By Colin Brown and Andrew Buncombe in The Independent

Pressure is mounting on the White House to answer claims that the CIA is using UK airports to fly terrorist suspects for torture in secret prisons in Europe. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the former Foreign Office lawyer who resigned over the Iraq war, warned Tony Blair last night that he cannot duck the questions crowding in about the flights which could mean Britain has been complicit in torture.

In The Independent, Ms Wilmshurst, now a fellow of Chatham House, said the Prime Minister could not justify breaking the international convention against torture by saying the “rules of the game have changed” because of the war on terrorism.

Britain’s European partners stepped up the pressure for details to be disclosed about hundreds of secret flights by CIA-operated jets.

Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, said: “I am not at all reassured that there is sufficient determination by [member states] to establish the truth,” she said. “The allegations are now beyond speculation. We now have sufficient evidence involving CIA flights. We need to know who was on those flights, where they went.”

EU leaders are ready to follow up their request to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to challenge the White House. On Tuesday he wrote to Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, calling for details of the secret flights to be revealed. Mr Straw said yesterday he had raised the issue with Ms Rice. She is likely to face direct challenges about flights when she visits Brussels next week.

This month, prisoners were reported held in two eastern European countries, believed to be Romania and Poland, brought there on flights the CIA calls “extraordinary rendition”. Michael Ratner, director of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: “It’s a secret. No one knows what happens in the rendition process or in the gulag of secret CIA hellholes.”

But journalists and campaigners have tracked some of what is happening by monitoring the flight records of planes known to be used by the CIA. Plane-spotters have helped compile information on the aircraft – including one Gulfstream originally identified as N379P but now renumbered N44982 – and their movements.

Twenty-six planes apparently used by the CIA have made 307 flights in Europe since 9/11. Of these, 94 had stops in Germany and 76 in Britain, at Luton, Glasgow, Prestwick and Northolt. The UK government has denied prisoners are being held on a US-operated base on British-owned Diego Garcia.

John Sifton, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, which has released a list of 26 “ghost detainees” held by the US without access to lawyers, said probably only a few of the 307 flights involved moving prisoners. Most, he said, were likely transferring CIA personnel. “It’s impossible to know for sure how many are innocent,” he said.

There is a debate in the US about whether torture should be permitted for extracting information. A Bill tabled by Senator John McCain to outlaw torture passed the Senate but is being opposed by Vice President Dick Cheney, who wants special exemption for CIA agents.

Increasingly, politicians in Britain and Europe are showing a determination to find out whether the US has “black sites” in eastern Europe where harsh treatment of suspected terrorists would raise fewer questions. Alexander Alvaro, a German Liberal MEP and member of the European civil liberties committee, said Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, would raise the issue in talks with George Bush. “I think our Chancellor will point out that Germany would not tolerate secret camps in Europe.”

There are growing calls at Westminster for Mr Blair to block the CIA flights. The Labour MP Harry Cohen said: “It is not for the UK Government to connive in and facilitate people disappearance. The Government’s blind-eye approach to enforcing the law is not acceptable.”

An all-party group to challenge the UK and US Governments over the transport of suspected terrorists, was launched yesterday at Westminster. It will be chaired by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, former Labour foreign affairs minister, Chris Mullin, and Sir Menzies Campbell, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

With an European visit by Condaleezza Rice imminent, Robert Baer, a former CIA officer dealing with the Middle East, discusses “extraordinary rendition” and his views on what action European countries should take in order to combat this illegal practice.

Click here to listen to the BBC radio interview

The UK based human rights organisation Liberty, issued the following press release yesterday. Their letter to Jack Straw can also be read here

Liberty demands Government halt CIA ‘torture’ flight stops in Britain

Human rights group calls for USA assurances on extraordinary rendition

Today Liberty called on Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to seek assurances in the next 14 days from the USA that it is not using UK airports to transport suspects to countries that torture. Liberty fears that the UK is in breach of domestic and international law by allowing CIA ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights to land and re-fuel in Britain.

Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti said:

‘It is troubling that our Government chases Algeria for anti-torture assurances but cowers from confronting the USA on the same issue. It is the abhorrence of torture that distinguishes all democrats from dictators and terrorists. What can we say to those who perpetrate atrocities in London and around the world if we allow ourselves to become complicit in the cheapening of human life?’

Liberty also requested that the Police Chief Constables of Bedfordshire, Cambridge, Dorset, Essex, Hampshire, the Metropolitan Police, the Ministry of Defence Police, Suffolk, Sussex, Thames Valley, and West Midlands investigate suspected extraordinary rendition flights at their local airports. They too have been asked to respond within 14 days.

Liberty’s call to action against extraordinary rendition marks the launch of its ‘No torture, no compromise’ campaign which seeks to make the UK government honour its positive obligation to stop torture and ill-treatment.

By ANNE GEARAN in Netscpae News

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration acknowledged Tuesday that reports of secret U.S.-run prisons overseas for terror suspects have raised an outcry among European allies and said the U.S. will account for its actions.

Without confirming that any CIA detention sites exist in Europe, a State Department spokesman said the U.S. has not violated either its own laws or international treaties.

“The United States in its actions does not break U.S. law,” said spokesman Sean McCormack. “All its actions comply with the Constitution and we abide by our international obligations.

“And all we can do is do our best to try to explain that to publics around the world – to our own public and to European publics or wherever the question may arise.”

For full article go here

By AIDAN LEWIS in The News Sentinel

ROME – A judge has rejected an appeal by a former CIA station chief in Milan against an arrest warrant issued for his alleged role in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric, ruling that he was not protected by diplomatic immunity.

Italian judges have issued arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA agents, including the former station chief Robert Seldon Lady, accused of involvement in the kidnapping of cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr.

The judge on Monday rejected arguments by Seldon Lady’s lawyer, Daria Pesce, who claimed that he was protected under international treaty and Italian law, and that evidence of his involvement in any alleged abduction was weak.

Prosecutors claimed Nasr’s abduction was a serious violation of Italian sovereignty, and said it hindered Italian terrorism investigations. They reconstructed the alleged operation through cell phone traffic and other evidence, contending that Seldon Lady played a central role.

They have sought the extradition of the 22 suspects, and the Italian Justice Ministry is deciding whether to press the case with Washington.

Prosecutors claim that Nasr, believed to belong to an Islamic terror group, was abducted on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, before being flown to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured. He is believed to still be there.

Pesce contended that Seldon Lady’s work as an intelligence officer accredited at the U.S. Consulate protected him.

But Milan Judge Enrico Manzi ruled that Seldon Lady lost immunity when he left his post in August 2004, and that in any case consular officials could be arrested for grave crimes, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

He said that consular officials did enjoy protection, “but always within the limits of international law. Within these limits, naturally, is the principle of the sovereignty of the host state that cannot allow on its territory the use of force by a foreign state that outside every control of the political and judicial authorities.”

Neither Seldon Lady, who owns a home in Italy, nor any of the other suspects has been arrested, with all of them believed to be out of the country.

Pesce said Seldon Lady was in the United States. She said she planned to appeal Manzi’s decision.

Manzi noted in his ruling that there had been contacts between Seldon Lady’s phone and others used by suspects believed to have carried out the kidnapping.

The judge said evidence from a raid on Seldon Lady’s home, turning up among other evidence a photo of Nasr and records of Internet searches to plan the route of Nasr’s transfer from Milan, “have made the picture of evidence against him even more complete.”

Nasr’s alleged abduction was purportedly part of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible ill-treatment.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government, a strong U.S. ally, has denied it had any prior knowledge of the alleged kidnapping. The United States has consistently declined comment on the case.

The US Vice-President Dick Cheney is facing fierce criticism over the Iraq war and prisnor abuse, even from within his own ranks. A BBC radio interview yesterday with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson brings out the issue of how the debate on the Geneva Conventions was conducted within the US administration and how Cheney and Rumsfeld implemented the anything-goes approach.

By Brigader General David R. Irvine writing in AlterNet

Remarkably, of the nation’s major newspapers, only the Wall Street Journal has editorialized in support of torture as a useful tool of American intelligence policy. Regrettably, that position does a huge disservice to the nation and its soldiers. There are really only three issues in this debate, and the Journal carefully turned a blind eye to all three: (1) is torture reliable, (2) is it consistent with America’s values and Constitution, and (3) does it best serve our national interests?

