Guantanámo Bay Express uses Shannon Airport

by Tim Hourigan Sun Sep 26, 2004 18:58

As I mentioned I got a rough copy of the tape of Kalla Fakta ("Cold Facts" - Swedish current affairs series - like Prime Time, but with guts and integrity)

I also got a translated copy of the script for two episodes dealing with the Guantanamo Bay Express incident in Sweden.

Some IMC heads are trying to put this up as subtitles and hopefully we should have it soon.

Here is the transcript as e-mailed to me by Fredrik Laurin of Kalla Fakta.
-------------------------------------------------------
Script ”The broken promise”TV4 Monday 17:th May 2004

Participants:
Sven Linder, former Swedish ambassador to Cairo:
Gun-Britt Andersson, former state secretary at the Foreign office
Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza
Kjell Jönsson, lawyer to Mohammed Al Zery
Hafes Abu Seada, Agiza´s Egyptian lawyer
Sven-Olof Rosén, flight broker at Bromma airport
Thomas Hammarberg, head of the Olof Palme centre
Julia Hall, Counsel in the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human
Rights Watch
Arne Andersson, Swedish Security Police, SÄPO, responsible for the expulsion
Mikael Lundström, SÄPO
Hamida Shalaby, Agiza´s mother
Muhammed Al Zery, expelled and victim of torture
Mary Ellen McGuinness, Premier Executive Transport Services
Masood Anwar, reporter The News, Karachi, Pakistan
Ahmed Omar Abo El Seoud, general, Egyptian State security service
George Tenet, head of CIA
Susan Fayeed, psychiatrist, Nadeem Center
Hans Dahlgren, Swedish vice foreign minister


Announcer:

Welcome to tonight´s Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts).


Sweden is known as one of the world´s leading advocates of human rights, swift to condemn torture and summary trials. But tonight we can reveal that Sweden is itself abusing human rights in the worldwide terrorist hunt that has been going on since the 11th September 2001. Foreign masked agents have been allowed to strip, degrade and arrest suspects in Sweden , at Bromma airport. And take them to a country where they were to be tortured.
To expel someone to a country where he or she risks torture or inhuman treatment is incompatible with both international conventions and Swedish law. Yet, that was just what Sweden did when its government in December 2001 expelled Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed Al Zery to Egypten
An expulsion that not only was done in a very remarkable manner, but also was based on several incorrect pieces of information.



Speaker: Barely an hour before the airport closes for the night 18th December
2001, a small, very special jet plane lands at Bromma in Stockholm. Two
civilian police cars are let in through the gate by the policewoman who
guards it. In one of them is Muhammed Al Zery, 33 years, in the other
Ahmed Agiza , 39 years.

Kalla Fakta has spoken with all we have found who were at Bromma that
night. No one dares come forward publicly, but some have told what they saw,
under the condition that they remain absolutely anonymous.

In a room, a group of men from the newly arrived plane, in plain clothes,
are waiting. They have their faces hooded.

The two prisoners have their clothes cut from their bodies by
scissors, without their hand- and footcuffs being loosened. The naked and chained prisoners have a suppository of unknown kind inserted into their anus, and diapers are put on them. They are forcibly dressed in dark overalls. Their hands and feet are chained to a specially designed harness. On the plane, both men are blindfolded and hooded.

When the plane takes off at 21.49 and sets course towards Egypt, Sweden is making a great deviation from a long tradition of safeguarding human rights.

Speaker: This is Hanan Attia. She and her husband Ahmed Agiza fled from Egypt to
Pakistan and Iran after he had for many years been persecuted in Egypt
for his engagement in islamistic movements.

Hanan Attia: Even hear in the news, must leave home. Because its like a blacklist, names in it. Difficult to live like that. And with children, more difficult. Two easy to move, children you must have stable life.

Speaker: Today, they have 5 children, one of them , little Kinana, was born here in
Karlstad.

The family had been fugitives for many years before they came to
Sweden in September 2 000.

Hanan Attia:I came here and feel trustful and I I don’t want a lot from the world, I want a safe place to grown up children in good environment to be benefit person.

Live: Bye, Mum.

Speaker: The other man who was brought to Bromma, Muhammed Al Zery, an acquaintance of Agiza´s, came to Sweden in August 1999.

Kjell Jönsson: He had to flee Egypt in 1991 after having been harassed and tortured. So, he left Egypt illegally, and it was a matter of course to him that he wanted to come to Sweden to live in freedom.

Speaker: The Swedish Migration Board judged in both cases that the men needed
protection, and should be granted asylum in Sweden.
But the Swedish Security police, called Säpo, was of the opinion that both were suspected
terrorists who should be handed over to Egypt.

Speaker: With its pyramids, its history of many thousands of years, and sea and diving resorts , Egypt is a popular tourist country.

But Egypt is also a police state, where the people is held in
an iron grip with the help of "emergency" laws.

A country where militant islamistic groups have perpetrated several
terror attacks - but where also peaceful regime critics are classed as terrorists by the regime, in order to crush all political opposition.

Speaker: Here in the Nadim centre, doctors have attented to thousands of torture
victims in the last years.

Susan Fayeed: Torture is very widespread in police stations and state security detention places. Electricity is used unfortunately widely. It is used routinely, and sometimes for punishment, for political or oppositional people, and sometime just to compliment for third partner."

Julia Hall: Egypt is a country that has been critizised by many organisations including UN, for using torture as a means to affect state policy.

Speaker: A judgment that is shared by the Swedish government:
“Reports of police brutality, maltreatment and torture in police jails and
prisons are common, and seem to be well founded in many cases. "

Julia Hall: Sweden has signed and ratified numerous UN-treaties that prohibit torture, including the convention against torture which has an express provision stating that states must not send people back to places where they would be in danger of torture.

Thomas Hammarberg: So it was an established practice that people would not be sent back to Egypt when they had this background, as it was very likely that they would be subjected to torture during interrogations.

Speaker: Sweden was in a dilemma. But it was prepared to go very far to get rid of these men.

Gun-Britt Andersson, then state secretary at the Foreign office, obtained a unique guarantee from Egypt that would untie the knot.

Gun-Britt Andersson: It guarantees that they will not be treated in a way that is contrary to international conventions, the Convention against torture and the European convention on human rights. Moreover, we were granted a follow-up possibility through visiting the prisoners.

Ahmed Omar Abo El Seoud: It certainly is considered in high appreciation and it is a model. We consider it a model that can be copied and taken as a guide on the level of international cooperation.
Which is what we aspire to and invite to and demand on the level of different international speheres. This is an implementation of the basis of international law.

Speaker: According to Säpo, the two men are leading terrorists, but all Säpo´s
information on the men is secret, also to the accused and
their lawyers. That is out of consideration for relations with the foreign intelligence agencies that have supplied the information about them.


Arne Andersson: On the whole, there is no ground for us to believe anything else than that this is correct. We have a great trust between security agencies, and if we get information, we can mostly trust it.

Gun-Britt Andersson: Concerning Agiza, he is a wellknown figure, and there are reports on him in
British press. And he was one of the leading figures in Islamic Jihad. Long ago,
but since then these movements have splintered, and he was a member of those
who were accused of the murder of presiden Sadat, I think.
Q:Suspected of Sadat?_
He was convicted in his absence.
Q:The murder of Sadat?_
I don´t want to be precise on that.
It wasn´t our business to investigate these things, but he was a very leading figure in Egypt then . Many years ago.
Q: How do we know that?
This is confirmed from all quarters.

Speaker: But much of the information that the Foreign Office and Säpo have are
wrong, Agiza is not convicted of the murder of president Sadat, not even a
suspect. Säpo thinks that Al Zery is convicted of crimes. That is
incorrect.
Agiza is said to have contacts high up in Al Qaida, and it is correct
that he knows Ayman Al Zawahiri, today known as Usama Bin Laden´s second
in command. These two were both active in the Egyptian opposition in
the beginning of the nineties, and met during Agiza´s exile in Pakistan in
the middle of the nineties.
But Säpo doesn´t have any reports of later contacts between them. And Agiza has several times publicly denounced Al Zawahiri and his ideology of violence.
Agiza is convicted. He was convicted in his absence in 1999, together with 106
others, by a military court in Cairo for membership in Talal al-Fatah, an
illegal organisation. The proceedings took 20 minutes.
Neither the Egyptian security police nor Swedish Säpo have been able to produce any information pointing to Al Zery as a leading member of the same organization.

Kjell Jönsson, lawyer to Mohammed Al Zery: I think that this is….. It is my firm conviction that this is a miscarriage of justice. And we were never allowed to take part oft the foundations for these accusations, and also not a chance to meet then.

Speaker: A quarter to twelve on 18th December 2001, Prime minister
Göran Persson and the rest of the government sit down to an
extraordinary meeting. With the suspicions of terrorist activities
and the Egyptian information as a foundation, they make
the decision to expel Mohammed Al Zery and Ahmed
Agiza . That decision takes about one minute. Another 48 points on the
agenda are ushered through before it is time for lunch.
The Migration Board officer charged with the matter goes to the Post office
himself to mail the decisions in a registered letter to the extradited men´s lawyers soon after four o´clock. But Säpo is in a state of readiness, and picks up the decision at the Foreign Office .

