Offshore Torture Centres - Crimes Against Humanity

[MosJan]

TURKISH DAILY ACCUSES CIA OF 'CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY'

 

"A sort of human smuggling sponsored by governments is gradually becoming a nightmare for the entire world... Are we going to cover up operations, unlawful acts, and crimes against humanity committed by the CIA or on its behalf in this country", Yeni Safak, quoting foreign media on alleged secret CIA interrogation centers abroad, says. It adds: "State-sponsored unlawful acts and abduction of people have been institutionalized just like state-sponsored terrorism". It also says that the "secret torture centres" in Eastern Europe will be recorded in history as "the United States' Auschwitzs". The paper also asks questions about Turkey's role in the events. The following is the text of a column by Ibrahim Karagul entitled "Who were aboard a CIA plane which took off from Istanbul?", published by Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak website on 3 November:

 

A plane, which had taken off from Istanbul, landed on Copenhagen airport in Denmark on 7 March. It waited there for 23 hours before taking off for Keflavik airport in Iceland. It later departed to fly to an unknown destination in the United States.

 

It was later revealed that the plane belonged to the CIA, which created uproar in Denmark. Frank Aaen, defence policy spokesman of Union Party, a left-wing opposition party, asked Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller to explain the reason for the CIA plane's arrival in the capital city.

 

The Danish Communications Minister said that the plane with tail number N221SG, had arrived in Copenhagen at 9 A.M. local time on 7 March after a flight originating from Istanbul. He noted that the plane took off at 8:04 A.M. on the next day for a flight to Keflavik, Iceland, adding that they had received no information about the reason for the plane's arrival in Denmark. It was later revealed that those planes had been using the Danish airspace since 2001.

 

A state-controlled television station in Sweden later reported that Turkish security units had handed over some people, who the United States believed were terrorists, to the CIA after apprehending them in operations they carried out in Turkey and abroad. It cited an operation carried out in March as an example. The report said: "There were a group of terrorists, who were being hunted by the United States and captured on Turkish soil, aboard the plane. It was a CIA cargo. They were first taken to Copenhagen via Turkey and then sent to the United States via Iceland for being interrogated by the CIA."

 

Many reports have appeared in newspapers in the United States and other countries about the CIA's secret torture camps across the world. Reports issued by some human rights organizations alleged that people kidnapped from certain parts of the world had been taken to around ten countries, where they had been questioned and tortured. They claimed that some of those people were killed and that US military bases and warplanes were used as torture camps. The reports also noted that the intelligence agencies of many countries of had collaborated with the CIA in committing those crimes against humanity.

 

The identities of the people, who were aboard that Gulfstream 5 VIP plane, remain a secret. They are denied all legal rights and it is not possible to track their whereabouts and get information about their conditions. Thus, a sort of human smuggling sponsored by governments is gradually becoming a nightmare for the entire world.

 

These operations are carried out by Premier Executive Transport Services, a front company, by using its planes. The Washington Post reported that the tail number of one of those planes was N3779P. The planes operated by the CIA's front company secretly arrived in Baghdad, Kuwait, Karachi, Riyadh, Dubai, Tashkent, Baku, and Rabat, Morocco in order to carry smuggled people after 2001.

 

It is known that the CIA has used 23 planes and formed seven front companies for that purpose. The plane, which flew from Istanbul from Copenhagen, belongs to Path Cooperation, one of those companies.

 

Why does not anybody make some comments about that issue? Are we going to cover up operations, unlawful acts, and crimes against humanity committed by the CIA or on its behalf in this country? Let me cite a passage from my article entitled "Offshore Torture Centres," which appeared on 6 July: "We must take an interest in and inquire about the whereabouts of many people smuggled out of tens of countries located on the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and seek answers to those questions. We know that American military bases are used as interrogation and torture bases. We also know that ships belonging to the US Navy are used as interrogation centres. Where are hundreds or probably thousands of people, who have gone missing? What kind of a tragedy are the families, spouses, children, and parents of those people experiencing? Who could they turn to for help? What are those people actually accused of? Why are not legal proceedings brought against them? Why are not they formally charged with committing a crime? There are hundreds of unsubstantiated allegations and many people were apprehended at their homes, streets, schools, workplaces, and mosques and then taken to unknown places due to those allegations. Some of them were abducted while they were at their stores or walking in the street. Those who have legitimized torture and state-sponsored terrorism have also institutionalized kidnapping people. State-sponsored unlawful acts and abduction of people have been institutionalized just like state-sponsored terrorism. Intelligence units teams were set up, methods were devised, and secret areas were allocated for that purpose.

