” The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

Labels: black site, cia flights, detainees, Jeppesen, John le Carré, prison, rendition

Mr. Panetta also said the agency would continue the Bush administration practice of “rendition” — picking terrorism suspects off the street and sending them to a third country. But he said the agency would refuse to deliver a suspect into the hands of a country known for torture or other actions “that violate our human values.”

Labels: black site, cia flights detainees, extraordinary rendition, John le Carré, rendition

What Bush and Cheney did was different less in kind than in degree—creating a vast program of renditions and secret prisons, as well as aggressively pursuing "targeted killings" of "high-value targets." Congressional leaders were informed, but some said that the briefings were cryptic. National security is an unavoidably murky world. But it doesn't have to be quite so dark as Cheney et al. made it, loosing the dogs of war from some "undisclosed location." So much of the anger against the Bush administration could have been avoided if Bush had gone to Congress in the first place. Obama’s Cheney Dilemma By Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas

Evan Thomas claimed that when Americans are "under threat, we sort of make this pact" with the government allowing it to "[g]o off and be secret and do dirty things" without "tell[ing] us about it." wmv

Labels: black site, CIA, detainees, Evan Thomas, flight, Obama, Panetta, prison, rendition

alfred matua
In late 2006, the Bush administration backed a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands of Somalis, including some who were suspected of terrorist links, to flee across the Kenya border.
An unknown number of them — likely dozens — were questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Addis Ababa. From February to May 2007, Ethiopian security officers daily transported detainees — including several pregnant women — to a villa where U.S. officials interrogated them about suspected terrorist links. At night the Ethiopian officers returned the detainees to their cells.

For the most part, detainees were sent home soon after their interrogation by U.S. agents ended. Of those known to have been interrogated by U.S. officials, just eight Kenyans remain. (A ninth Kenyan in Addis Ababa was rendered to Ethiopia in August 2007, after U.S. interrogations reportedly stopped.) read

"Wild and unverifiable charges that the Government deported Kenyans to Ethiopia are baseless. The Government has been very clear that it repatriated combatants to Somalia after they, the combatants, said they were not Kenyan. After a comprehensive audit, eight of the combatants and suspected terrorists were found to be Kenyan and brought back home. Claims of 19 Kenyans being held in Ethiopia are mere speculation and activism statements." read

Labels: Alfred Matua, CIA, detainee, Ethiopia, Kenya, rendition

A two-year Canadian commission of inquiry found Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer, innocent of wrongdoing and blamed false allegations by the Mounted Police linking Mr. Arar to terrorism for his detention while he was changing planes. Mr. Arar, who was born in Syria, was returning home to Ottawa from a family vacation in Switzerland when border officials held him at Kennedy Airport in 2002.
Former police commissioner, Giuliano Zaccardelli said "what we did in no way influenced the American decision to send him to Syria.” Nor were his American counterparts to blame: “It’s clear to me that that decision went beyond the law enforcement agencies,” he said, adding, “a decision at a higher level, at a political level of some sort, had to have been taken.”

Labels: Canada, cia flights, detainee, Maher Arar, rendition, Zaccardelli

Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan national, was detained in the summer of 2007, according to a statement CIA Director Michael Hayden gave to CIA employees. The CIA transferred him into Defense Department custody earlier this week, according to Whitman. here
Muhammad Rahim was arrested from Lahore, Pakistan. The Nation

Labels: 2007 detainee, Afghanistan, black site, Lahore, rendition

John C. Truong
Lawyers gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting CIA interrogations. John A. Rizzo, the agency’s top lawyer at the time, was not asked for final approval before the tapes were destroyed, although Mr. Rizzo had been involved in discussions for two years about the tapes. It is unclear what weight an opinion from a lawyer within the clandestine service would have if it were not formally approved by Mr. Rizzo. But the former official said Mr. Rodriguez and others in the clandestine branch believed the legal judgment gave them the blessing to destroy the tapes. Leaders of the clandestine service believed they “didn’t need to ask Rizzo’s permission.” here

Labels: CIA, cia flights, detainees, John Truong Rizzo, rendition, Thailand

2005 Acting General Counsel John A Rizzo



Jose A. Rodriguez, Directorate of Operations



Abu Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan, was taken to Thailand for part of his interrogation. Several former intelligence officials also said there was great concern that the tapes, which recorded hours of grueling interrogations, could have set off controversies about the legality of the interrogations and generate a backlash in the Middle East. here In February 2005, a federal judge in New York ordered the CIA to comply with the ACLU's request for documents related to the CIA's detainment and interrogation of suspected terrorists. The agency was told to delve into its operations files for any responsive documents to produce for in camera review. If the timing is right, that would put Rizzo, who oversees the litigation division that handles FOIA requests, right in the thick of things.Joe Palazzolo

By mid-2002, the CIA had worked out secret black-site deals with two countries, including Thailand and one Eastern European nation, current and former officials said. An estimated $100 million was tucked inside the classified annex of the first supplemental Afghanistan appropriation.
On March 28, 2002. Pakistani forces took Abu Zubaida, al Qaeda's operations chief, into custody and the CIA whisked him to the new black site in Thailand, which included underground interrogation cells, said several former and current intelligence officials. By Dana Priest, November 2, 2005 here

Labels: Abu Zubaydah, CIA, detainee, detention, erased, flight, Jose A. Rodriguez, rendition, tapes, Thailand, torture

Mauritania denies having secret CIA prison
The General’s Report, By Seymour M. Hersh, 25 June, 2007, The New Yorker

Review this omniscient/lucky blog

Labels: black site, CIA, detainee flight CIA, detention, flight, Mauritania, prison, rendition

John Scarlett, MI6



The CIA misled British intelligence chiefs over the arrest and treatment of terrorist suspects who were the subjects of rendition, "Where people are at risk of being tortured we have made very clear about our rejection of such a policy... But I am not going to condemn the US authorities," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. here

Labels: cia flights detainees, Gordon Brown MI6, rendition