Study: UK provided more support for CIA rendition flights than thought

[Warlord]

The UK's support for the CIA's global rendition programme after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US was far more substantial than has previously been recognised, according to a new research project that draws on a vast number of publicly available data and documentation.

Evidence gathered by The Rendition Project – an interactive website that maps thousands of rendition flights – highlight 1,622 flights in and out of the UK by aircraft now known to have been involved in the agency's secret kidnap and detention programme.

While many of those flights may not have been involved in rendition operations, the researchers behind the project have drawn on testimony from detainees, Red Cross reports, courtroom evidence, flight records and invoices to show that at least 144 were entering the UK while suspected of being engaged in rendition operations.

While the CIA used UK airports for refuelling and overnight stopovers, there is no evidence that any landed in the UK with prisoners on board. This may suggest that the UK government denied permission for this. In some cases, it is unclear whether the airline companies would have been aware of the purpose of the flights.

Some 51 different UK airports were used by 84 different aircraft that have been linked by researchers to the rendition programme. Only the US and Canada were visited more frequently. The most used UK airport was Luton, followed by Glasgow Prestwick and Stansted. There were also flights in and out of RAF Northolt and RAF Brize Norton.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/22/uk-support-cia-rendition-flights

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US rendition: every suspected flight mapped

The interactive below is the fullest research to date on the extent of CIA rendition flights of terrorist suspects. It's the result of three years of research by The Rendition Project, a collaboration between academics at Kent and Kingston universities and the NGO Reprieve.

It includes more than 11,000 rows of data on confirmed and suspected rendition flights, and other flights from related carriers. It should be used in conjunction with the notes linked below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2013/may/22/rendition-flights-cia-mapped

[Warlord]

Ministers are set to use the controversial secret courts law in the case of a Libyan man who is suing the government over his rendition into the hands of Colonel Gaddafi’s torturers.

Abdel Hakim Belhadj and his wife were kidnapped and flown to Libya where he was horrifically mistreated.

He accuses the Security Services and former foreign secretary Jack Straw of serving him up to his torturers and is demanding compensation and an apology.

At a court hearing yesterday, government lawyers said ministers were ‘likely’ to ask for intelligence and other secret documents to be considered under the new rules.

This could mean vast swathes of the case being held behind closed doors, with only State-approved lawyers allowed to hear the secret evidence.

The new law, which is due to come into force later this year, was bitterly opposed by civil liberties campaigners because of its extension of secret justice.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328753/Rendition-case-involving-Libyan-Abdel-Hakim-Belhadj-suing-British-Government-heard-secret.html#ixzz2U8By5fQB

[Warlord]

Snatched by the CIA in Bangkok:

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Mr Belhadj has said he will drop the case for just £1 in return for an apology and admission of liability.

He claims he was snatched by the US in Bangkok in 2004, and held in a secret CIA ‘black site’. He and his wife were blindfolded and she was chained to the wall despite being visibly pregnant

They were then flown to Tripoli where he was held for four years and tortured. The rendition took place around the time of the infamous ‘deal in the desert’ between Colonel Gaddafi and former prime minister Tony Blair.

After his release he became a key figure in the uprising against the Gaddafi regime and is now a prominent Libyan politician.

After the fall of the regime, a document was found in the offices of Musa Kusa, Gaddafi’s spy chief which indicated Britain’s role. In it, Sir Mark appeared to take credit for the operation.

Describing Mr Belhadj by a pseudonym, he wrote: ‘This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over the years. I am so glad.

‘The intelligence on Abu Abd Allah was British. I know I did not pay for the air cargo. But I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this.

Another Libyan dissident, Sami al Saadi, 45, who was dispatched with his wife and four young children back to Libya where he was imprisoned and maltreated, settled his case for £2.2million earlier this year.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328753/Rendition-case-involving-Libyan-Abdel-Hakim-Belhadj-suing-British-Government-heard-secret.html#ixzz2U8Cuqz1W
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[jllundqu]

5 Star thread... thanks

[Warlord]

http://revolutionaryfrontlines.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/gaddafi-blair_1839446c.jpg?w=468

Price of Blair's tawdry deal in the desert: £2m payout to buy silence of dissident handed over to Gaddafi's torturers

13 December 2012

A dissident abducted and handed to Colonel Gaddafi’s torturers with the alleged help of Tony Blair’s government was given £2.2million last night to buy his silence.

Sami al Saadi, 45, was dispatched with his wife and four young children back to his native Libya where he was imprisoned and maltreated.

The ‘rendition’ operation – conducted with apparent MI6 support – took place only three days after Mr Blair visited Libya for the now infamous 2004 ‘deal in the desert’.

Evidence of Britain’s role emerged in documents found after the fall of the Gaddafi regime. For years, Labour ministers denied involvement in rendition.

Mr al Saadi sued MI5, MI6, the Foreign Office and Home Office as well as ex-foreign secretary Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen, a former senior MI6 spy.

Yesterday the High Court was told a settlement had been reached under which he and his family will receive £2.23million.

The Government released a short statement insisting there had been ‘no admission of liability and no finding by any court of liability’. It did not address any of the allegations made.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247655/Price-Blairs-tawdry-deal-desert--2m-payout-buy-silence-dissident-handed-Gaddafis-torturers.html#ixzz2U8Edb5ug

[Warlord]

This was the worst rendition case but i'm sure there's more we wont hear about.

CIA KIDNAPS WRONG MAN... dumps him on the side of a road

The European Court of Human Rights has vindicated a German national, a victim of the CIA’s secret rendition programme on European soil, in what human rights advocates are calling a major ruling.

The Strasbourg-based court on Thursday (13 December 2012) decided that Macedonian authorities had violated the fundamental rights of Khaled El-Masri when they handed him over to the CIA in 2004.

Macedonia is the first European state to be held accountable for its involvement in the secret US-led programme by the court.

"This ruling is historical. It recognises that the CIA rendition and secret detention system involved torture and enforced disappearances," said Wilder Tayler, secretary general of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists.

Macedonian border guards arrested El-Masri on 31 December 2003 over his suspected ties to terrorist organisations. He was then taken to a hotel in Skojpe, kept locked in a room for 23 days, before being led to the airport handcuffed and blindfolded.

He spent the next four months, without any charges, in a small concrete cell in a brick factory near Kabul. His pleas to speak to German embassy officials were ignored. He was instead tied up, beaten, and threatened throughout the ordeal until the CIA realised they had the wrong person.

El-Masri, who had by then gone on two hunger strikes (one lasting 37 days), was eventually flown to Albania and dumped on the side of a road. German authorities issued arrest warrants in 2007 for the CIA agents involved in his abduction.

http://euobserver.com/justice/118523

[Carson]

Man if they are going to raise taxes it should be on the people that come up with and use words like, "Rendition".

I haven't really tested out my theory but I'm pretty sure the old timey word, Kidnapping, not only reads better but actually gives the reader and honest assessment of what is going on in these stories.



P.S. And if your going to raise the argument that they don't hold a ransom for cash; they have access to unlimited cash through their counterfeiting co-conspirators. They are extorting something however.

[Warlord]

The CIA has been involved in snatching, kidnapping, beating, torturing, assassinating, bribing, arms dealing, drug dealing, racketeering and overthrowing governments for decades.

TIME TO SHUT IT DOWN!

Why aren't the liberals demanding this?