No one has yet offered any validated evidence that torture produces reliable intelligence. While torture apologists frequently make the claim that torture saves lives, that assertion is directly contradicted by many Army, FBI, and CIA professionals who have actually interrogated al Qaeda captives. Exhibit A is the torture-extracted confession of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al Qaeda captive who told the CIA in 2001, having been “rendered” to the tender mercies of Egypt, that Saddam Hussein had trained al Qaeda to use WMD. It appears that this confession was the only information upon which, in late 2002, the president, the vice president, and the secretary of state repeatedly claimed that “credible evidence” supported that claim, even though a now-declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report from February 2002 questioned the reliability of the confession because it was likely obtained under torture. In January 2004, al-Libi recanted his “confession,” and a month later, the CIA recalled all intelligence reports based on his statements.

Exhibit B is the case of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi deemed a “high-value” target by the CIA. After being beaten to an extent that he had several broken ribs, he was subjected to a form of crucifixion known as “Palestinian hanging.” Forty-five minutes later, he was dead, never having revealed whatever vital, ticking-bomb information his American interrogator was seeking.

If there is reliable evidence that torture has, in fact, interrupted ticking time bombs and saved lives, the gravity of the crisis created by the administration’s free-wheeling torture policy demands straight answers which can be weighed and evaluated by a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission whose membership might include interrogators, jurists, theologians, national security specialists, military leaders, and political leaders. The damage to our national interests and the dismal record of war candor by this administration has made “trust us” an insufficient justification for such a profound change in American law and moral values.

The Journal claims that Abu Ghraib was an anomaly — that it has become a “torture narrative” that erroneously blames the CIA for the abuses depicted in the infamous photographs. The Schlesinger report was cited for the conclusion that the perpetrators were merely a group of sadistic, poorly trained Reservists. This argument, however begs the question; the rationale for the McCain amendment rests not upon Abu Ghraib, but upon the cascading stream of documented reports from other places in Afghanistan and Iraq in which brutal torture has been either authorized or winked at by several different military and civilian chains of command.

The Journal further distorts the facts by arguing that techniques such as waterboarding (which induces the sensation of drowning), leaving prisoners outdoors in freezing weather, and stress positions which can cause suffocation and collapse, are not really “torture,” but are just “psychological techniques designed to break a detainee.” There is, certainly, a psychological component to torture, but the real issue is whether what’s done causes severe physical or mental pain or suffering. Of the crucifixion form of “psychological” pressure which the CIA worked upon Jamadi, one of the soldiers who cut him down said he had never seen anyone’s arms positioned like that; “[I] was surprised they didn’t just pop out of their sockets.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has endorsed the McCain amendments, and declared, “In the face of this perilous climate, our nation must not embrace a morality based on an attitude that ‘desperate times call for desperate measures.’ There can be no compromise on the moral imperative to protect the basic human rights of any individual incarcerated for any reason.” Our embrace of torture is completely inconsistent with our commitment to equal justice and the rule of law.

The Journal assumes that only the worst of the worst will be subjected to torture when it comes to ticking time bombs. Not only is that assumption unfounded, based upon the widespread abuses in Iraq, it was tried and abandoned by the Israelis. Because it is impossible to confirm with advance certainty what any suspect actually knows, ticking bomb torture can be justified in virtually every interrogation. When Israel experimented with “torture lite,” supposedly reserved for ticking-bomb circumstances, it was not long before 85 percent of all Palestinian detainees were being given the harshest treatment allowed. The capability to finely calibrate torture has eluded every democratic government which has tried it.

The inescapable fact is that America’s standing in the world, and especially in the Middle East, has never been lower. The price we have paid for our misdirected torture policies has been incalculable. The Arab street may not always grasp the finer points of separation of powers or proportional representation; but everyone, everywhere, comprehends hypocrisy, and judges us for ours. If the torture advocates truly believe that the value of violently coerced information has been worth the plummeting drop in America’s world stature, or that such information is worth the clear and present endangerment of captured Americans, it’s time to justify the claimed value of torture to the nation in whose name it’s being done. Not assumptions, not generalizations, not, “I can’t explain because it’s classified.”