 

It was reported that the CIA had taken people it abducted to ships sailing on oceans. Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, has said that there were very serious allegations that the United States had secret prisons such as the prison ships sailing across the Indian Ocean. They are ghost ships. The United States is using international waters in order to avoid law, moral values, and humanity.

 

Diego Garcia, a 1,600-km long island on the Indian Ocean from which B-52s that rained bombs on Afghanistan and Iraq took off and was not affected by tsunami waves that hit all countries in south Asia, has turned into an island of torture and terror where missing people are being kept and ghost shops are anchored. It was reported that US warships were constantly carrying prisoners to that island, which is described as the biggest offshore centre of torture.

 

Events taking place in a variety of prison and torture camps located in various places ranging from the centre of Paris to rainforests of Thailand and from ghost ships on the Ocean to deserts in North Africa are dragging humanity towards a dark future.

 

Did you know that prisoners being transported to Guantanamo are kept at Incirlik Air Base for almost two hours?

 

The Washington Post yesterday reported that the majority of secret torture centres were located in the eastern European countries, which are the United States' new allies. I have no doubt that the biggest camp is in Poland. Those camps will be recorded in history as "the United States' Auschwitzs."

 

I was not planning to write about unpleasant things today, which is the first day of the religious holiday, but I could not help writing about this matter. I wish you a happy holiday and apologize to my readers for not being able to respond to their messages.

 

Yeni Safak website, Istanbul 3 Nov 05

[MosJan]

WASHINGTON -

President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record)'s call for a law banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.

ADVERTISEMENT

[0]

 

 

Bush said the agreement will "make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad."

 

"It's a done deal," said McCain, talking to reporters in a driving rain outside the White House after he met with the president.

 

Under the deal,

CIA interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order. The government also would provide counsel for accused interrogators.

 

"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists," McCain said earlier as he sat next to Bush in the Oval Office. "We have no grief for them, but what we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behavior and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are. And I think this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror."

 

Still holding out was Rep. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He said he would hold up completion of one of the two bills that includes the ban unless he got White House assurances that the new rules would still allow "the same high level of effective intelligence gathering" as under current procedures.

 

But officials said the ban would remain intact in the other bill, the final defense spending measure.

 

The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to the president's desk, and Vice President

Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA.

 

But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the ban, and McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held and tortured for five and a half years in Vietnam, adopted the issue.

 

The Republican maverick and the administration have been negotiating for weeks in search of a compromise, but it became increasingly clear that he, not the administration, had the votes in Congress.

 

Bush called McCain "a good man who's honored the values of America."

 

"We have worked very closely with the senator and others to achieve that objective as well as to provide protections for those who are the front line of fighting the terrorists," Bush said.

 

McCain thanked Bush for his personal participation in the negotiations and his effort to resolve their disagreements.

 

McCain said there are no loopholes in the agreement. The negotiations with the White House produced an agreement to provide to civilian interrogators the same legal defense protections as those afforded military interrogators and to set up a process for legal counsel.

 

He said that he and other congressional supporters of the amendment told the White House they believed it was sufficient to have the same protections as provided to military personnel and "I'm glad they agreed."

 

McCain said he hoped to have it passed in Congress within 24 hours.

 

Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., Hunter's counterpart in the Senate, was on board and appeared with Bush and McCain in the Oval Office. "We're going to get there," Warner said afterward.

 

McCain's amendment would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in U.S. government custody, regardless of where they are held. It also would require that service members follow procedures in the Army Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners in Defense Department facilities.

 

In discussions with the White House, a provision was added modeled after the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That says that military personnel accused of violating interrogation rules can defend themselves if a "reasonable" person could have concluded they were following a lawful order. The addition extends those rights to CIA interrogators, and McCain said from the Oval Office that they were "legitimate concerns."

 

Officials said the language also now includes a specific statement that those who violate the standards will not be afforded immunity from civil or criminal lawsuits.

 

In recent weeks, the administration had sought to add language that would offer protection from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the provision. But McCain rejected that, arguing it would undermine the ban by not giving interrogators reason to follow the law.