At 16.48 Ahmed Agiza is apprehended in Karlstad, on the way home
from a course in Swedish. A few minutes later, Säpo arrests Al Zery
in a shop in Stockholm.

Kjell Jönsson: On Tuesday the 18th, I had a telephone interview with my client, when I suddenly heard someone say: -Put the receiver down. Then, the connection was interrupted.

Speaker: Kjell Jönsson immediately calls the Foreign Office to check what has
happened. But those who handle the decision have left the receiver off on purpose, and all others are on a Christmas party. Those he finally get hold of say that they know nothing. The men are already on their way to Bromma airport, but no one wants to to tell that to their legal counsels.
When the letters from the Foreign office reach the lawyers two days
later, the men are since long in the custody of the State Security in Cairo.

Kjell Jönsson: -Yes, to me it´s all rather clear. I had already told the government that if , contrary to all expectation, the government would take a
decision of expulsion to Egypt , I would go to the European court of Human rights with a complaint against Sweden, because there was an obvious risk that Al Zery
would be subjected to torture. And that proceedings in Egypt can be completely illegal.

Gun-Britt Andersson: It was estimated that this would work ...... and it worked.

Thomas Hammarberg: That was a breach of trend and practice, and it also was in Europe. And it was used in other countries as an argument for.... as Sweden was so particular about respecting Human rights, and we had taken this decision of sending these two Egyptians back, then it was possible for other countries also, so in UN´s Refugee Commissariat this Swedish decision was regarded
as serious , because it opened the dam so to speak, so it was an important
decision. Not only in Sweden, but also in other parts of Europe.


STUDIO: But why on Earth would Sweden want to risk its good reputation, and accept that two men are flown from Sweden hanging manacled and hooded in an aircraft?
Why was this so important to the Government?
We are back soon.


///// Commercial Break /////

STUDIO:
Welcome back to Kalla Fakta.

Two men are swiftly an brutally expulsed from Sweden to Egypt. Late at night , they are flown out , hanging in special harnesses from the interior of a mystical aircraft. To a country that is known to torture its prisoners .
The question is why Sweden in this way suddenly abandons its principles concerning human rights? Why was this expulsion so important that the Government, instead of complying with international conventions , made a hasty, makeshift special agreement with Egypt?
We can tonight reveal that it was a foreign intelligence agency that abducted the two men out of Sweden. Masked US agents were allowed to operate on Swedish territory.
A few months after the attack on World Trade Center, Sweden accepted to become a pawn in the United States´ worldwide manhunt.


Julia Hall: We don’t have any information about who in particular might have applied pressure to the Swedish government. What we do know is that the overall atmosphere, post september 11th has driven many governments, long interested in human rights, to do things that have in fact violated human rights.This is particulary disturbing to us.

Speaker: The USA have, both before and after 11 September, systematically
kidnapped people all over the world, and handed them over to loyal
security agencies in countries like Egypt, Syria and Jordania. The
phenomenon is called Extraordinary Rendition.

George Tenet: I´ve testified there were over 70 renditions. But renditions in and of themselves doesn´t stop this.

Julia Hall: The key feature of extraordinary rendition is that there is virtually no opportunity for the suspect, him or herself, to challenge it, or to have any process, to see whether or not its legal, that’s why we call it extraordinary rendition.

Speaker: People are taken to countries where they can be locked up for undefined
time , or be interrogated with methods that would be unacceptable
in a state ruled by law. Torture is no exception. A couple of examples:

24 year old Muhammad Saad Iqbal, was in November 2001
taken in chains on board a civilian aircraft in Djakarta. A few
hours later, he was in Egypt. His further fate is unknown.
In June 2002, the German citizen Mohammad Zammar, was taken by
CIA in Morocco and was flown to Syria, where he is kept imprisoned to this
day.
The Canadian citizen Maher Arar was arrested on 26th September 2003 in
New York, on his way home to Montreal. He was turned over to the
Syrian security service. He was interrogated and tortured for ten
months, before he was released.

Could it be that a US intelligence agency has also been
involved in the expulsion of Agiza and Al Zery?
The last traces of the two men are found at Bromma.

Sven-Olof Rosén: Here are all the bookings. YES! From 2000 to 2001, that should be the one.

Speaker: Swedish Säpo had booked a plane through Executive Air at Bromma.

Sven-Olof Rosén: Then there is a note: Flight booking cancelled 18th December 21.45. It appears here that the crew of North flying, on their way here, over the
radio had heard that an Egyptian jet had collected the passengers
already on the night of 18th December. We had no idea of that.

Speaker: So, quite another plane has picked up the two men. But Säpo won´t give
any details.

Arne Andersson: What type it was and where it came from, I can´t say.
Q:Why?
Arne Andersson: That could disturb our relations with another service, and it could also affect the foreign relations of Sweden. As a nation.

Speaker: But Kalla Fakta can now disclose that it was an American plane. A
Gulfstream 5, a very exclusive small private jet. The Bromma plane had the registration N379P , and proved to be owned by an anonymous company on the East coast of USA.

Mary Ellen McGuiness: That was our aircraft. You come to the right office.

Speaker: We call and want to hire the aircraft, but get the answer that it only flies for the US government.

Mary Ellen McGuiness: That is correct. We only lease through the US government, we are on a long term lease with them.
Let me see if I find someone call you back.

Speaker: After 15 minutes, our phone rings again. This time from Stockholm.

Mikael Lundström: Hello, my name is Mikael Lundström, I work with the Security police, I call because you have been in contact with US authorities, concerning a
certain person.
Q:OK
My question is then, do you work for a Government authority?
Why do you ask?
If I put it like this, we have been contacted by our US cooperation
partners in on this matter.

Q: We have been in contact with the owners of the plane. And a colleague
of yours calls and says: US authorities.
Arne Andersson: I still can't neither confirm nor deny your information, that it´s right or wrong, but I can say as much that this was an international
cooperation. That´s what it was. And it was cheap for the taxpayers.
Q: Very cheap?
Arne Andersson: Cheaper than normal.

Speaker: Säpo confirms that a foreign security agency has been at Bromma, but won´t say more.
But Kalla Fakta can reveal that it was 6-8 Americans who handled the prisoners at Bromma, and that the plane is an instrument in the international manhunt conducted by the United States.
Two months earlier, the Jeminite student Jamil Gasim was picked up in the same way in Karachi in Pakistan, and flown in chains to Amman in Jordania. Masood Anwar, a reporter of The News in Karachi , wrote about the incident a few days later:

Masood Anwar: My sources were eyewitnesses, they belong from firebrigade. They have seen the entire drama, They told me all the persons wearing masks.
The Entire episode vas operated by foreigners. They were from US. They saw that the tailnumber was N379P.

Speaker: N379P. The same plane that transported Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed Al Zery from Bromma to Cairo.

Kalla Fakta has charted the plane and its owners. It´s quite clear
that it´s not an ordinary rental aircraft. It works on classified contracts for the US Department of Defense , and moves frequently between the continents.
It has exclusive landing permits on US air bases all over the World, like Wake atoll in the Pacific, and Guantanamo on Cuba. The plane is a frequent guest there.

Thomas Hammarberg: Yes, it´s what .... One has had the feeling all the time that there has been a strong US element in this whole business. There
was a strong pressure from Washington during this autumn. On
governments who might have had people on their lists. But one thing we
have really learnt during this period. That is that the US´ security
service´s list on suspected people may not be taken as evidence.

STUDIO: Without being able to refer to any proof of committed crime, Sweden expels two men to Egypt, a country that is known to torture political prisoners.
And it was this agreement that made it possible to circumvent both Swedish law and the Convention on Human Rights. A guarantee where Egypt promises that the two men are to be given a humane treatment and have a fair trail.
Did they get that - what happened to Agiza and Al Zery. We went to Egypt to find out.


Speaker: When the American plane had landed in Cairo, the two prisoners are
turned over to the Egyptian State security service. During the following five weeks´ interrogations, the Swedish government doesn´t know where they are. It doesn´t even ask.

Sven Linder: What do you think had happened if I had come rushing in after four or five days and demanded to see those people?
It had been to signal from the start that we don´t trust you Egyptians.

Speaker: This is the Swedish embassy in Cairo. It is here the responsibility lies to control that the guarantee agreement is adhered to.

Live: -We are going to Masra Tora prison, to see Ahmed Agiza.
Q:How long will you be there?
For about an hour.

Speaker: Every month for two years time, the embassy has paid a visit to
the prisoners. But the embassy´s reports show that the visits take place in the prison director´s office, often with personnel from Egypt´s security service present, who take notes of what the prisoners have dared to say. And the men have never been examined by an independent doctor.

Sven Linder: The only thing you can assume, as I see it, as an observer who is neither a psychologist nor with a medical degree, but still with a
certain life experience, that is to to what extent a person´s pattern
of behaviour is normal under the circumstances.


Gun-Britt Andersson, former state secretary, the Foreign office: I hope and believe that they haven´t been tortured.

Sven Linder: I can be very clear on that point. My estimate is that they have fulfilled their commitments as they were supposed to under this agreement.