The president and vice president wish to chart a course of heretofore unacceptable savagery toward anyone even suspected of terrorism. If we are to become a nation where a president may torture anyone he wishes, it deserves a broad, sober, fact-based national debate.

Brigadier General David R. Irvine is a retired Army Reserve strategic intelligence officer who taught prisoner interrogation and military law for 18 years with the Sixth Army Intelligence School. He currently practices law in Salt Lake City, Utah.

By David Lindsay in the Malta Independent

Following last week’s report that at least two planes, widely suspected of being used by the United States Intelligence Agency in its controversial practice of extraordinary rendition, had made stopovers in Malta, this newspaper can report the presence of yet another, larger, suspected aircraft at Malta International Airport on two occasions just last year.

With more European governments joining the protest over the CIA’s use of their airspace and airports in the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition, and with the Council of Europe also investigating the practice, the government of Malta has so far remained silent on the issue, undoubtedly otherwise absorbed by this week’s CHOGM activities.

The Malta Independent on Sunday last week reported flight records and photographs showed that at least two airplanes used by the CIA for the transport of suspected terrorists for interrogation in countries where the use of torture is condoned, had stopped over in Malta in December 2003 and December 2004.

Ongoing investigations by this newspaper into the use of Malta’s airport and airspace by the CIA have revealed the presence of another suspected plane ‘ a Lockheed L-100 Hercules with tail number N8213G, which stopped over in Malta on 31 March 2004 and again on 25 August of the same year.

The Hercules is the latest plane implicated in extraordinary rendition and has been reported to have made several stops in Scandinavia. The Hercules, the largest of the CIA planes spotted in Malta, has space for cargo and about 100 passengers.

While the Boeing 737 and the Gulfstream are relatively nondescript aircraft, the Hercules carries a large ‘Prescott’ logo on its side. The private planes being used by the CIA are owned by shell companies and the Prescott Support company is widely believed to be one of the several companies serving as covers for the CIA’s clandestine prisoner transports.

Extraordinary rendition refers to the controversial American procedure in which criminal suspects are apprehended, sometimes secretly, and sent for interrogation in countries where torture is used as a routine form of interrogation. Reports cite suspects being arrested, shackled, blindfolded and sedated, after which they are transported, usually by private jet, to countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Uzbekistan. Although the practice has been in use since the 1990s, its scope has been widened immensely since 11 September 2001.

Last Sunday this newspaper cited a Boeing 737, with tail number N313P, as the first suspected plane to have stopped over in Malta between 6 and 10 December 2003. The plane had arrived from the RAF’s Northolt air base on 6 December 2003 and left four days later on 10 December bound for Tripoli. A year later a second plane, a Gulfstream jet with tail number N227SV, arrived in Malta on 17 December 2004 and left later that day for Iceland, from where it flew to Washington DC.

“If the planes were suspected of carrying narcotics, as opposed to kidnapped human beings facing interrogation under torture, there is no doubt that the police would intercept these flights the minute they touched down in the UK.” – Craig Murray

By GARETH EDWARDS in the Scotsman

THE CIA is using Edinburgh Airport as a refuelling stop for “torture” flights carrying terror suspects. The secret flights are suspected of carrying Islamic militants from the US to Eastern European countries where torture can be used legally. Police have now been urged to investigate whether any crimes have been committed in Edinburgh after it emerged 14 of the “rendition” flights stopped in the Capital over the last four years.

Lothians Green MSP Mark Ballard said today: “I am sure that many people in Edinburgh will be revolted that such abuses of human rights could be taking place right in their own backyard.”

It had long been known that both Prestwick and Glasgow had been used as a pit-stop for the flights, but now Edinburgh, as well as RAF Leuchars, Inverness and Wick have been linked to the scandal. Mr Ballard has written to Lothian and Borders Police outlining his concerns that crimes may have been committed in Scottish airspace or on the ground in Edinburgh, and asking the Chief Constable to investigate.

