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Revealed: The Plight of Prisoners Caught Up in US Rendition    [

Read the Amnesty International Report | Below the Radar: Secret Flights to 0aTorture and "Disappearance" here.

    Amnesty: US Uses Front Companies for "Rendition"
    Reuters

    Tuesday 04 April 2006

    London - Human rights group Amnesty International accused the United States on Wednesday of using front companies to transfer individuals to countries where they have faced torture or ill-treatment.

    The fresh charges come after months of allegations by campaigners who say the Central Intelligence Agency transports terrorism suspects outside normal legal channels to countries where they could be tortured under interrogation.

    Washington says it does sometimes transfer suspects outside normal extradition procedures - a practice known as rendition - but denies sending them to countries that use torture.

    Amnesty said in a report it has records of nearly 1,000 flights directly linked to the CIA, mostly using European airspace, which were made by planes that appear to have been permanently operated by the CIA through front companies.

    It also said it had records of about 600 other flights made by planes confirmed as having been used at least temporarily by the CIA.

    ``The latest evidence shows how the U.S. administration is manipulating commercial arrangements in order to be able to transfer people in violation of international law,'' said Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan in a statement.

    ``It demonstrates the length to which the U.S. government will go to conceal these abductions.''

    Critics say it is difficult to prove what such flights were used for and point out that flights used by the CIA may have been simply carrying officials.

    Amnesty said it has linked the aircraft to people who have been illegally transferred. It cites one plane known to have made over 100 stops at Guantanamo Bay.

    Another took suspect Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, to Egypt from Germany after he was caught in Italy, said the group.

    Amnesty called on the aviation sector to take action to ensure companies do not lease their aircraft in circumstances where they may be used in renditions.

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    Revealed: The Plight of Prisoners Caught Up in US Rendition
    By Andrew Buncombe
    The Independent UK

    Wednesday 05 April 2006

    Three Yemeni prisoners who were apparently seized and held in secret jails by the CIA for 18 months have spoken for the first time about their detention - providing important new details about the systematic "rendition" of prisoners.

    The three men, none of whom was ever charged with any terrorism-related offence, were seized in 2003 and then held in four secret locations by "black-masked ninja" US operatives who made considerable efforts to ensure the prisoners did not know where they were being held. They were eventually released about a month ago.

    While it remains unclear where exactly the men were held, human rights campaigners who interviewed them believe they were held in Djibouti, Afghanistan and somewhere in eastern Europe. It was alleged last year that the CIA had been operating covert "black site" prisons in Romania and Poland.

    The three men - Muhammad Bashmilah, Salah Qa?u and Muhammad al-Assad - are now struggling to rebuild their lives. Mr Assad told Amnesty International, which today publishes the men's testimony in a new report: "For me now, it has to be a new life, because I will never recover the old one."

    Mr Bashmilah and Mr Qaru were arrested in Jordan in October 2003 and handed over to the US authorities. Mr Assad was arrested in Tanzania the same year. They were returned in May 2005 to the Yemeni authorities, who charged them with obtaining false travel documents. The men pleaded guilty but were released after the judge decided their time held by the US was sufficient time served.

    The Amnesty report details how the men's US guards removed all labels from the food and clothing they were given to make it difficult for them to know where they were. Campaigners narrowed down the likely location of their internment based on the length of their rendition flights, the changing position of the sun when the men were allowed outside to pray, and the winter temperature.

    "Labels were usually removed from their clothes and their bottles of water. They had some blankets and T-shirts made in Mexico, while their water cups, although made in China, had the name and telephone number of a US company embossed on the bottom," says the report.

    Controversy over the rendition of suspects has been growing since it emerged last year that the CIA has been regularly seizing prisoners and flying them to third countries for interrogation. Sometimes the interrogations are carried out by foreign security personnel, sometimes by US operatives. Suspects' families cannot find out what is going on. Some prisoners said they were tortured while in custody.

    Britain and other European countries have been accused of complicity in rendition by allowing the CIA to use their airports to refuel and land. Human Rights Watch claimed last year that since the 11 September attacks, planes operated by the CIA for the transfer of prisoners had made at least 300 stops in European countries. Amnesty says the planes have made at least 185 landings at UK airports, including British facilities in the Caribbean. Where the US holds its prisoners, especially those considered "high value" targets, is unknown though a number of possible locations have been identified by campaigners, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Morocco. The British government has persistently denied reports that prisoners have been held on the Indian Ocean islands of Diego Garcia, home to a US air base.

    Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "With mounting evidence of illegal CIA rendition flights through European airspace - and multiple landings and take-offs of CIA planes at UK airports - there must be an independent inquiry into all aspects of UK involvement in these sinister practices."

    A spokeswoman for the CIA yesterday refused to comment.