Speaker: We meet Agiza´s mother Hamida Shalaby, who every other week sees her son in prison, under less supervised conditions. She knows what has happened before the ambassador´s visits.

Hamida Shalaby: A day before they tell him tomorrow the ambassador is coming. Don’t Speak! If you speak you will lay on the electric mattress.

Speaker: In spite of the threats, they took the chance already at the ambassador´s first visit, in January 2002.
Kalla fakta can today reveal that it appears already in the first reports to the Foreign Office that the guarantee had been broken. The men then tell that they are forced to wear a blindfold at all times, that they are not allowed to sleep, that their families are threatened, about beatings and maltreatment. All of it testimony that the Swedish government immediately puts a stamp of secrecy on.

Julia Hall: I mean, Im sorry I´ve just never seen the excerpted passage before I only have the one they haven´t taken out, so I´m a little struck by it.
Q: why?
Because everything that they told him amounts to torture and ill treatment.
The only conclusion I can draw from that is that the Swedish government did not want to admit publicly that the men had been tortured or ill treated upon return. To do so would mean in fact that they had violated the torture principle.


Speaker: Friday prayer outside the Al Azhar mosque in Cairo. For two weeks, we
have on location sought permission to see the imprisoned Ahmed Agiza. But the Egyptian Security service dawdles.

At last, we are granted permission to go to Tora prison, an enormous
complex on the outskirts of Cairo, covering several blocks. With a large number of security police on our heels, we are brought to the door of Agiza´s cell block, but that is as far as we go.
We are not permitted to go in, there is no interview.

Speaker: The man the security police wants us to interview is Muhammed Al Zery, who was released from prison in October,and is said to be a free man. But he is not permitted to leave his native village without permission. The meeting is arranged by the security service´s management, and in the room are four officers whom we are not allowed to show in the picture. The highest ranking decides when the camera should be on and when not....and what questions we can put.

Live: Without recording!
Without recording!
Not recored now?
No!

Q:But he will tell me some questions to ask?
Yes!
OK!
Q: Treated well in prison?

Mohammed Al Zery: Yes. According to agreement there was good treatment, in that there was a lawyer, there was family visit, there was a monthly visit by the Swedish Embassy, throughout the trial and review by General Prosecution until it was proven that there was nothing..

Kjell Jönsson: What can Al Zery say in a situation like this? It´s evident that he is speaking under coercion.

Speaker: But Agiza´s mother can tell another story.

Hamida Shalaby: The mattress had electricity. The mattress. He would lay on it – like this – and his arms in chains on both sides and his legs in chains too.
When they connected to the electricity, his body would rise up and then fall down and this up and down would go on until they unplugged electricity.
F: How many times did they use electrical torture?
Four times. Four times with the mattress, but on the chair; every day.
Yes, from 19 December to 20 February.

Speaker: The reports about torture also made Al Zery´s attorney Kjell Jönsson
try to seek more information on location in Cairo.

Kjell Jönsson: This information, that they have been tortured is now confirmed.
It is about very painful torture. They fasten electrodes to the most sensitive parts of the body. That is, genitals, breast nipples, tongue, ear lobes, underarms.
There are physicians present to judge how much torture, how much electricity, the prisoners can take. Afterwards the exposed parts are anointed, so that there won´t be marks and scars, and cold water is poured to stop blood clots.

Sven Linder: I was beginning to wonder if he was trying to signal something to me after all. And then I simply asked him to take his clothes
off. And then he started to do that. There were only men present. I simply wanted him to show himself. And when he had proceeded halfway he said: There are no marks on my body. And then I stopped the procedure.
Q: Could it be electrical torture he meant, it leaves no marks.
Sven Linder: Well, again, we are moving in a theoretical sphere.... I don´t think so, but of course it could be that way.

Hamida Shalaby: They would electrocute in a group. Each one would scream Ahh Ahha, because of electricity. So they make them hear each other.
That would scream and this one would hear him, and then he would scream and he would hear him.
They wear out their nerves until its their turn. That is the electricity bit.
This electricity was daily. After that they threatened him…

Speaker: Kalla Fakta has taken part of original documents which support
the testimonies, and which prove that the two men have been systematically
tortured , with electricity, blows and kicks.
On at least four occasions, Swedish authorities have received
information through different channels from the men about what they have
been subjected to.

Speaker: All Hamida has left is
her son´s cut up clothes after he was arrested in Sweden.

Live: Those who took him cut up his clothes.....

Hanan Attia: Yes, yes it´s his clothes yes.
F: It is Ahmed´s clothes?
Yes yes … yes it´s his clothes yes. Yes his… yes. Ja det är Ahmeds kläder
What can I say


Speaker: The Government’s decision on 18th December 2001 also concerns Hanan and the five children .They can be expelled any day.

Susan Fayeed: These children are kids of a suspected terrorist, of course they may be vulnerable for at least investigations. If not more. And especially his wife

Live: Girl with bag

Susan Fayeed: We know here I have met a wife of a terrorist, suspected terrorist, I don’t know he is or not. And she was tortured and she was obliged to write a paper that her husband did so and so and so and it was a false paper.
What is guarantee that this lady will not pass in such experience here?

Speaker: Sweden´s guarantee did not only cover the treatment of the prisoners and their families. One of the central points were that they should be awarded new and fair trials. .But in the beginning of May Agiza was sentenced again to 25 years imprisonment by another military tribunal.

Hafes Abu Seada: A military trial is a unfair trial. We asked for three witnesses to come, and refused, and we asked to … to send Ahmed Agiza to the medicine… to bring a certificate about torture. But refused.

Speaker: According to the agreement between Sweden and Egypt , the Swedish embassy was to be allowed to monitor the trial. But it was not allowed in two out of three days.

Hafes Abu Seada: I told you they refused to give them permission to enter the court. The court! To cross the door. There is no possibilities at all for the Swedish government to influence or to affect or to make anything.
They don’t care about this agreement.

STUDIO: Regeringen har alltsĺ hela tiden hävdat att egypten har hĺllit avtalet och bahandlat männen korrekt. Men nu efter att Kalla fakta har börjat gräva i den här historien har regeringen svängt.

///// Commercial Break /////


STUDIO: Welcome back to Kalla Fakta , which tonight reveals how Sweden has taken part in a United States intelligence agency´s hunt for suspected terrorists, in
a manner contrary to all conventions on human rights.
The Swedish Government has for two and a half years maintained that the two men that were taken out of the country to Egypt have had a correct treatment, that Egypt has not broken its promise.
But now, since Ahmed Agiza , again has faced trial in a military court in Egypt , and Kalla Fakta has been able to show that they have been tortured, the Government has made an about turn.

Hans Dahlgren: This is so ominous that that we have prepared a visit to Cairo , on a high political level from the Swedish side, to take up this question with representatives of the Egyptian Security service. And of the Egyptian government.

One of the four elements in the guarantee was a fair trial. And we do not think that the trial a few weeks ago lived up to that.

Speaker: So, the agreement is broken , in your view?

Hans Dahlgren: We do not think that the Egyptian government has lived up to the agreement, this guarantee, in that part. And we will demand a new trial that meets the demands for a fair trial.

If this has happened, to the extent that you show here, the full responsibility lies with the Egyptian government. It is unacceptable to treat people in this manner. And that is exactly why the Swedish government is eager to have a definite promise from the representatives of the Egyptian government…

Speaker: But it was Sweden who expelled them…

Hans Dahlgren: It was Sweden who expelled them , but it is not Sweden who has treated any prisoners in this manner, but in that case the Egyptian government. And exactly because of this information and similar reports that has reached us, and which we are taking with the utmost seriousness, we will speak up about this on a very high level in Cairo.

Kjell Jönsson: It is depressing if the Swedish government says that, because it is absolutely forbidden according to international law to repatriate a person who risks being subjected to torture, and naturally, the Swedish government has a full responsibility for this .

Julia Hall: The men were tortured and ill treated upon return, the Swedish government should be held accountable for returning the men.

Thomas Hammarberg: Yes, you may wonder what the US government has to do with this in the first place. But of course, this illustrates the role and the way of acting the US government chose, not at least during the autumn of 2001, when they very actively put pressure on various governments in matters like this.

Julia Hall: I think that after September 11th numerous governments were under pressure in a way that led them to violate their human rights obligations.
Sweden is an emblematic case of this because a long time promotor of human rights and the fact that they would succumb to such pressure to the expense of human rights is particularly disturbing.

Q: How will would you define the cooperation that some call pressure from the USA, as wishes or as demands?
Hans Dahlgren: I have no comments on whether there have been wishes or demands from the American side. I have no information about this, and cannot comment on it.
*** END ***

Credits:
Reporters: Fredrik Laurin, Sven Bergman, Joachim Dyfvermark
Editing: Jocke Söderqvist, Sebastian Bank
Photo: Lovisa Thuresson, Phil Poysti
Graphics: Anders Moberg



Script The broken Promise Part 2 24:th May 2004


Part one - The key witness


At 16.48 on December 18th 2001, Ahmed Agiza is picked up by the police on his way home from a course in Swedish in the city of Karlstad, western Sweden. A few minutes later Säpo, the Swedish security police, arrest Muhammad Al Zery in a shop in Stockholm. They are taken into waiting cars and driven towards Bromma airport in Stockholm. So far, this is a seemingly all-Swedish police action.