Under UN conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights, torture, including acts which aid or abet torture, is illegal. Holyrood was told yesterday that the American government did not deny flying prisoners to Eastern Europe where they could employ what were described as aggressive interrogation techniques which are not allowed in the US.

The figures provided by the American authorities stated that Prestwick and Glasgow had been used for refuelling rendition flights 149 times since 2001, with RAF Leuchars used six times, Inverness five times and Wick twice.

It is not clear whether Lothian and Borders Police will have to investigate the complaint regarding Edinburgh Airport, however, and no-one from the police was available for comment.

Strathclyde Police refused to investigate the flights in Glasgow as they did not believe there was enough evidence of a criminal act being committed in Scotland. However, the Greens argued that police need only have “reasonable suspicion” that a crime has been committed. And they said this was provided by the documents provided by the US government detailing the many rendition flights which have stopped at Scottish airports.

Mr Ballard said: “Such activities are illegal and Lothians and Borders Police have a duty to uphold the law, so we have asked them to investigate the use of Edinburgh Airport by torture flights as a matter of urgency.

“I believe there is a very real risk that individuals’ human rights are being violated within our jurisdiction and that we have a duty to act. I’m sure the vast majority of Scots, including Edinburgh residents, expect our police to ensure that Scotland plays no part in torture.”

A former British ambassador said today that police had full power to board the flights. Craig Murray, who resigned from the Foreign Office over the Government’s role in the war on terror, said officers had a “duty” to intervene.

“If the planes were suspected of carrying narcotics, as opposed to kidnapped human beings facing interrogation under torture, there is no doubt that the police would intercept these flights the minute they touched down in the UK.” Mr Murray said he believed the flights were refuelling in Scotland because the UK was afraid of losing access to US intelligence.

A spokesman for BAA Scotland said: “As an airport we are not allowed to turn away any flight, unless the airport is full.”

The issue has already been taken up at Westminster by Sir Menzies Campbell, who has tabled a series of questions about planes using RAF bases, such as Northolt, in north London. He says the UK should have no part in the “illegal and immoral” torture flights.

Ministry of Defence sources have insisted that American flights can land anywhere in the UK if they have obtained diplomatic clearance. Officials have no way of knowing who or what was on those flights.

A question on Uzbekistan from Hansards parlimentary records of 15th November

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how regularly the Uzbek authorities provide the British security services with intelligence information; what assessment he has made of whether information provided by those authorities has been obtained by torture; and if he will assess the effect of that information on the maintenance of British security.

Mr. Douglas Alexander: It is not the Government’s policy to comment on intelligence matters.

Italy prosecutor, boss clash over CIA case

By John Crewdson in the Chigaco Tribune

NEW YORK – The chief anti-terrorism prosecutor for northern Italy says he intends to prosecute 22 past and present CIA operatives on kidnapping charges “in absentia,” an unusual though not unprecedented criminal proceeding that would likely lay bare some of the intelligence agency’s most sensitive inner workings.

In an interview while attending an anti-terrorism conference here last week, the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, vowed to push ahead with the trial even if, as seems increasingly likely, none of the defendants will ever be extradited.

Spataro has asked the Italian justice minister, Roberto Castelli, to formally request that the Bush administration extradite the 22 CIA defendants to Milan to stand trial. Spataro dismissed charges by Castelli on Tuesday that the actions were politically motivated.

From Radio Free Europe

A committee of the United Nations General Assembly has urged Uzbek authorities to stop harassing witnesses to the government’s violent suppression of a demonstration in the town of Andijon.

The General Assembly’s Social and Humanitarian Committee adopted the resolution, put forward by the European Union, on 22 November by a vote of 73 to 38, with 58 abstentions.

Countries that voted against the resolution included Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The resolution expressed deep regret over the Uzbek government’s rejection of repeated calls by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour for an independent inquiry into the Andijon bloodshed.

The measure expressed concern over reported arbitrary arrests and detentions by Uzbek authorities, including of eyewitnesses to the Andijon events.

Witnesses say about 500 people may have been killed on 13 May when Uzbek troops fired into a crowd in Andijon to quell a revolt. Uzbek authorities say 187 people were killed, mostly foreign-paid terrorists.

