Human rights group details new claims on CIA 'torture flights'
Gethin Chamberlain
Scotsman, UK
__________
Fresh evidence has emerged of the brutality involved in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition and its use of Scottish airports as stopping-off points for aircraft involved in the controversial programme.
A report from Amnesty International alleges that detainees were abducted or handed to the CIA by friendly agencies in other countries before being "disappeared". The report gives accounts of how prisoners were stripped, blindfolded and shackled before being bundled on to rendition flights, and of the existence of a secret eastern European or central Asian prison. _________________
See Also:
Amnesty seeks Northern Ireland rendition probe
Amnesty report backs 'Europe terror jails' claims
_________________
It traces the movements of four planes from the CIA fleet that had landed and taken off at airports, including Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh and Leuchars. Amnesty is demanding a full independent public inquiry into all aspects of the UK's involvement in rendition flights.
The United States has resisted calls for an end to the practice and the UK government has declined to intervene. Rosemary Burnett, Amnesty's programme director in Scotland, said: "With mounting evidence of illegal CIA rendition flights through European airspace - and multiple landings and take-offs of CIA planes at Scottish airports - there must be an independent inquiry into all aspects of UK involvement in these sinister practices.
"We are insisting that ... American aviation companies stop turning a blind eye to what the CIA does with their planes."
The report says that the prisoners were handcuffed, blindfolded, shackled; had their hands strapped to waist belts, their ears plugged with foam and their mouths covered with surgical face masks; were hooded and had heavy sound-deadening headphones placed over their ears. Amnesty claims that the measures were taken to prevent prisoners learning the location of the secret prison sites to which they were taken.
Gethin Chamberlain
Scotsman, UK
__________
Fresh evidence has emerged of the brutality involved in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition and its use of Scottish airports as stopping-off points for aircraft involved in the controversial programme.
A report from Amnesty International alleges that detainees were abducted or handed to the CIA by friendly agencies in other countries before being "disappeared". The report gives accounts of how prisoners were stripped, blindfolded and shackled before being bundled on to rendition flights, and of the existence of a secret eastern European or central Asian prison. _________________
See Also:
Amnesty seeks Northern Ireland rendition probe
Amnesty report backs 'Europe terror jails' claims
_________________
It traces the movements of four planes from the CIA fleet that had landed and taken off at airports, including Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh and Leuchars. Amnesty is demanding a full independent public inquiry into all aspects of the UK's involvement in rendition flights.
The United States has resisted calls for an end to the practice and the UK government has declined to intervene. Rosemary Burnett, Amnesty's programme director in Scotland, said: "With mounting evidence of illegal CIA rendition flights through European airspace - and multiple landings and take-offs of CIA planes at Scottish airports - there must be an independent inquiry into all aspects of UK involvement in these sinister practices.
"We are insisting that ... American aviation companies stop turning a blind eye to what the CIA does with their planes."
The report says that the prisoners were handcuffed, blindfolded, shackled; had their hands strapped to waist belts, their ears plugged with foam and their mouths covered with surgical face masks; were hooded and had heavy sound-deadening headphones placed over their ears. Amnesty claims that the measures were taken to prevent prisoners learning the location of the secret prison sites to which they were taken.