But the picture soon changes.

Our program Kalla fakta´s (Cold facts) reporters have spoken with many sources who were present at Bromma airport on the night of 18th December. All want to be anonymous – all except one who now dares to come forward and tell what he saw.


”The key witness”

VO:

-Well, it all started with the colleagues from SÄK ( Säpo, the Security police) calling and ask if we can help … with our localities etcetera, because two arrested men, suspected of terrorism, are on their way in. And of course we oblige and help our colleagues.


Speak.:

-Paul Forell, a policeman with 25 years professional experience, is a key witness to the incident. He is stationed at Bromma airport, and was on duty this very night.


Paul Forell, Police inspector:

- Well, after a while came the Security police , my colleagues, by our entrance door here, and after another five, ten minutes came two American colleagues, in civilian suits, and we stood there for a while, talking.

Speak.:

The Americans in plain clothes suits are about 35 years, by rough estimate. They come through the entrance, that faces the parking space. They introduce themselves with Christian names, and Paul Forell´s memory picture is that they are from the American embassy. Together, the men wait for the expected transport – it takes about 20 minutes.


Speak.:


The Security police´s cars drive up to gate K at Bromma. They are let in and conducted to the Police station by the airport´s security officer.

Paul Forell, Police inspector:

-Well, they were parked just outside here. Just outside, and that´s a question of just a couple of metres away. That´s where they put their vehicles, just behind our police car. Well, then came this party in here, with the arrested men, into the station, and everything went very fast .
-The arrested men were dressed in their own clothes , if I don´t remember all wrong. Of course they were… they had handcuffs and footcuffs on.
(Question) Who took the arrested men in?
-Americans…. The Americans. The Swedish policemen stayed behind in the outer, public premises. They were three-four men to each of the arrested, and as far as I know they were normally dressed, that is jeans, and … shirt, and then they had hoods on. The Americans had hoods on when they came. I showed them in, briefly. And as I have understood, the arrested men had their clothes changed in the interior of our localities.

Speak.:

So, in the little police station are now an interpreter and about eight American agents in the changing-rooms in the interior, plus another two, the ones in suits, in the office room. There are also a number of policemen from Säpo, and another few from the ordinary police, and an interpreter. Plus Paul Forell, the only one in uniform.


Paul Forell, police inspector:

Well, my first thought here….. what is this? That was my first thought, I think, and the next was , I suppose, that these must be very dangerous men they have arrested, so I kept myself a bit in the background. There was hardly room for me in my own station.

Speak.:

Paul Forell stands in the office room , and from there he can´t see or hear what happens in the changing-room, but other sources Kalla fakta´s reporters have been in contact with tell:

The arrested men are placed here, in the police station´s changing-room. Foot- and handcuffs are still in place when their clothes are cut apart. When the men are naked, suppositories of an unknown kind are inserted into their anuses – one wittness concludes that it is a sedatory. The men have diapers put on them, and then dark overalls, blindfold and a hood over the head.

Paul Forell, police inspector :

(Question) –Who were with the arrested men in the changing-rooms?
-Well, as I understood it, they were Americans, those with hoods on.
(Question) –Who were in command?
-As far as I can remember, it was someone among the guys who wore masks. They were very professionl in their way of acting, and if you´d compare with anything it would be the National action force ( Swedish elite police unit for special actions). They acted very deftly, swiftly and silently.
(Question) –They had done this before?
-Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
(Question) –What do the arrested men look like when they are taken out?
-When they left the changing-room, they had their clothes changed into overalls, and were still with handcuffs and footcuffs. They were taken out to the cars, and then away.

Speak.:

The plane is some hundred metres away. It is a small jet – a Gulfstream 5, with register markings N379P – and, as Kalla fakta could reveal last week, it is flying for the US Department of Defense. One of the prisoners is placed lying on the floor with hands and feet cuffed together behind his back. The other is strapped fast in the cabin, with his hands over his head.

The two arrested Egyptians, about eight American agents and two Swedish police from Säpo take off from Bromma at 21.49.

Paul Forell, police inspector:

-Well, after that my Swedish colleagues and the two Americans in suits are still here. As I recall it, they were around for another five to ten minutes at the most, and then they left the station by the entrance door.

Speak.:

At 03.00, the American plane lands in Cairo. The expulsion has been carried out. The two arrested men are taken to the Egyptian security service, where the interrogations start, the very same night. It will be five weeks before the Swedish embassy will come to visit them.


Dennis Töllborg

Ingen text.


Paul Forell, police inspector:

-There was one thing I kept thinking of a little, it is a little extraordinary that we had not been contacted about the plane, because all aircraft that come from non-Schengen countries are to contact the Police, and no one informed us that an American plane would land at Bromma.

(Question) -What conclusions do you draw from that?

-Well, that there was much too much hush…hush!



Part 2 Terrorist background


Hans Dahlgren, Swedish vice foreign minister (radio interview, morning of May 18th, 2004):

-These are not just any Egyptians. The reason for their expulsion was their leading positions in an infamous terrorist organization.

(interviewed in TV4, morning of May 18th , 2004):

-It wasn´t just any Egyptians. These two persons had had leading positions in an infamous terrorist organization.


(interviewed in Kalla fakta, May 17th, 2004):

-They had held leading positions in a terrorist organization.





Speak.:

They were not just any Egyptians. They were terrorist leaders. That is the Swedish governments´s message. The foundations for that came from the Swedish security police, Säpo, which in its turn had it from foreign intelligence services.


Arne Andersson, Säpo, responsible for the expulsion:

-All in all, there was no ground for us to believe anything else than that this was correct. We have such a mutual trust within and between security services, that if we get information we can as a rule trust it.

Speak.:

Kalla fakta can´t decide whether the men are terrorists or not. But it would be possible to examine Säpo´s basis for this assertion. But the details are secret, even to the accused themselves. Kalla fakta has, after several hour-long interviews with both the Swedish Foreign office and Säpo been informed about parts of the foundations. This shows, after a scrutiny, serious flaws.
Ahmed Agiza is accused by the Foreign office of being mixed up in, possibly convicted of, the murder of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981. But that is wrong. He is not convicted - not even suspected in this connection. But, he is convicted by a military court in Cairo for membership in the otlawed organization Tala´e Alfath, with connections to the Egyptian islamic Jihad.

By telephone:

Diaa Rashwan, expert on islamistic movements, head of the research institute Al-Ahram:

I don´t think that they are right. Ahmed Agiza left the Egyptian Jihad for ever in 1993 after a crisis, a big crisis, about the leadership and the behaviour of the leadership in Egyptian Jihad.


Speak.:

Diaa Rashwan is one of the Arab world´s leading experts on radical islamistic groups, och and head of the respected research institute Al–Ahram (Ah-hram) in Cairo.

By telephone:

Diaa Rashwan, expert on islamistic movements, head of the research institute Al-Ahram:

-For me and many other specialists we have no trust in judging people in military courts. It means that they don´t have the normal right to defend themselves. Countering the accusations, to be a leader of Tala´e Alfath, Ahmed Agiza was never a leader of Tala´e Alfath.



Speak.:

Agiza is said to have had contacts high up in Al Qaida, and it is quite right that he knows Ayman Al Zawahiri, today the second man in the movement, next to Usama Bin Laden. Agiza and Al Zawahiri were active in radical islamistic movements in Egypt during the 80´s, and also met later under Agiza´s exile in Pakistan in the middle of the 90´s.


By telephone:

Diaa Rashwan, expert on islamistic movements , head of the research institute Al Ahram :

-Sure they met. But to meet someone doesn´t mean that you agree with them or that you cooperate with them. As far as Ahmed Agiza is concerned, he might have had radical ideas all the time. But that doesn´t mean that you are a terrorist.


Speak.:

Swedish Säpo doesn´t have any information about later contacts between Agiza and Zawahiri. And Agiza has on several occasions dissociated himself from Zawahiri and his ideology of violence.


Speak.:

-Then what about the other man – Mohammed Al Zery? Säpo says that he is convicted of crime in Egypt. That is also wrong, he w a s suspected of crime, but is now acquitted by Egyptian authorities and set at liberty.


Kjell Jönsson, Mohammed Al Zery´s Swedish lawyer:

-If he had had a leading position in a terrorist organization, it is absolutely unthinkable that the Egyptian state would set him at liberty and declare him innocent. So, this is a fundamental misjudgment forn the government´s side.

Hans Dahlgren, vice Foreign minister (interviewed in TV4 news programme, on May 18th, 2004):

-They were also suspected of preparing further terrorist actions, here on Swedish ground.


(interviewed on radio may 18th, 2004):

-The suspicion that was clearly put to the Swedish government was that they were , on Swedish territory, preparing further terrorist acts.


(from Kalla fakta, TV4, May 17th, 2004):

- They were suspected of preparing further terrorist attacks, here from Swedish territory.