As described in the post below, the British government is refusing to look into its own involvement regarding CIA rendition flights and secret detention centres, or to release information about US operations on UK territory. However, they are now in the rather ironic position of having to write to the US on behalf of the EU to request further information on possible detention centres in Europe.

Radio 4 Today discusses the situation. Real player required.

By Richard Norton-Taylor and David Hencke in The Guardian

MPs stepped up pressure on ministers yesterday to disclose details of CIA aircraft using British airfields amid reports that they have transported individuals to foreign countries where they are likely to be tortured.

Ministers are refusing to reveal any information about the “extraordinary rendition” flights despite evidence, including details of the flights, revealed in September by the Guardian. Extraordinary rendition is the practice of transferring individuals to a foreign country where they are more likely to be subjected to torture or inhumane treatment.

Ministers have shed no further light on the issue, despite a series of questions tabled by MPs, notably the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell. There is evidence that a CIA Gulfstream and Boeing 737 aircraft have landed at military airfields, including RAF Northolt, west London.

Adam Ingram, the defence minister, has told Sir Menzies: “Where passengers do not leave the airfield, the MoD … does not record details of passengers.” But he adds that the MoD maintains a record of all civil registered aircraft – such as the CIA planes – landing at military airfields.

“The British government appears to be adopting a hear no evil, see no evil policy towards this issue,” Sir Menzies said yesterday.

He added: “In the light of the allegations that British airports are being used as staging posts for rendition, the government should instigate an immediate investigation.”

Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester, who is setting up a cross-party backbench committee with Sir Menzies and the former Labour Foreign Office minister Chris Mullin to investigate the allegations, told the Guardian: “It is morally repugnant that any country could be involved in this foul practice.”

Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the deputy Foreign Office legal adviser who resigned in protest against the invasion of Iraq, said: “If the reports are true and the UK was actively assisting, then it would be responsible under the law.”

By JAMES KIRKUP in the Scotsman

THE government has admitted to turning a blind eye to United States’ “torture flights” operated by the CIA through British military airfields.

In a controversial operation, known as “extraordinary rendition”, the US intelligence service routinely transports people it accuses of terrorism to sympathetic countries in the Middle East and North Africa. There, it is alleged, they are tortured.

The detainees are flown on privately-registered jets, which frequently make refuelling stops at airports in Britain. The CIA “ghost flights” have also called at RAF bases including Northolt, north of London.

Now the Ministry of Defence has admitted that when the US planes call at British military bases officials ask no questions about who is on board.

The confirmation came in a written parliamentary answer from Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, which was published yesterday.

“Where aircraft transit through military airfields, to refuel for example, and passengers do not leave the airfield, the MoD records the names of the pilot and aircraft owner, but does not record the details of passengers,” Mr Ingram wrote.

His answer was given to Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, who said the UK should have no role in the “illegal and immoral” practice.

While rendition flights have sparked protests from several western European governments, Britain is not alone in still allowing refuelling stops: several eastern European nations remain happy to let the CIA use their airports and bases.

Also, from the Independent

Philippe Sands QC, a leading human rights barrister, said: “You can’t turn a blind eye under the torture convention. There is a positive obligation to investigate credible information.”

From BBC Online

The UN has formally rejected a US invitation to visit the Guantanamo prison camp, saying it cannot accept the restrictions imposed by Washington.

UN human rights experts said the US had refused to grant them the right to speak to detainees in private. UN senior official Manfred Nowak said private interviews were a “totally non-negotiable pre-condition” for conducting the visit.

Some 500 terror suspects are being held at the US military camp.

Mr Nowak, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, told the BBC his team would accept nothing less than unfettered access.

From BBC Online

Iceland and Sweden are investigating allegations that planes flown by the CIA used their airports during secret transfers of terror suspects.

The Icelandic government says it has asked the US for an explanation and is still awaiting a satisfactory answer.

Mr Ren’ van der Linden, president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, has called for help from the European Commission in the investigation of CIA prison allegations.

From EurActiv: “I would request all governments, along with the European Commission, to co-operate fully. This issue goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe’s human rights mandate.”

