CIA FLIGHTS: THE HALF-CLOSED EYES OF GERMANY
di Mario Sanna
a cura di Maurizio Torrealta

On February 14, the European Parliament convened in Strasbourg on a Plenary Session and it approved the final report of the investigation committee on CIA flights in Europe submitted by the Left-Democrat EMP Claudio Fava.
The report received 382 favorable votes, while the votes against it were 256. 74 people did not vote.

The report accuses 13 European Countries (among those Italy), of complicity with CIA in the kidnapping and transportation of suspected terrorists in the territory of the EU. It criticizes the behavior of the European Council and of the High Representative for Foreign policy Javier Solana. The Council will have to urge the governments to explain what happened and if it is necessary to apply article 7 of the Treaty which envisages sanctions. The programme of 'extraordinary renditions' - reminds us the European Parliament - is an extrajudiciary practice that goes against the existing international norms on human rights.

The Parliament asks for the shut down of Guantanamo and it requires governements of member states to make a decision also about the compensation of the victims of the abductions, the assessment of the laws against terrorism and about the follow-up to verify the single responsibilities. EMPs, moreover, have to review the derogations stemming from the notion of "secret of state", limiting them and defining them in a restraining way.


The works of the of the ad interim Committee, presided over by the Portuguese Carlos Coelho, started in January 2006. After 33 sessions, after the visit of 7 official delegations in different countries and after having heard 200 witnesses, EMPs have gathered some material on the illegal activities undertaken by secret services during the war against terror started on September 11 2001. The Parliament denounces the lack of cooperation on the side of many Member States, and also on the side of the Council. The EMPs thank the ad interim Committee and the vice president of the Commission Franco Frattini for the cooperation with the works of the Committee and namely to relaunch an euro-atlantic coordination frame in the fight aainst terrorism. A fight that must be based on harmonic rules on human right and fundamelntal liberties.

The Parliament comments in the report on the cases that have been examined about the following countries: Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Danmark, Belgium, Turkey, Macedonia and Bosnia. Some elements came to light already, and the judicary has started some investigations in some of these countries and the international press gives some highlights:

ITALY: the Italian judges decided to committ 34 people to trial (among them there 25 CIA agents and 2 former SISMI officials) allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Abu Omar. The imam of the mosque of Viale Jenner in Milan was abducted in 2003. There is another case about the Italian citizen of Maroccan origin detained in Morocco.

SWITZERLAND: according to the Swiss press CIA flights violated the air space of the Confederation between 2001 and 2005. Dick Marty, Swiss adviser responsible of the Committee of Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe, repeatedly denounced the complicity of Switzerland in the secret flights affair.

SPAIN Judges investigate on Cia flights that allegedly used Spanish airports to transfer the prisoners to other locations where they were tortured.

ROMANIA Soon a parliamentary committee will be created to investigate on the use made of the Romanian territory for the transit of CIA detainees.

SWEDEN According to the committee, 3 years ago the government decided to expel 2 Egyptians that were suspected of being linked with Islamic terrorism according to some perfunctory information gathered by the CIA. The 2 suspected, that had obtained the asylum, were arrested and handed over the american hooded agents. The Government allowed that the two people were denuded, doped, handcuffed and brought to Egypt to be tortured.

BOSNIA Six Algerians of Bosnian origin accused of planning attacks were kidnapped in 2001, handed over to the USA soldiers in Bosnia and brought to Guantanamo.

FRANCE There is the case of the French Nizar Sassi transported from pakisytan and detained for 3 years in Guantanamo. Sassi has been released because he was innocent. He told his experience in a book that though iit is not about the European soil, it is about a French citizen.

PORTUGAL The judiciary has recently started an investigation.

POLAND The conservative government has repeatedly rejected the suspect that Poland could have hosted a secret CIA prison, but no investigation has been opened.

UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND The press has reported the news of CIA flights that landed in British airports. According to the press, also Shannon airport in ireland would be involved.

Bisher Al-Rawi and Jamil El-Banna, British citizens arrested in Gambia in 2002 according to information provided by the British secret services.They were moved to Guantanamo and meanwhile Craig Murray, former British ambassador in Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004, denounced before the Committee that Great Britain and the US had obtained some information through the systematic use of torture inflicted to the internal opposers by the Uzbeki secret serices.

GERMANY Last month the judiciary issued 13 arrest warrants against 13 CIA agents suspected of the kidnapping of a German citizan of Lwebanese origin Khaled El-Masri. A special committee of the Germanparliament started an investigation on the abductionof Murat Kurnaz, a German citizen of Turkish origin. Kurnaz was detained 4 years in Guantanamo.

The report that you can download from the web site is about the latest events that unfolded in Germany during the last weeks.