Europeans Probe CIA Role in Abducting Suspects: Report

CAIRO, March 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A number of European countries are investigating the role of the CIA in abducting terror suspects from their soil and flying them to be interrogated in other countries where torture is commonly practiced, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, March 13.

Law enforcement authorities in Italy, a key Washington’s alley, Germany and Sweden are examining whether the CIA-sponsored operations known as rendition violated local laws.

Investigations are producing new revelations about the suspected US American involvement in the disappearance of at least four men, each of whom said he was physically abused and tortured, said the American daily.

However, there are several obstacles to filing criminal charges against American agents involved in such abductions, including whether they are protected by diplomatic immunity as well as determining their identity.

On Sunday, June 13, Britain’s The Observer said Washington and its allies are running a wanton global network of detention camps, allowing the US to fly terror suspects to other countries where they are tortured for information.

American-Accent Captors

Khaled Marsi, a 41-year-old man, told the German authorities that he was kidnapped during a vacation in the Balkans and flown to Kabul in January 2004 by captors who spoke English with an American accent.

Held for four months in Kabul as a suspected terrorist, Masri was taken back by his captors to the Balkans where he was dumped on a hillside along the Albanian borders.

“So far, I've seen no sign that what he's saying is incorrect. Many, many pieces of the puzzle have checked out,” said Martin Hofmann, a Munich-based prosecutor overseeing the investigation.

“I have to try to find out who held him, who tortured or abused him, and who is responsible for this.”

Since his return, Masri has been questioned several times by the German police who found his claims consistent and believable.

The German investigations revealed that Masri was flown out of Macedonia aboard a US-registered Boeing jet which arrived in Skopje, Macedonia, at 9 p.m. on January 23, 2004, and deported about six hours later, the same time and date he gave them.

The jet, with tail number N313P, was registered at the time to a US firm, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc., which is a CIA front company.

The same firm owned another aircraft, a Gulfstream jet, that has been used in other rendition cases, including the one in Sweden, according to The Washington Post.

CIA Agents

A similar abduction case was also reported in a key Washington alley in Europe, the American daily said.

In Milan, Italy, an Egyptian preacher, known as Abu Omar, was kidnapped in February 2003 by two men, who sprayed him in the face with chemicals and stuffed him into a van.

Following his disappearance, Italian police opened a missing person investigation, but the case hit a deadlock for more than a year.

But suddenly in April 2004, Abu Omar's wife unexpectedly received a telephone call from her husband, telling her that he had been abducted and taken to a US air base in Italy before being flown to Cairo where he had been tortured and kept naked in subfreezing temperatures.

Italian investigations revealed that 15 US agents, some of them CIA operatives, were behind Abu Omar's abduction.

The investigators were able to trace calls made by the American agents by linking calls made by the same phones near the Milan mosque, where Abu Omar was kidnapped, and Aviano Air base on the day of Abu Omar's abduction, according to the Italian Corriere della Sera.

The CIA has kept details of rendition cases a closely guarded secret, but has defended the controversial practice as an effective and legal way to prevent terrorism.

In a report entitled "Ending Secret Detention", the American Human Rights First said the US has more than 24 world detention camps, at least half of them operate in total secrecy, where the abuse of detainees is “inevitable”.