Secret CIA prisons in Europe : perspective from Europe

[BelgianMadCow]

Hello fellow DUers,

Over the course of the past couple of weeks, this issue has gained a lot of traction. When it was mentioned here that EU commissioner Frattini has demanded investigations of the secret prisons and warned that countries participating could lose their vote right in the EU, things really heated up.

Only today, I heard on the belgian staterun radio that 300 CIA operated flights have been identified (original source the Guardian apparently).

Since I had thought about posting on the subject when it was announced here that the EU was cooperating with Kerry on this matter, today was the occasion to go looking for more details over here and finally post on the matter.

Take a look at the first google hit on "300 vluchten CIA Europe".

I find it to be an extremely well sourced article. It even has Seymour Hersh's super insight article from 05/2004 for example, which is well worth your bookmark imho.

It's in dutch, but it has quite some direct quotes in english, and here is the translation of the section titles :

Torture practices US expand
(subtitle "US alienates itself further from the rest of the world")

Torture practices have their roots in the White House


Random people sold as prisoners to US, advocates sue US

CIA front organisations manage torture fleet


Even if the last part goes pretty far (author is a MIHOPer as it seems), I wanted to share this with you and convey two messages :

First, the bad news :

I hate how your government is corrupting EU countries. I find it no coincidence the first two european countries mentioned were in Eastern Europe, where your troops have moved also.

The good news :

The EU is onto Bush*Co. While I have despaired in the absence of in-depth reporting even over here on all the recent crimes of the BFEE, it seems now the media over here has stopped relying on US wire services and the veil is lifting.

Should anyone need some more translation, let me know.

bmc

[neweurope]

1. *kick* I agree with you totally... BUT

I have a fear, also, that this is kind of a fig leaf for our European journalists. We'll see. Right now anyhow the politicians are being asked to give answers. Hallelujah.


-----------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[BelgianMadCow]

2. fig leaf for european media's silence you mean?

If so, at least I know I'm not alone in feeling queasy about the lack of coverage.
Whenever I talk to people, the view on the Iraq War remains as opposed as it was at the start, but people are not up to speed on Plame, DSM etc and the few things reported in the MSM are never dotconnected.

[neweurope]

4. No, you're certainly not alone in feeling queasy about the lack

of coverage. I'm feeling so queasy that I've even been suspecting that certain positions - maybe even the main position - in German magazine "Spiegel" have been bought by the US administration. *pulls tinfoil hat over ears firmly*

When I tell my friends about what I learn here on DU they usually don't believe me. Why, not even "Der Spiegel" has reported on that! they say. Let's hope and pray that this here will get at least some of the media going - the rest will have to follow suit.


-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[BelgianMadCow]

6. Ah good *puts on tinfoil hat*

I have suspected similar things. Here in belgium, staterun radio and television are branded "red" bastions, thus socialist and left-leaning. They have not come further than playing a BBC documentary in a late night news program.

I am highly suspicious, but I don't know of similar glaring examples like yours. I suspect a lot has to do with relying on the wire services. Who still has a lot of field reporters these days...

I know that in the beginning of the war, the reporting coming out of Iraq from our one (1) reporter (who couldn't get an insurance because he didn't want to "embed" :puke:) was from another planet than what was on CNN.

Recently CNN was pulled of the cable here (you can get it back through digital television subscription) and I had a tinfoil attack to be honest.

Now there is brouhaha about the airports used for "torture flights", but there wasn't any peep when all of our ports, roads and infrastructure were being used to gear up the war machine.

on edit : Freut mich Ihnen kennen zu lernen! War in München heute :-)

[neweurope]

7. Here in Germany it seems to be like in Belgium...

You're right in what you say about relying on the wire services. The media are all in financial trouble and a lot of newspapers rely solely on ONE wire service... which is usually AP, because they cover the most and are cheapest.

"there wasn't one peep when all of our infrastructure were being used to gear up the war machine": True, and there still isn't. Germany is VERY important to the US war efforts. All we Germans hear about it is that we have "special agreements" with the US, nobody ever says WHICH agreements. Even critics only say that the US have "spun a net of special agreements" with Germany. Isn't that great?

You've been in München? So you know more about my country than me, I've never been there :) But I see you're one more candidate for a European DU meet :)

:hi:


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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[BelgianMadCow]

8. yeah the "special agreements" have come into play here as well

sucks bigtime.

And you bet, on that EU DU meetup :-)

:hi: back at you and off to bed for me

[Thorandmjolnir]

3. Kosovo

An article in the Danish newspaper, Politiken (politiken.dk) implies that one of the secret camps is Camp Bondsteel in Kososvo.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-bondsteel.htm

[mmonk]

5. I heard that on a radio talk show I believe(Kosovo)

[mr blur]

9. Plenty of coverage in the Guardian (UK) (nt)