CIA aeroplanes create scandal in Sweden, Spain

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Tuesday November 15, 2005 16:21

by Dr. Coilín Oscar ÓhAiseadha

Chart and table of CIA aircraft for plane-spotters

A selection of items about CIA aeroplanes:
1. Stockholm, Tuesday — Sweden’s security police, Säpo, does not wish to comment as to whether chartered CIA aeroplanes have landed on Swedish soil with prisoners from the base at Guantánamo in Cuba.
2. MADRID, Spain Nov 14, 2005 — A court in Spain said on Monday it has received a prosecutor's report on allegations that the CIA has used a Spanish airport on the island of Mallorca for covert transfers of Islamic terror suspects.
3. CHART, TABLE: CIA Secret Prison Planes--What the MSM Won't Tell You
Clayton Hallmark | 14.11.2005 18:07 |
A LIST OF THE 28 PLANES, 8 SHELL COMPANIES, AND SEVERAL CIA-RELATED COMPANIES.

Swedish silence about CIA aircraft
Stockholm, Tuesday /ritzau/TT
Sweden’s security police, Säpo, does not wish to comment as to whether chartered CIA aeroplanes have landed on Swedish soil with prisoners from the base at Guantánamo in Cuba.
The Swedish security police, Säpo, knows nothing about allegations that the CIA has visited Sweden, even though aeroplanes that have been chartered by the American intelligence agency for purposes including transport of prisoners have landed at Swedish airports.
“We have no indication that the CIA has visited Sweden in these cases,” says press secretary Jakob Larsson, Säpo.
To the question of whether Säpo would have been informed if the CIA was visiting, Larsson replied:
“I can’t comment on that, since we don’t comment on relations to foreign powers.”
The Swedish news agency TT wrote on Monday that two aircraft that have been hired by the CIA in other contexts, have landed in Sweden. One of them visited Sturup Airport [civilian airport used by Ryanair] near Malmö [in southern Sweden, across the water from Copenhagen] in September, and the other visited both Arlanda and Örebro in June 2002. In Örebro, the aeroplane remained on the ground for two days. This aeroplane has landed at least seven times at the US base in Guantánamo, where the United States is detaining prisoners suspected of terrorism.
The CIA's aeroplanes are used, among other things, to transport prisoners to secret prisons around the world or to countries where they are presumed to be tortured.
It is not known why the aeroplanes have landed in Sweden, but another CIA-chartered aeroplane with American agents on board was used in 2001 in connection with the brutal deportation of two Egyptians suspected of terrorism. According to their own information, they were later tortured in Egypt.
The Swedish prime minister, Göran Persson, would like to look into the matter before he comments on whether the CIA aeroplanes’ landings in Sweden should be investigated.
“I haven’t managed to inform myself yet. I would like to do that first, before I give an account of possible measures,” he said to TT at a press conference in Norrköping.
/ritzau/TT
Time 15.11.2005 14:34
Category Foreign
Priority 4
Telegram no. 3708
Telegram name 151433:CIA/SVERIGE

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ABC News: CIA accused of using airport in Mallorca
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MADRID, Spain Nov 14, 2005 — European probes of the CIA's alleged covert transfers of Islamic terror suspects have spread to Spain, where a court said Monday it has received a prosecutor's report on allegations that the agency used a Spanish airport on the island of Mallorca.
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In a series of articles that began in March, Diario de Mallorca said more than a dozen CIA flights had used Palma airport. It said that in one case, a CIA plane involved in the alleged kidnapping of Khaled al-Masri in Macedonia early last year had taken off from Palma airport en route to the Balkan country.
Al-Masri says he was abducted, flown to Afghanistan and interrogated for suspected ties to al-Qaida.
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1311412

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CHART, TABLE: CIA Secret Prison Planes--What the MSM Won't Tell
Clayton Hallmark | 14.11.2005 18:07 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | Birmingham | London
The European Commission said last week it will investigate published reports that the CIA set up secret jails in Eastern Europe to detain high-profile terrorism suspects. The Commission says the governments of the EU's 25 member nations will be informally questioned about possible human rights violations. News media reported also that the group Human Rights Watch "claims records and other evidence point to POLAND and ROMANIA as countries that allowed their territory to be used by the CIA to jail top suspected al-Qaeda captives." We report that HRW knows that from tracing the movements of CIA planes and WE PROVIDE A LIST OF THE 28 PLANES, 8 SHELL COMPANIES, AND SEVERAL CIA-RELATED COMPANIES.
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http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/11/327851.html