Speak.:


So, the Foreign office now says that the men were planning terror acts abroad with Sweden as their base, which is a serious crime according to Swedish law.
But Säpo, who was investigating the two men for months, did not find any proof of criminal acitivites. Säpo didn´t even do a house search in their homes to seize material evidence, like Agiza´s computer. It is still in his flat in Karlstad.


Arne Andersson, Säpo, responsible for the expulsion:

(Question): -If the men were engaged in activities that threatened state and public security, why are they not brought to justice in Sweden?

-Well, it doesn´t have to go as far as to criminal activites, it can be on the verge, sometimes. And this security risk, it, it was in their very background itself. Leading positions within terror organizations, connections to Al Qaida, and so on.

They were suspected of preparing further terrorist attacks here, from Swedish territory.

Kjell Jönsson, Mohammed Al Zery´s Swedish lawyer:

-This is an accusation, a very serious accusation of crime. If, at that time, when he was expelled, there was a reasonable suspicion of such criminiality, then he should be informed about the suspicion, and he should have a chance to defend himself. There is, I mean, no ground for this. To inspire fear is, I think not worthy of the Swedish government, as a method of defence when you are in a tight corner.

Speak.:

On location in Cairo, Kalla fakta tries to get an interview with the imprisoned Ahmed Agiza. But the authorities refuse.

Live (in arabic):

Close the wicket! Close the wicket!

Speak.:

But through Agiza´s mother we take home a message from him. He dictated it to her when she was last permitted to see him:

”I am not part of any terrorist acitvity in any form. And my repudiation of Ayman Al Zawaheri and Usama Bin Laden is a well-known fact in islamistic circles.”

And he appeals to the Swedish government to let his family stay in Sweden.

”… so that they can grow up and be brought up with Swedish values, principles and moral codes.”


Part 3


Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza:

-I am afraid . If some of the children are a little bit late, I say OK, they picked them from the streeet. Why I live in that? Why my children must be afraid all the day? What I do? I don´t hurt anybody. I don´t believe I am in Sweden really.


Speak.:

Two and a half years have lapsed since Hanan Attia last saw her husband, and the five children their father, Ahmed Agiza. In the family album, there are memories from for instance Iran, and the English-language school the children went to there.

Live:

-I remember this American lady (a teacher)


Speak.:


The eldest son was only three when the family fled Egypt in 1991. The family has since led a roving life in Pakistan, Syria, and Iran, before it came to Sweden in 2 000. The youngest daughter, Kinana , is born here in Karlstad.


Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza:

-I came here and feel trustful and I don´t want a lot from the world, I want a safe place to grown up children in good environment to be benefit person.

Live


(At the cottage)

-I am the one who does the most fishing.

-Have you won any competition, Hussein?

-No, but I am the on who does the most fishing!


Speak.:

We have chosen not to show the faces of the elder children, out of consideration for their daily life at school. Anders Järliden is one of the Swedes who actively support the family.

Anders Järliden, friend of the family, head of the environment office, Storfors municipality:

-I see them every day, almost. I see children who are professional, I would almost say, to put their heads in the sand like ostrichs, to pretend for their own survival that the problems aren´t there. To manage daily life at school, and with friends, and generally. But under the surface they are naturally very torn.


Speak.:

A week ago, Kalla fakta could present information, from several pieces of witness evidence, and even from original documents, that Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed Al Zery have beeen subjected to systematical torture, by electricty among other things, in Egypt.
Hanan and the children also run great risks if they are expelled .

Anders Järliden, friend of the family, head of environment office, Storfors municipality:

-They will not have a chance to support themselves, they can´t get work down there, they will be a sort of ostracized parias who will forever have to fear being called to interrogations, with all that may mean.


Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza:

-We are at risk to be arrested, and it´s a great risk, not a small risk. And we are at risk to be tortured and at risk to be used against him, to put a pressure over him.


Speak.:

The prerequisite - in the Government´s decision for the expulsion of the family is the so called guarantee against torture, and inhuman treatment and unfair trial – the guarantee that the Swedish government now, after Kalla fakta´s scrutiny, has admitted that Egypt has broken.


Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza:

-They saw what is going on with Ahmed, and they want to send us to the same situation, you understand? I don´t understand how they can protect us.

Anders Järliden, friend of the family, head of the environment office, Storfors municipality:

-There is only one consequence to draw, and that is to immediately see to it that the family is given a safe haven i Sweden.


Speak.:

But to the UN committe on Human rights , which has examined the matter, the Swedish government has stated that the assurances given by Egypt are sufficient, and are being respected to the full.


Graphics:

”The Government has had no information which casts doubts over this conclusion.”

(From the Swedish government´s letter to the UN 6th May 2003.

Speak.:

But this is not correct.
Already at the Swedish ambassador´s first visit in the prison, in January 2002, Agiza told how he and Al Zery had been blindfolded allt the time, not been permitted to sleep, about beatings and maltreatment, during weeks of interrogation. Statements that the Swedish government immediately stamped Secret, but that Kalla fakta could reveal last week.


Julia Hall, Human Rights Watch:

-Everything that they told him amounts to torture and ill treatment. The only conclusiosn I can draw from that is that the Swedish government did not want to admit publicly that the men had been tortured or ill treated upon return. To do so would mean in fact that they had violated the torture principle.


Speak.:

Even in front of another UN body, the UN Committee against torture, Sweden chose not to give account of what the men had told.


Graphics:


”To the Swedish ambassador Ahmed Agiza conveyed no complaint about torture, or how he had been treated.”

(From the Swedish government´s letter to UN 8th of March 2002.)

Bo Jonasson, Hanan Attia´s lawyer:

-Yes, information has been withheld, vital information. Their ( the authorities´) duty is to present all the material they have, and this they haven´t done.

-What is your view on that?

-That is serious, of course.

Kjell Jönsson, Mohammed Al Zery´s lawyer:

-There was information from the start about physical violence, and about such treatment that is classified as inhuman and degrading, and about torture. Then they (the authorities) have gone on and deceived and lied to the Swedish controlling body, the Government´s constitutional committee , and then they have gone on internationally in front of UN´s committee against torture, and the committee that safeguards human rights. You can hardly believe that it´s true. That this can happen in Sweden.

Speak.:

Kalla fakta has asked the Foreign office to comment on the criticism. The Foreign office has referred to its head of legal and judicial matters, Carl-Henrik Ehrenkrona, but says that he can´t comment on the matter, because he has been away for the weekend, and has not had access to the Foreign office´s documents.


Hanan Attia, wife of Ahmed Agiza:

-If she will hear me as example, foreign minister, or migration minister, both of them is ladies. What they can feel if they have five children like me and live in that situation for that long of time. What they can feel? If they feel that their children be in danger to be tortured or to be lost everything.

by redjade Sun Sep 26, 2004 19:09

26/09/04
By Paul T Colgan
A jet chartered by the United States military, which is known to have abducted and transported al-Qaeda suspects, has landed at Shannon Airport several times, The Sunday Business Post has learned.

It is unclear whether the plane, a Citation jet with the call sign N379P, has contained any al-Qaeda suspects when in Ireland.

The jet was spotted at Shannon in 2001. At the end of that year, the plane picked up two al-Qaeda suspects in Sweden and ferried them to Cairo in Egypt for interrogation.

The plane has also landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Camp X-Ray, run by the US military on one of its bases, houses several hundred al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects.

more at....

by Tim. Sun Sep 26, 2004 19:12

Here's a link to a photo of the plane.
As you'll see it has no military markings.
It looks like an ordinary executive jet... very good cover to sneak around in.
The Reg N379P is clearly painted on the engine of the plane.

and here's a link to another photo, different angle

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7982

by MAMA - MAMA Sun Sep 26, 2004 20:32

Peace activists from the Shannon Peace Camp and the Mid-West Alliance against Military Aggression (M.A.M.A.) have condemned recent revelations that Shannon Airport is used by the US Military for flights to capture and torture prisoners.
Following revelations in Sweden, Karachi Egypt and Jakarta, the plane that is used for these missions has been identified and logged at Shannon airport.
Although registered as a civilian aircraft it flies between US bases around the world, and recently featured in a Swedish documentary about two men who were taken by US agents to be tortured in Egypt. One of the men was released without charge, following 34 months of captivity which included beatings and electrocution.
"This is a stain on the country and a new low for the government," said Tim Hourigan, who helped expose the military use at Shannon. "Not only have we moved troops to war, along with bombs and explosives to kill people, but now we're helping Bush to torture people, while our Government looks the other war"
Prior to the exposure of the plane, a private registered Gulfstream V, the possibility was raised in the Dail and the Seanad that this practice might be going on.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said that it would cause him grave concern, and that he would respond immediately if he had reason to believe that this was taking place, adding that every person on the soil of Ireland is entitled to the protection of the Constitution.
MAMA calls on the government to lift the previous instruction to the Garda not to inspect these aircraft under an undisclosed agreement between Dublin and Washington.
"It is utter hypocrisy from this government to plead ignorance and ask for evidence when the Garda have been instructed not to find anything, not to see anything, not to report anything. Instead the people dedicated to investigating and exposing this have been treated like criminals in the state.
The Gardai have the power and the duty to inspect these aircraft to prevent people from being chained and shackled at Irish airports on their way to Guantanamo Express." said Mr. Hourigan
Fiona Wheeler, a peace activist from Co. Clare added "If Mr McDowell meant it in June when he said he would act if there was evidence that this may be going on, then he must take real action now.
Bertie Ahern tells us that the debate is over, and he pleads for the release of kindap victims in Iraq, meanwhile turning a blind eye to kidnap and torture in his own back yard."


