Reykjavik Transit

Amnesty International publishes report on complicity in rendition of EU members such as Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries. here

Labels: Amnesty International, Bulgaria, complicity, EU, European Union, extraordinary rendition, Poland, rendition detention detainee flight CIA, Romania

The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but will monitor their treatment to ensure they are not tortured, administration officials said on 24 August.
Contractor Raymond Azar was arrested in Afghanistan, hooded, stripped and flown to the U.S. on a Gulfstream V jet that flew him from Bagram air base, outside Kabul, to Virginia.
Azar was "treated professionally," kept in a heated room, offered food and water repeatedly and "provided with comfortable chairs to sit in."

They said he was photographed naked and subjected to a cavity search to ensure that he did not carry hidden weapons and was fit for travel. Court records confirmed that Azar was shackled at the ankles, waist and wrists and made to wear a blindfold, hood and earphones aboard the plane.

Prosecutors also said that FBI agents read Azar his rights against self-incrimination on three occasions, and that he "voluntarily" waived them. Azar, 45, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit bribery, the only charge against him

Labels: Afghanistan, cia flights, extraordinary rendition, Obama Administration, rendition detention detainee flight CIA

William J. Haynes II , who was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit based in Richmond, has asked for his name to be withdrawn. He has been the Pentagon’s general counsel and was deeply involved in setting the Bush administration’s interrogation and detention policies. Mr. Haynes wrote or supervised memorandums that secretly authorized harsh treatment for detainees in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Labels: pentagon, rendition detention detainee flight CIA, William Haynes

CIA target Krekar
Islamic militant living in Oslo known as Mullah Krekar, a Kurd, received a warning in 2003 from an anonymous Norwegian official that he was a CIA target and should watch his back. The CIA spies left Norway by the end of the summer, according to records of their travels compiled by European investigators. here

Labels: Krekar, rendition detention detainee flight CIA

The five members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created at Congress’s direction in 2004 to examine privacy issues related to the war on terror were briefed for nearly two hours at the Treasury Department. The board received a similar classified briefing last week on the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program. Any final report produced by the board would be vetted by the White House and would not examine issues related to civil liberties outside American borders. here Board

Labels: privacy civil liberties board, rendition detention detainee flight CIA

Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program (Hardcover)
by Stephen Grey TIME NEWSWEEK

Labels: rendition detention detainee flight CIA