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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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April 3rd,
2008 - British Rights Group Hands Portugal Findings about Secret CIA Flights |
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British Rights
Group Hands Portugal Findings about Secret CIA Flights in its Airspace By the Associated Press April 3, 2008 Lisbon, Portugal - A British
human rights group on Thursday handed Portuguese prosecutors evidence that it
claimed showed CIA secret rendition flights used Portuguese airports and
airspace. Reprieve alleged that more
than 700 prisoners passed through Portuguese airspace en route to the U.S.
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, between 2001 and 2006. Aircraft
"associated with the CIA" made at least 115 stopovers at Portuguese
airports, it claimed. Clive Stafford Smith, the
group's legal director, said he had "zero doubts" that Portuguese
authorities were complicit in the CIA operations. Reprieve campaigns against
the death penalty and says it represents more than 30 detainees held at
Guantanamo Bay. Portugal's attorney general
last year opened a criminal investigation into claims that CIA flights, some
of them allegedly carrying terror suspects, made stopovers in the country.
The investigation came after a Portuguese member of the European Parliament
presented a dossier of allegations. The government said at the
time that authorities had not unearthed any evidence of CIA flights and would
not investigate the matter further. Portugal's previous
conservative government was a vocal supporter of the U.S. policy in Iraq. It
hosted a prewar meeting in Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores Islands that
brought together U.S. President George W. Bush and the British and Spanish
prime ministers at the time, Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar. The conservative government
lost a 2005 general election to the Socialist Party, which is still in power. A European Parliament report
last year named Portugal among 14 EU countries believed to have colluded with
the CIA extraordinary renditions program. External link: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/03/europe/EU-GEN-Portugal-CIA-Flights.php |