-------------------------------------------------END-----------------------------------------------------------------

Contact:

Tim Hourigan
087-9777703

Ed Horgan
086-2380911

Fiona Wheeler
0876447246

by .:. liberté Sun Sep 26, 2004 20:59

would look great with illustrations when it gets off the CDs no?

probably provided by the lowest bidder... that is the capitalist way.

by Lone Gunman Mon Sep 27, 2004 02:17

A citation jet landed at Shannon?

There are pics taken by a independant non alinged third party either overtly or covertly of a bound and drugged middle eastern person on that plane in Shannon??

Somone has aquired a flite plan to show that this plane was logged to Guntamno bay or Cuba?

Somone got one of the flight crew to talk on the record to admit as to what they are carrying or doing?

the only source of this story is a Swedish[read socialist,anti american country] radio and political talk show?And the only witnesses are apprently illegal aliens in or from middle eastern countries hiding in sweden?

Unless you can up with some irrefutable proof IE pic evidence taken at shannon or a pilot who will say.This story hasnt a leg to stand on INMHO

Also why would they specifically land at Shannon and risk somthing going wrong,in a neutral country?When they could fly to Lakenheath,Mildenhall, or Rejavick,Kevlacik
refuel and then go to Cuba or anywhere along the east coast of CONUS?which would be SOP for a sensitive cargo?

by Moving target Mon Sep 27, 2004 03:38

"Swedish[read socialist,anti american country]"
Really, Lone Gunman! If that is the best you can do you would have been better off saying nothing. You have just made yourself look quite silly by trotting out such a puerile argument containing that nonsensical stereotype.

by Beg Mon Sep 27, 2004 06:53

So much for the Irish Government having any say in the case of the British man kidnapped while working for the US/UK coalition forces in Iraq.

by Deirdre Clancy Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:59

"Swedish[read socialist,anti american country]". Having lived and worked in Sweden for a significant length of time, I can tell the Lone Gunman that it is a capitalist country, albeit one that happens to have a more advanced social conscience than most other Euopean countries (i.e. it made
headline news and shocked the country when a single mother was rendered homeless once, etc.). However, socialist it is not, at least not in the classic sense of the word. However, certain right-wing types, I realise, regard any social initiatives that have any degree of effectiveness in preventing poverty or inequality as socialist, and I suppose Lone Gunman must be one of those. When he says 'anti-American' in the same breath, I assume he means 'anti-Republican free market economics'. Individuals who use this phrase usually do. In fact, Sweden is more influenced by certain aspects of American culture than many other Euorpean countries I have visited, and has strong historical ties to America, of which it remains very conscious. Therefore, LG is not one to be pointing out to others the need for factual inaccuracy.

by Edward Horgan - Peace and Neutrality Alliance Mon Sep 27, 2004 13:23

There are already indications from the US that if Bush is re-elected, the US will then initiate a war against Iraq. The logic is that because they have made such a mess of Iraq, that an eventual Shia government in Iraq will tie up with the Shia government in Iran, thereby controlling one third of the world's oil supply (it is of course their oil anyway). Tony Blair has also indicated over the past week that he does not rule out a further war, and complaints from US and UK sources about the possible nuclear capacity of Iran will be used as the excuse for the attack, combined with claims that Iran is undermining the stability of Iraq. This is the spin and its is already been spun.
Shannon airport, has been used for the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war, the Iraq occupation, and transporting prisoners. In 2005 it may very well be used for the war against Iran.
Tony Blairs comment last weekend that "we" are now in a similar situation as the UK was in 1941, engaged in a war that was going to get worse before it got better is also indicative of things to come.
Its madness and it is time to shout stop, once more. Just shouting is no longer enough - do something, yes, I am looking at you.

by Eoin Dubsky Mon Sep 27, 2004 13:26

Thanks again for your vigilance. This is the sort of article that I value most on Indymedia: It's got a backgrounder in plain English, relevant quotations and hyperlinks, and a call to action.
PS Please don't feed the trolls.

by Tim Mon Sep 27, 2004 14:20

I don't deserve all the credit for this, a small group of people spent a lot of time on this, and we're not going out on a limb.

What we need is a large number of people to act on it.

You should see the video (which should be ready for an english speaking audience soon. )

As the transcript above indicates, the sources for the revelations about the plane and its mission include members of the Airport Police in Sweden (not exactly members of any anarchist peacenik group), and the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden.

I know that people who have already committed themselves to supporting the war and our govts collusion in it will ask for an ever higher burden of proof (perhaps a signed affidavit from Bertie Ahern admitting to prior knowledge) before they even think that this warrants investigation....

IF ONLY this high burden of proof were consistently applied!
Innocent men would not be snatched from their families, electrocuted and beaten, imprisoned for almost three years, before being released without charge.... as happened to Mr. Alzery who was ON THIS EXACT AIRCRAFT.

Any of course our leaders would have waited for proof of WMD before killing all those Afghan and Iraqi men, women and children and turning the country into a giant battlefield.

by Mama Mia Mon Sep 27, 2004 14:20

The Swedish documentary contains admissions ON THE RECORD from Swedish
Police, and the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden. There are
official documents from the Swedish embassy in Cairo that back up the
testimony of torture from individuals...

Amazing the level of proof demanded before one would even ask for an
investigation., never mind charging people with crime..!!!

If we are to be consistent in this high burden of proof, none of the
suspects would have been snatched and tortured, and of course, we might have
waited for incontrovertible evidence of WMD before killing all those
Iraqis....

by Ciaron - Dublin Catholic Worker Mon Sep 27, 2004 14:52

Reminds one of the fudge during the '80's when U.S. nuke ships would come to our town and "neither confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard". Reminds one of the '90's when the genocidal Indonesian generals had promised to use British Aerospace Hawk fighters in East Timor. BAe echoed the rhetoric at home and of course the Indonesian generals admitted they were using them all along once ety pulled out (scorched earth policy as they left) of East Timor. These lights at the end of the tunnel are always trains.

Garda, Customers offices do your job...check these planes when they are working for organisations with a long record of smuggling smack (see Vietnam War) and coke (see Oliie North and Contragate) and have continually disrepected human rights and human life.

These folks have been kidnapped and held hostage without any due process, they face the same unjustifiable fate as Mr. Biggerly from Liverpool....the only difference, skin tone.

by serchenjin Mon Sep 27, 2004 21:58

why it doesn't go to military bases in the UK as well.

I think RAF Northolt would qualify as a military base...

a quick search of their visitor log online pulls up this. (and that's just looking at the first hit)

Monday 24th February 2003
N379P Gulfstream 5 dep 26th

Friday 28th February 2003
N379P Gulfstream 5 n/stop

It sure gets about doesn't it?

by lone gunman Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:22

Can anyone answer them??????
no thought not ,just the usual ignorant rants.

by SDR Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:28

No, it's only you, LG, who is displaying ignorance. 'serchenjin' at least took the trouble to make a search for the information.
Now go away and troll someplace else.

by Edward Horgan - Peace and Neutrality Alliance Tue Sep 28, 2004 14:59

My previous comments (What's Next) had a slight typing error, in the first line it said that Iraq was the next target for a US war. This should have read Iran. This is the sort of error that the US occasionally makes when it bombs the wrong countries by mistake. In the 1970s they destroyed most of Cambodia and Laos. They thought they were bombing North Vietnam and of course would not dream of bombing neutral countries such as Cambodia and Laos, because that would be against the UN Charter, and a breach of international law.
Of course any war against Iran would only be for the benefit of the Iranian people, as the war in Iraq was to free the Iraqi people. Killing is a form of freedom that I prefer to forego for a while.

Fintan O'Toole's article in the today's Irish Times is a credit to those who provided the access to the truth.
Edward Horgan

by redjade Tue Sep 28, 2004 15:36

From PBS's Documentary series Frontline
this episode: 'Switzerland:Neutrality or Cowardly?'
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nazis/train/

....one story we examined -- the forced transports of Italians through Switzerland via the St. Gotthard mountain passage -- which represents a dramatic new allegation about Switzerland's wartime role. We tracked down a woman able to describe in detail an incident that since 1943 had been discussed only behind closed doors within Zurich's Jewish community. Initially, this woman - whom we call 'Elizabeth' - had contacted a Holocaust survivor who had written about Switzerland's role in the war. She described to him how, as a teenager in Zurich, she assisted in giving humanitarian aid to people in cattle trains headed to Germany.

[....]

Elizabeth' claimed that her experience with Nazi prisoner transports occurred sometime after the middle of December 1943. She emphasized that this was very secret, telling us, "I think the whole thing was rather undercover." And she added, "we knew they were going to Germany, we knew they were Jews, we knew about the concentration camps." In our interview with her, she described harrowing scenes at Zurich's main station, with details we set out to corroborate.

