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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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March 26th,
2009 - Investigator: NATO Countries Knew About Secret CIA Flights |
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Investigator:
NATO Countries Knew About Secret CIA Flights By Deutsche Welle March 26, 2009 A special investigator for
the Council of Europe testified before a German parliament committee that the
NATO countries must have known about the secret CIA rendition flights used by
the US in the War on Terror. NATO countries, including
Germany, were aware early on that the United States was conducting secret
rendition flights of terror suspects for possible torture following the
attacks of September 11, 2001, says Dick Marty, who has been heading up an
investigation into the flights on behalf of the Council of Europe. Marty was speaking on
Thursday before a special committee of the German parliament, set up to
investigate the involvement of the German federal intelligence service (BND)
in America's War on Terror. The Swiss MP said that it
was "absolutely incredible" that European governments had no
knowledge of the activities carried out by the CIA prior to 2005. He also finds it hard to
believe that Germany could have been isolated from these activities. Two events According to the German ARD
public broadcaster's news website, there are two events that led Marty to
this conclusion. The first was a meeting of the world's most important secret
service agencies in Washington shortly after the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon. It was during this meeting
that the CIA informed their international counterparts that US President
George W. Bush had given them free range in deciding how to deal with
terrorists. The second happened just a
month later when the NATO countries agreed to support the US in the War on
Terror on October 4, 2001. A statement released by NATO
at the time said that at the request of the United States the NATO allies agreed
to "take eight measures, individually and collectively, to expand the
options available in the campaign against terrorism." Two of those measures were
"to enhance intelligence sharing and co-operation ... relating to the
threats posed by terrorism" and to "provide blanket overflight
clearances for the United States and other allies' aircraft … for military
flights related to operations against terrorism. However, Marty was unable to
provide any physical evidence, saying that he got his information only after
promising his sources that their identities would remain a secret. More answers According to news agency
AFP, the Free Democratic Party announced it is considering asking former
Defense Minister Peter Struck, a member of the Social Democrats, to explain
whether or not he took part in the NATO decision to abduct terror suspects. That would include Khaled
el-Masri, a German national, who was abducted by the CIA in Macedonia in 2004
and flown to Afghanistan for interrogation on terrorism charges. Although there has never
been any proof of German involvement, warrants issued in Germany for the
arrest of the CIA agents involved in the capture of el-Masri were blocked by
the German government. Additionally, when the then
interior minister, Otto Schilly, was informed by the US of el-Masri's
abduction, he didn't inform the public prosecutor. External link: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4130012,00.html |