 

Earlier this year, the Senate included McCain's original provisions in two defense bills, including a must-pass $453 billion spending bill that provides $50 billion for the

Iraq war. But the House omitted them from their versions, and the bills have been stalled.

 

Negotiations intensified this week, with Congress under pressure to approve at least the spending bill before adjourning for the year.

 

Supporters of the provisions say they are needed to clarify current anti-torture laws considering abuses at

Abu Ghraib in Iraq and allegations of misconduct by U.S. troops at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

 

They also say that passing such legislation will help the United States repair an image they say has been tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal.

 

The White House long has contended that the United States does not engage in torture

[MosJan]

Presence Of Secret CIA Prisons In Azerbaijan Seems Credible

American mass media confirm that Azerbaijan is involved in illegal transfer of people suspected for connections with extremist groupings.

13.12.2005 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail

Official Baku denies accusations of Western press resources, connected with the scandal over secret American prisons. In a large number of publications Azerbaijan was accused of assistance to American special services, dealing with secret transfer of people, suspected for connections with extremist groupings.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan calls groundless the information that a secret prison, functioning on the territory of Azerbaijan, illegally keeps people who are not sentenced to imprisonment. Despite the assurance of Baku leaders, Azeri journalists have already started discussing the forms and terms of possible sanctions applied by European structures, in case the information of Western mass media is found to be true.

American journalists have good grounds to believe that Azerbaijan has to be included in the list of countries where secret CIA prisons might be functioning. It is noteworthy that according to “Washington post” such prisons have been created in seven Eastern European countries – “from Romania to Azerbaijan”. Continuing the journalistic investigation, reporters of “Associated press” have established that in January 2003 a suspicious “Golfstream IV” plane, supposedly transporting captives, made an intermediate landing in Frankfurt and flew to Baku. The “Boston Globe” paper managed to find out that the owner of the reactive plane was the vice-chairman of “Boston Red Sox” baseball team – Philip Morse. Later on Morse confirmed that he had leased his plane to a company, which, as it became known later, worked on CIA. Informed sources reported to “Seattle Times” paper that the “plane’s passengers were handcuffed people”. According to the same sources the airliner has been seen all over the world, from Pakistan and Jordan to Azerbaijan and Morocco. Those facts give grounds to suppose that the leaders of Azerbaijan have directly participated in the illegal forced transfer of people whose blame was not proved by the court. Those facts also provoke the anxiety of the European Union and European Council. At the end of November, EC Secretary General Terry Davis sent official inquiries to the governments of the organization’s member states and made an appeal to check reports on the presence of American prisons and secret transfer of captives. Official Yerevan informed that nothing of the kind was found and could be found on the territory of Armenia. The Armenian government’s reply seems to be convincing for the leaders of European structures, since Yerevan has been above suspicion from the very beginning of the story. However, the same cannot be said about Azerbaijan. The doubtful secret deals between Azeri leaders and American special services have long ago aroused the suspicion of EU and EC. In Brussels and Strasburg they are alarmed at the fact that Azerbaijan has extradited to USA people, suspected for terrorism without court decision. Meanwhile, according to EC obligations, assumed by official Baku in 2001, Azerbaijan had no right to do that. Azerbaijan does not have the right to extradite suspects to countries where death penalty is practiced, without written guarantees from the government that the extradited person will not sentenced to death. However, during the past years, Azerbaijan has extradited more than 30 people suspected in terrorism to USA, Egypt and Turkey. Thus, it can be noted that American special services have good grounds to count on the pliability of Azeri leaders even in cases with open violations of international norms.

Azerbaijan is not the only country, involved in the scandal. There are little doubts about the involvement of Romania in the scandalous story. Bucharest is usually mentioned in this context more often than the other Eastern-European capitals. In Brussels they say, that if accusations are proved EU will refuse Romania’s full membership. Azerbaijan does not pretend to become a EU member yet, but hopes for success in the negotiations on the development of a plan of actions with EU within the frames of New Neighborhood policy. So, what will be if it turns out that Azerbaijan was really connected with the secret transfer of captives or if secret CIA prisons really exist on the territory of Azerbaijan? This question is answered by Azeri journalists. Baku-published “Zerkalo” paper writes: “In case the information is confirmed, European structures will apply serious sanctions against the country and Azerbaijan will risk its «European future”. Though currently the information on secret CIA prisons in Azerbaijan is hypothetic, it does not exclude the possibility of international investigation and confirmation of that information in future.”

«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department

! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».