...an investigative judge in Palma
has ordered the police inquiry to be sent to Spain's
national court, to consider whether the C.I.A. was routing
planes carrying terrorism suspects through Majorca as part
of its so-called rendition program...
The program is the focus of a number of European
investigations. Spain is the third country in Europe to
open a judicial inquiry into potential criminal offenses
committed by C.I.A. operatives related to renditions. The
other two are Germany and Italy, which on Friday formally
requested the extradition of 22 people said to be C.I.A.
operatives linked to the suspected kidnapping of an
Egyptian cleric in 2003.
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/international/europe/14spain.html
November 14, 2005
Spain Looks Into C.I.A.'s Handling of Detainees
By STEPHEN GREY and RENWICK McLEAN
LONDON, Nov. 11 - On the Spanish island of Majorca, the
police quietly opened a criminal investigation in March
after a local newspaper reported a series of visits to the
island's international airport by planes known to
regularly operate for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Now, it has emerged that an investigative judge in Palma
has ordered the police inquiry to be sent to Spain's
national court, to consider whether the C.I.A. was routing
planes carrying terrorism suspects through Majorca as part
of its so-called rendition program.
Under that system, the United States has bypassed normal
extradition procedures to secretly transfer at least 100
suspects to third countries where, according to
allegations by human rights groups and former detainees
themselves, some of the suspects have been tortured.
The program is the focus of a number of European
investigations. Spain is the third country in Europe to
open a judicial inquiry into potential criminal offenses
committed by C.I.A. operatives related to renditions. The
other two are Germany and Italy, which on Friday formally
requested the extradition of 22 people said to be C.I.A.
operatives linked to the suspected kidnapping of an
Egyptian cleric in 2003.
Last week, related investigations were started by the
European Union and the Council of Europe to look into
reports of secret C.I.A. jails for terrorism suspects in
Eastern Europe.
An inquiry seems likely by the United Nations' special
rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak. Last week he said
that if reports of the C.I.A.'s activities proved correct,
then the agency was engaged in a "systematic practice of
enforced disappearance."
Bartolomé Barceló, the chief prosecutor for the Majorca
region, ordered the inquiry there after the newspaper
Diario de Mallorca published its report.
In a 114-page police report dated April 14, the
investigators said they obtained details of the planes'
flight plans, passengers and crews by interviewing ground
staff, consulting aviation documents and examining the
registers of the two hotels where the men and women
stayed.
Two of the planes examined have been widely identified as
involved in rendition operations and as owned by the
C.I.A.
The police report said the planes' operator was Stevens
Express Leasing, a Tennessee-registered corporation that,
according to inquiries by The New York Times, owns several
planes operated for the C.I.A.
A third plane, privately owned and United
States-registered, has been regularly hired by the C.I.A.
The police identified up to 42 American operatives and
crew members on the flights that landed in Spain. One crew
of 11 flew on a route that matched exactly that described
by Binyam Muhammad, a suspected accomplice of another
suspect, Jose Padilla.
None of the 42 Americans named in the Spanish police
report as passengers or crew aboard the three alleged
C.I.A. planes are so far accused of any crime, and their
identities have not been made public.
The New York Times has obtained the names and tried to
trace the people involved.
At least 18 shared addresses at a handful of mailboxes in
Virginia, close to the C.I.A.'s headquarters, and many had
Social Security numbers issued within the last five years.
The name listed as a pilot has a listed address at the
same mailbox in Vienna, Va., used by a senior executive of
Stevens Express Leasing.
Stephen Grey reported from London for this article, and
Renwick McLean from Madrid. Margot Williams contributed
reporting from New York.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
--
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