Meanwhile, it looks like Britain’s role in this form of human trafficing is set to increase.

By Ian Bruce in The Herald

Britain is poised to become the main European refuelling hub for secret CIA flights carrying terrorist suspects for interrogation in North Africa and the Middle East.

Despite protests by MPs and MSPs, the UK government has taken no action either to halt the clandestine flights or demand to know whether prisoners were on board the 390 known to have landed at Scottish and English airfields since 2001.

They are called “rendition” missions. This is the White House-sanctioned process of moving al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist prisoners to third countries where they can be interrogated beyond the reach of US and European human rights’ legislation. The countries to which captives have been taken for questioning by local security forces have been accused by the UN of employing torture to obtain information.

Officials in Germany, Spain, Sweden and Norway have opened criminal investigations into possible violations of national and international law on the issue. Italy has filed a formal extradition request naming 22 CIA agents allegedly involved in the kidnap of a radical Muslim cleric in 2003.

Ireland and Denmark have lodged protests over the pit-stop presence of CIA-operated aircraft on their territory en route for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or “ghost” prisons elsewhere in the world. Denmark has even asked the CIA to avoid using its airspace when transporting prisoners.

A German intelligence source said: “Britain may soon be one of the few countries, if not the only one, still willing to accept rendition missions via its sovereign territory.”

The Herald has revealed Scottish RAF bases and civilian airports had played host to the 170 “rendition” missions en route to or returning from Egypt, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Jordan.

Glasgow and Prestwick airports handled 149 of the refuelling stops, including a number of overnight stays. RAF Leuchars, Edinburgh, Inverness and Wick were the other locations.

Professor Martin Scheinin, of the UN’s human rights commission, said: “When several states, by co-operating with each other, breach their obligations under international law simultaneously where torture might be involved, then all bear individual responsibility. I have submitted a list of detailed questions to the government of the UK over rendition flights.”

A source from Germany’s spy service said: “While most European governments initially turned a blind eye to rendition flights in the immediate aftermath of September 11, the embarrassment factor involved once the media realised that suspects were being abducted for torture at the hands of third parties means that these missions can no longer be carried out with impunity.

“Austria scrambled fighters to intercept an unauthorised CIA flight two years ago and our own government is increasingly hostile to US arrogance in assuming that Ramstein air base is US territory.”

Spain this week opened a judicial inquiry into claims that CIA flights used Majorca and the Canary Islands.

A CIA spokesman said the agency carried out rendition flights only via “countries which are political allies and whose intelligence services grant permission”.

Various reports on illegal CIA flight activity are indicating the possibility of a wide network indeed. This article abstracted below now suggests that the Canary Islands, Germany, Norway, and Portugal were all visited. This is of course in additon to the well documented cases in Italy, Sweeden and elsewhere.

“MADRID, Spain – Reports of alleged CIA use of Spain as a stopover point for transporting suspected Islamic terrorists spread Wednesday to the Canary Islands, where the regional government said it had asked Madrid to explain if airports there were also used for covert missions.

The Spanish archipelago off west Africa joins the Mediterranean island of Mallorca in the controversy.

The Canary Islands government said Wednesday that in May it had asked the central government to explain local newspaper reports that suspected CIA planes had made stopovers five times on the island of Tenerife between March 2004 and May 2005.

“But we never got an answer back, or just a vague answer that the government had no evidence. Now we want to ask again for those explanations,” Miguel Becerra, a spokesman for the Canary Islands government, said in a telephone interview.”

Further comment and links are available at the Washington Post Blog

By Elizabeth Nash in the Independent

Spain has launched a judicial inquiry into allegations that CIA aircraft may have secretly used a Spanish airport to transport terror suspects to clandestine interrogation camps, Jose Antonio Alonso, the Interior Minister, said.

If the allegations proved true, Mr Alonso warned, “we would be looking at extremely serious, absolutely intolerable acts that violate rules for treating prisoners in a democratic society, and would demand a government response that would affect bilateral relations”. The dispute deals a further blow to US-Spanish relations, already bruised by Spain’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq last year.

The full article can be read here