Spanish police expose more CIA links to secret flights of detainees

Spanish police expose more CIA links to secret flights of detainees

· 42 operatives traced going through Palma airport
· Names unearthed match Italian and German inquiries

By Giles Tremlett in Madrid

11/15/05 "The Guardian" -- -- Spanish police have traced up to 42 suspected CIA operatives believed to have taken part in secret flights carrying detained or kidnapped Islamist terror suspects to interrogation centres and jails in Afghanistan, Egypt and elsewhere.

A Spanish police report seen by the New York Times provides the names of the mainly American crew and passengers of a dozen suspect flights that landed in Palma de Mallorca in 2003 and 2004. The flights were allegedly part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" programme, in which, say human rights groups, suspected extreme Islamists are taken to be interrogated in countries where US human rights rules on torture do not apply.

The police report was drawn up at the request of a local magistrate after some citizens asked for an investigation into the mysterious flights landing at Palma airport. The magistrate has now asked Spain's powerful national court whether it wants to take over the inquiry.
Germany and Italy are already investigating similar flights, with Rome having formally requested the extradition of a dozen alleged CIA operatives allegedly involved in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003. The aircraft that went through Palma reportedly included a Boeing 737 and two Gulfstream jets. The report names Tennessee-based Stevens Express Leasing as the aircraft operator. It said one crew had followed a route that matched one described by an alleged detainee, Binyam Muhammed. At least 18 people in the police report left addresses in Virginia, near to CIA headquarters.

"We have to demand an explanation from the US state department and ban the entry of these flights to Spain," Miguel Roselló of the United Left party told journalists yesterday.

Prosecutors in Munich have reportedly asked Spanish police for a copy of their report. They are looking into the kidnapping of a German citizen, Khaled al-Masri, who was snatched in Macedonia in January 2004 and taken to a jail believed to be in Afghanistan. Al-Masri says he was shackled, beaten, injected with drugs and questioned persistently about his alleged links with al-Qaida. He was returned to Albania six months later, apparently after his kidnappers realised they had the wrong man.

One flight from Palma reportedly travelled on to Skopje, the Macedonian capital, on the date of the kidnapping. It then flew to Baghdad and Afghanistan.

Spain's Civil Guard police were able to trace the crews through the names and addresses left behind at two luxury hotels in Palma. They spent their spare time playing golf, the Diario de Mallorca reported.

Some names reportedly match those of suspected CIA operatives being investigated by Italian police for the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar, who was snatched in Milan in February 2003. In both the Italian and Spanish cases it seems the flight crews made little effort to cover their tracks, although it is by not certain that the names they provided were real.

Italian police tracked them through the mobile phones used when Omar was bundled into a van. Some calls were made to Virginia. They suspect the cleric was taken to a US air base at Aviano before being taken on to Egypt.

The aircraft which landed at Palma may also have been used in transporting prisoners to secret detention centres in eastern Europe. The Boeing 737 that landed several times at Palma reportedly travelled on a separate flight from Afghanistan to Poland in 2003. This is when the US was allegedly moving groups of high-profile prisoners out of Afghanistan. Poland has denied running secret detention centres for the US.

Deputies from Spain's United Left party called on the defence minister, José Bono, to explain why the flights were allowed into Spain. "It is still not proven that Spanish airports have been used by the CIA for illegal kidnappings," the government said in a recent parliamentary reply.

The Guardian has established that some 210 flights involved in the "extraordinary rendition" operation have also passed through British airports.