The question is - who were on the trains? Were they Jews on their way to concentration camps, or slave laborers seized by the Nazis in Italy to keep their factories running? Or was it possible the transports included both?

by Ciaron Tue Sep 28, 2004 17:24

We are presently in a lull in terms of the U.S. invasion. The Bush administration wishes to minimse casualties before the election. We will be in a new phase following the election. There will be an escalation of aerial bombardment and groundfighting. The role of Shannon continues and will esclate.

There is generally a Irish mainstream media blackout on these issues surrounding Shannon.

There will be an anti-war gathering at Shannon Airport at 1 pm on All Souls Day Sunday Oct 31st. to remember the many young Americans who have passed through Shannon only to die in Iraq and to remember the Iraqis they killed while they were there.

This is the Sunday preceeding the U.S. election and the predicatble escalation. get there if you can!

by eeekkk Tue Sep 28, 2004 18:41

An Olympic Airlines aircraft en route from Athens to New York has been diverted to Shannon Airport after the discovery of a suspect package. 

The A340 plane with 303 people on board landed safely shortly after 5pm today, and emergency crews are at the scene.

It is expected the plane will stay on the ground until its arrival time at New York's JFK Airport has passed. Gardaí will then search the plane.

At the weekend a similar flight was diverted to the UK after a bomb threat was made about the plane. The incident was eventually declared a hoax.

by Lone gunman Tue Sep 28, 2004 23:34

So this plane goes to RAF Northolt..........And?????
Usual posts and rants and insults[usually of the boring and simplistic shoe size IQ posters] and trying to divert the arguement onto different tracks with totally irrevelant posts.
I'll ask again;
got any pics of some middle eastern person in this plane in a detained state?
got a sworn statement from flite crew,pilots or a flite plan?
got an independant witness to such?
Got anything that will actually stand up in a court of law???/
I and the rest of the world would LOVE to see it..... No?
Oh well just another day in indymedia fantsyland

by Freddy Tue Sep 28, 2004 23:55

Now you are just being ridiculous, LG. You know damn well that you are asking the impossible. What if we asked Bush eighteen months ago for verifiable proof of WMD?
You are just a common troll. Shoo. Get lost.

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Wed Sep 29, 2004 01:50

Well done Tim and gang. For starters, I have sent a copy of your posting to Minister MCDowell along with an email asking for an immediate investigation. Beir bua.

by lone gunman Wed Sep 29, 2004 13:30

Freddy ,unless you own this board.Up yours!!
we might have been better off if we had asked Bush for irrefutable proof.although WMDs HAVE been found in Iraq,which is consistently ignored or played down[wonder why?]

Go on send this article to Mc dowell,keep deludeing yourselves that you are actually doing somthing.If Mc Dowell even sees this article,do you actually think he will DO anything??? and if so what??? Spark a diplomatic incident to satisfy a bunch of unimportant hairies in proably still in college?A bit of reality is needed somtimes.

by Slarti Wed Sep 29, 2004 15:28

"although WMDs HAVE been found in Iraq"

Prove it.

by redjade Wed Sep 29, 2004 16:47

WMDs can be found in Iraq - no, I don't mean the ones that Rumsfeld sold Saddam in 1983, I mean the ones put there by Rumsfeld in 2003....

Quote:
The BLU-82 and the MOAB are, in fact, much larger and more powerful weapons even than an FAE. They are based on a mix of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium in an aqueous suspension or slurry, with a binding agent to hold the materials together before detonation. The effect of the BLU-82 is astonishing, and rare film shows a detonation, shock wave and subsequent mushroom cloud very similar to a small nuclear weapon, even if it is actually a conventional bomb.

When used in war, the BLU-82 is ejected from the back of a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft at low altitude and is parachuted down until it is detonated a few feet from the ground. By contrast, the larger MOAB bomb is satellite-guided so that the plane can drop it from a much greater altitude.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/articles/ViewPopUpArticle.jsp?id=2&articleId=1028

-- -- --

And then there's this story that the mainstream media never picked up - I've always wondered why....

Quote:
Greenpeace entered and inspected the main storage facility for these materials in Tuwaitha one year ago, and revealed that while US forces had immediately secured oil production facilities, Tuwaitha remained unguarded for more than six weeks. Local residents looted radioactive barrels and building materials for use in their homes. Greenpeace inspectors found one source kicking out 10,000 times background radiation in the home of one Tuwaitha resident, and a source of 3,000 times background outside a school where children were playing.

"We want a full inventory of the removed materials" said Townsley, who led the Greenpeace team in Tuwaitha, "and full authority over the materials given to the IAEA."

"The US government has lied, bullied, and bullshitted their way into this war, and I see no reason why anyone should trust them to do the right or safe thing with nuclear materials. The international community can have no confidence US government assurances that the inventory of radioactive industrial isotope is complete.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=515662

by Joe Wed Sep 29, 2004 16:55

There was also a single nerve gas 105mm shell used as an IED at the start of the year. The White House never made much of this probably because it was so old the gas had decayed (so no one was hurt) which would suggest that it dated from the period when Saddam was a US friend and the west was supplying him with the equiopment to gas his own population and the Iranians.

LG's demands for proof are hilarous but you never know maybe some snaps will surface. The it will be the next excuse, its all kinda patheic if you follow his posts over the last couple of years.

by Slarti Wed Sep 29, 2004 17:33

Sorry, I forgot about all those WMD that had arrived recently. Don't forget also that there's all those DU shells - described by the UN Human Rights Commission (among others) as a weapon of "mass or indiscriminate destruction"

by geigercounter Wed Sep 29, 2004 18:02

'The BLU-82 and the MOAB'.
'ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminium'
Now that is serious stuff. Lune Goneman was right after all - there are WMDs in Iraq. But then he does not mind that the US army are the ones with that stuff. He just want an opportunity to bully and abuse anyone who stands up to the USA.

by redjade Wed Sep 29, 2004 20:59

US Republicans are trying to legalise Torture...

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2004/09/legalizing_tort.html

''The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture.''

- - -

All passing through an airport near you.

by redjade Thu Sep 30, 2004 14:51

From The Washington Post:

The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

[....]

In 2002, the Justice Department, in a case that has earned international condemnation, approved the expedited removal of a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, to Syria, a country whose long record of torture has been criticized publicly by Bush.

Arar, who U.S. authorities have said they suspect of links to a terrorist group, alleges that his Syrian captors tortured him during his 375 days in prison. He disputes U.S. claims. Freed last year by Syria, he lives in Canada with his family and has never been arrested or charged with a crime by Canada or the United States.

"Is it an inconvenience if we can't send people back to torturers? Sure," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "But since Abu Ghraib, everyone from the president to the Defense Department to Congress has said the United States does not have a policy of torture. If this passes, we will have a policy of tolerating torture."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60779-2004Sep29?language=printer

by Rob UAE Fri Oct 01, 2004 15:01

While the article raises serious issues it at the same time brings up credibility issues that surround independant media.
Yes the points raised are very possibly quite correct, there is a lot of compelling evidence in particular the links on the swedish side. However you have to ask yourselves "Could any of this stand up in court?".
Yes maybe in a few years time you will all be vindicated, but thats too late. If you want to set yourselves up as a viable alternative to mainstream corporate news, then the stories have to be able to stand on their own.
Perhaps lone Gunman's view isn't popular but he does have a point.

Not that i don't agree with your efforts, i think its fantastic what your doing. Without this outlet i would most likely have never thought to look deeper

by Lone Gunman Sat Oct 02, 2004 14:14

of inconvient facts out there.
May 2004.
four 120mm artillery shells used in an attempted roadside ambush on a US convoy contained sarin nervegas.
June 2004 discovery of 20 surface to surface missiles tipped with nerve gas warheads
Not to mind Saddos development of a contra to the UN embargo weapons development of an unmanned flight vechicle[no doubt for peaceful purpouses] and a missile with an over extended range.
Not forgetting as well that Saddo also gave his local commanders the all clear to use the stuff if the invasion occured.Wouldnt have done this if the stuff didnt exist,would he?

I would classify this as chemical munitions[which is the correct term,but doesnt sound as emotive as WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION]
Oh poor little diddums!Was big bad lone gunman bullying the little peacenick???
There,there dont talk on the net to the nasty man who is upsetting you so on the Net.
Grow up and get a life you sad person!

As per usual we are off the subject of this mysterious executive jet that is ferrying prisioners thru Shannon.Supposedly.Wonder why they changed from transport aircraft?
which would have the range from the UK to the US direct without any stopover required at shannon.Are these "club class" terrorists that require an executive jet?[Hope the leather seating isnt pigskin leather!]
I had a look at the "demonstration" outside the Dail .Ten people make a demo in Ireland,you couldnt even include a picture of the plane???
This whole thing gets an F- Must try harder.

OR is this whole anti American "peace movement" in Ireland getting to the point of clutching at straws because they realise they are impotent and incompetant to do anything to change world politics and that really no one gives two fucks worth who says or does what on this little rock off Europe,and that in the ways of the world Ireland opinion on anything is worth less than nothing??

by ? Sat Oct 02, 2004 17:47

Can Michael McDowell ignore this?

