David Lindsay

With European governments initiating investigations into claims that United States Central Intelligence Agency planes carrying terrorism suspects have used their airports and airspace in the controversial practice of “extraordinary rendition”, The Malta Independent on Sunday can report that two of the planes known to be implicated in the practice have made stopovers in Malta.

Flights records and photographs obtained by this newspaper place two suspected CIA planes at Malta International Airport on two separate occasions – one in December 2003 and another in December 2004.

A Boeing 737, with tail number N313P, was the first to stop over in Malta, between 6 and 10 December 2003. The plane had arrived from Northolt, an RAF airfield 10 kilometres from Heathrow Airport, on 6 December 2003 and left four days later on 10 December bound for Tripoli.

A year later a second plane, a Gulfstream jet with tail number N227SV, arrived in Malta on 17 December 2004 and left later that day for Iceland, from where it flew to Washington DC. Other information, still unconfirmed, alleges the plane had arrived in Malta from Cairo.

The flight records are compiled by the US Federal Aviation Administration and were made available to this newspaper by The Chicago Tribune.

Photos taken by Maltese plane spotters also confirm the planes’ presence in Malta. The reason behind the stopovers are, however, still unknown.

Searches of flight data reveal that the planes have flown around the world and include stops at US military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Other landings include Cyprus, Morocco, Algeria, Macedonia, and Romania.

Extraordinary rendition refers to the controversial American procedure in which criminal suspects are apprehended, sometimes secretly, and sent for interrogation in countries where torture is used as a routine form of interrogation.

Reports cite suspects being arrested, shackled, blindfolded and sedated, after which they are transported, usually by private jet, to countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Uzbekistan.

The CIA has reportedly set up a number of so-called “black sites”, some in eastern Europe, where suspects are held and interrogated beyond the scope of normal laws. Hundreds of detainees are thought to have been subjected to the practice, to the outrage of human rights groups and governments alike.

The private planes used in the practice are not leased by the CIA but are owned by CIA shell companies. Although the practice has been in use since the 1990s, its scope has been widened immensely since 11 September 2001.

EU governments investigate

Investigations and inquiries concerning the practice are currently underway in Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Sweden over the use of the countries’ airspace and airports for actions constituting violations of human rights.

Last week the Spanish government opened an investigation into the use of its airports and airspace involving suspected terrorists being transported for interrogation in Egypt and Syria. Airports in the Canary Islands and the island of Majorca are alleged to have been used for stopovers. Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a television interview last week, “If it is confirmed that this is true, we would be looking at very serious, intolerable deeds because they break the basic rules of treating people in a democratic legal and political system.”

Italy and Germany are investigating an alleged CIA abduction of a Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003. The cleric was later flown to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. Italian prosecutors are seeking the extradition of 22 purported CIA operatives in connection with the case.

German prosecutors are investigating the same case in light of evidence suggesting that one of the suspected CIA agents may have touched German soil when the plane carrying the suspect, Osama Moustafa Nasr, to Egypt passed through Ramstein Air Base.

The Swedish government last week confirmed media reports that two planes with alleged CIA links had landed there in 2002 but added that it was still unclear whether the planes had been used specifically by the CIA during the stopovers.

Recent Norwegian media reports are also claiming that at least four aircraft, two purportedly carrying Islamic extremist prisoners, had flown over or landed in Norway while on CIA missions.

Two Portuguese political parties last week demanded an explanation to media reports claiming that two suspected CIA planes landed at two of the country’s airports – one in Porto and another in Tires.

Last week members of the European Parliament called on the European Commission to investigate claims that the CIA had used eastern European prisons to conduct secret interrogations. EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said in Strasbourg on Monday that there was no evidence that an EU state had housed secret CIA detention centres, adding that any EU state found to have done so could face sanctions.