A PRIVATE plane linked to CIA torture flights landed at Prestwick Airport at least twice last month, the Sunday Mail revealed today.The Gulfstream - jet-tail number N478GS - touched down at the airport on October 6 and 30.It has been identified as one used in extraordinary rendition - the movement of terror suspects from Afghanistan by the US Central Intelligence Agency. The spooks ferry prisoners around the world to be illegally tortured at secret camps in countries where such brutal techniques are not outlawed.The Gulfstream was pictured by plane-spotters on the tarmac at the airport despite moves to outlaw rendition planes on British soil. Spotters also snapped the plane - identified by the European Parliament as previously being used in torture flights - at Prestwick on 19 February.It also touched down at Glasgow Airport on June 11 last year.
Last night Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said he had asked police and prosecutors to investigate whether rendition flights had illegally landed in Scotland.
He said: "I have made it clear that the Scottish Government opposes illegal flights of rendition."While civil aviation is reserved to the UK Government, attempts to commit torture is an offence under Scots Law and, consequently, Scotland's police forces could investigate allegations of such crimes occurring.
"It would then be a matter for the Procurator Fiscal to decide whether or not to begin proceedings."If the European Parliament or any other organisations have any new evidence then I would encourage them to make it available."
Details of the jet's activities come weeks after it was revealed it had landed in Birmingham.
It landed on 2 October and was met by two army air corps Dauphin 2 helicopters used by the SAS at Hereford.The MoD denied the flight had been involved in rendition and said the incident was a "routine military liaison". The 22-seat plane is registered to Centurion Air Services and was involved in an accident at Bucharest airport in Romania in 2004 after a flight from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.
The seven armed Americans on board disappeared before police arrived. A report later stated: "There were seven passengers who disappeared quickly after the accident. One of them was carrying a gun."
Bush and Blair - Torture Team.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/19/guantanamo.usa
The Canadians are up to their necks in torture too. When The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, using Russian-armed Northern Alliance soldiers to overthrow the Taliban, they installed Hamid Karzai as figurehead president. Real power in Kabul was held by the Northern Alliance. Two of its strongest figures were pro-Soviet Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, and Tajik general Mohammed Fahim -- KhAD's former chief. Both have close links to Russian intelligence.
ReplyDeleteAfter 30 years of civil war, the minority Tajiks and Uzbeks had become blood enemies of the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's majority. Most Taliban are Pashtun.
Fahim and the Tajik-Uzbek-Communist Northern Alliance took over the revived secret police, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the prison system. In short order, the KhAD's old torturers were back in business. Pashtun prisoners captured by Canadian forces were routinely handed to the NDS-KhAD. There were many reports of brutal torture and executions.
Today, Fahim is officially Karzai's No. 2. But as commander of the Tajik-Uzbek militia and secret police, Fahim is the Afghan regime's most powerful figure and strongman.
Every child in Afghanistan knows this. But somehow, Canada's see-no-evil/hear-no-evil generals and civilian officials claim they were sweetly unaware Afghan prisons were being run as torture centres by the revitalized Communists.
Amnesty International and the Red Cross warned Ottawa that prisoners Canada was handing to the Afghan government faced torture -- and worse. The U.S. State Department repeatedly warned of widespread torture in Afghan prisons, including "pulling out fingernails, burnings ... beatings ... sexual humiliations, sodomy" and rape of children. So did the UN.
The government misled parliament and the public over its involvement in capturing two men in Iraq and handing them over to US forces, Reprieve said yesterday. They offer legal advice to prisoners and they said former defence secretary John Hutton misled parliament by stating one of the men, Amanatullah Ali, was a member of proscribed Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
ReplyDeleteThey found Mr Ali is a Shia Muslim, and as such would be viewed by the group as an apostate. So much for the government denials that Britain was involved in rendition operations, before Mr Hutton admitted last February that UK forces had captured two men in 2004 and turned them over to the Americans. They also found the government were aware of the US intention to transfer the men from Iraq to Afghanistan, and were therefore complicit in their rendition. The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman said: "The government appears to have misled parliament over a number of facts that were central to its attempted defence of the rendition of these prisoners."Parliament was never given enough detail on this incident in the first place. Bob Ainsworth must come to the House of Commons and set the record straight. This is clearly an area that Sir John Chilcot should consider as part of his ongoing inquiry. The public will be very disappointed if he does not tackle the matter of detention and treatment of Iraqi prisoners head on."Reprieve is calling on the government to release the name of the second man, known only as Salahuddin, and provide details that could help both men obtain their legal rights.Salahuddin is thought to be "in catastrophic mental and physical shape" as a result of his alleged abuse in UK and US custody and is now in a mental health unit in Bagram air force base.you might have heard David Davis advocating for the men on Radio 4 this morning.