By Irish and International Law has has to pay attention and act appropriately

- - -
White House Backs Torture-Abroad

Toronto Star
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1001-21.htm
The White House has endorsed a proposed bill that would make it legal for U.S. intelligence officials to deport individuals to countries known to use torture to extract information.

The "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act" marks the first time the U.S. government has officially scripted its policy known as "extraordinary rendition," whereby American authorities can circumvent their own restraints on interrogations by sending suspects to countries known to employ harsh tactics.

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Sun Oct 03, 2004 12:52

Newly appointed Minister Willie O'Dea has said he will investigate whether planes passing through Shannon airport are carrying prisoners to locations where they may be tortured, according to FM106. He said also that preliminary investigations have disclosed no such evidence as yet.

The trouble is that no-one knows who is responsible for planes passing through Shannon. My letters at the time of the war were reffered from the Taoiseach to the Minister for External Affairs, from there on to the Minister for Transport - and now the new Minister fro Defence appears to have regarded it all along as belonging to his domain.

Already the arch-critics of the anti-war movemnet who appear to live in FM106 are saying that it has nothing to do with O'Dea.
But at least, he has spoken on the issue (he has an interest in Shannon area politically) and fair play to him for that.
Also fair play to Tim, Conor, Fiona and others who pursued him relentlessly from beginning to end on the issue of Shannon being used for the transport of US troops to an illegal war looking for non-existent WMDs that even Bush and Blair now concede were not there.

But the question remains: What Department of Government is prepared to stand up and say: Yes, my department is responsible for what happens in Shannon airport , for what troops pass through it, for what cargo passes through it, for what happens to prisoners who pass through it - and for insuring that they are not going and have not gone to prison camps of torture such as Guantanamo Bay.

Minister O'Dea's intevention has shown how important has been the contribution from MAMA and the Peace camp in monitoring Shannon from the beginning. There was no State monitor - no inspections of passengers or cargo all through the war period or since in the period of occupation and puppet government

by doktorwatcher Sun Oct 03, 2004 14:14

.

by Lone Gunman Sun Oct 03, 2004 14:40

Hasnt it dawned on you lot yet?By buck passing in good ol traditional Irish way of doing things.No one group ,politican or govt can be ever held accountable for anything!
They can and will play this game with you until we are all dead and buried.They have had 80plus years practise to do so.

"looney tunes" O Dea { I always hear the music from Warner Brothers cartoons start up whenever I see or hear him speak) is just making political noises to show the sheep that he is doing somthing in his new office.
IT is a known fact that the troops are coming thru with their arms on the aircraft.wouldnt be much point in sending combat troops out without their arms.AND it is LEGAL under the international air traffic and Irish law as well.

So what do you lot expect to be done Shannon gardai issue firearms certs for 400 plus GIs that will be on the ground for four hours max?Hello reality check!!
Searching aircraft of different nations also brings into question the issue of diplomatic immunity,and international air law.See any of our politicos wanting to go on that hot potato?

Whats the betting that Gulfstream will never be seen again in Shannon?Or more perversely it will be back under a different reg?Or more funnier will be it will come back,it will be inspected from nose to tail,they will find nothing,nada,nichts,niet.[while the POWs are being moved thru on the plane full of returning GIs]The govt will issue another report that there are no prisioners being transported thru Shannon,you lot will be discredited yet again and busisness will be back to normal.
Until the next hopeful headline grapper.

by redjade Sun Oct 03, 2004 17:05

Prisoner interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, the controversial US military detention centre where guards have been accused of brutality and torture, have not prevented a single terrorist attack, according to a senior Pentagon intelligence officer who worked at the heart of the US war on terror.

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Christino, who retired last June after 20 years in military intelligence, says that President George W Bush and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have 'wildly exaggerated' their intelligence value.

[....]

It was performed by new recruits who had almost no training, and were forced to rely on incompetent interpreters. They were 'far too poorly trained to identify real terrorists from the ordinary Taliban militia'.

According to Christino, most of the approximately 600 detainees at Guantánamo - including four Britons - at worst had supported the Taliban in the civil war it had been fighting against the Northern Alliance before the 11 September attacks, but had had no contact with Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda.

For six months in the middle of 2003 until his retirement, Christino had regular access to material derived from Guantánamo prisoner interrogations, serving as senior watch officer for the central Pentagon unit known as the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Combating Terrorism (JITF-CT). This made him responsible for every piece of information that went in or out of the unit, including what he describes as 'analysis of critical, time-sensitive intelligence'.

by redjade Sun Oct 03, 2004 17:11

O’Dea added: “I will make absolutely thorough inquiries next week, as soon as people come back to their desks, to make sure this isn’t the case because I would be extremely disturbed if it were, and I have to say I would find it totally unacceptable.

“Indeed, this is a matter I will be raising with my colleagues in cabinet and I would be looking for a situation where this sort of facility wouldn’t be allowed.”

The defence minister said that anybody on Irish soil is entitled to the protection provided by the Irish constitution. “I will be suggesting to the Irish government that they wouldn’t countenance any such activity, no matter how friendly the country in question was,” he said.

“Personally I would be horrified to think that Shannon is being used for this sort of activity (illegally transferring detainees). I would be totally opposed to it. And if this is happening I will do my utmost to put a stop to it straight away.”

by Anti-War Ireland Sun Oct 03, 2004 18:15

Anti-War Ireland has called on the government to co-operate fully with any criminal investigation into suspecions that US military torture operations used Shannon airport to transport their victims.

4 members of the peace group last night handed in criminal complaints to Shannon Garda station urging an immediate investigation into the passage of the Gulf V aircraft reg N379P through Shannon.
"These are very serious crimes, and if the people involved have been using Shannon then it is a matter of grave concern requiring immediate response."

"We're glad to hear Minister O'Dea say that he will investigate these flights" said a spokesperson for the group, "But this is a criminal matter and is the responsibility of the Garda Siochana."
Minister O'Dea, quoted in the Sunday Times said that initial inquiries by the Department of Foreign Affairs have concluded that terrorist suspects are not being transported through the airport, and this was the government position.
"The Gardai at Shannon did not seem to be aware of his 'initial investigations' " and no proper evidence will be uncovered unless the Gardai are allowed to carry out a full investigation without political interference.
Anti-War Ireland asks that the Garda Siochana carry out a full investigation without fear or favour into this case, they can find all the documents relating to the aircraft using at Shannon at the airport, and perhaps from government departments.
We hope that any material discovered by the depts of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Justice or Transport will be handed over to the Garda Siochana without delay.

by dublin catholic worker Mon Oct 04, 2004 03:01

Peace Vigil - Demilitarise Shannon -Monday, 4-6pm, Oct. 4th

dublincatholicworker@yahoo.com
address: Rialto
phone: Monday Vigil at I.A.A. -087 9638398 General - 087 9184552


WHERE? - Irish Aviation Authority, Burgh Quay, Dublin City Centre

The peace vigil will continue on a weekly basis (Monday 4pm-6pm) as a lead up to a return to Shannon Airport - 1 pm Sun. Oct 31st .

Vigils will include
-reading the names of U.S.soldiers killed in Iraq.
-reading the names of Iraqis killed by the U.S.military.
10,000 U.S. troops pass through Shannon Airport a month. They commute to the invasion, occupation and plunder of Iraq. Many have returned in body bags, with amputations and mental health issues.

Many U.S. troops who have passed through Shannon Airport have been invlolved in killing & torture of Iraq civilians.

The Irish Aviation Authority (www.iaa.ie)continues to profit from providing a pitstop for the U.S. war machine at Shanon Airport.

***They also have the authority to prevent any US Military plane/contracted plane from landing on Irish soil or flying in Irish airspace


*Guantanámo/Shannon Protest @ Dáil Éireann, Sept. 29th '04

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=66819

Christmas Nonviolent Action at Irish Aviation Authority-Report and Photos

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?id=62761

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?id=62761

Ramadam Nonviolent Action at the Irish Aviation Authority-Report & Photos

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61979

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61979


Check out more information on the Dublin Catholic Worker at
www.geocities.com/dublincatholicworker

and background on Feb. '03 ploughshares action at Shannon Airport at
http://www.ploughsharesireland.org

by kokomero Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:34

It is obvious from MCDowells choice of words, let's not forget this guy is a liar, I meant lawyer, that airplanes if they are regarded as foreign soil (registered as military or diplomatic), would be exempt from any checks.

I have long suspected this was the case and have already brought the matter up with my elected representatives. Unfortunately there seems to be political complicity accross the board (as in the presedential non-event) as none of them have asked the awkward question in the Dail as requested.

This should be a concern to all those who want to live in a democracy, irrespective of their political persuasion.

Finally I will never again regard plane-spotters as sad anoracks (something I did in the past). These guys are actually providing a valuable democratic function. Congratulations on the good work!

by Vulture Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:55

These guys have been very busy particularly in the UK and Germany it would seem.

Frankfurt am Main

http://myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?id=00026916
http://www.scramble.nl/mag/gfx/moveldciv.pdf

Luton Airport

http://fafafabe.free.fr/Logs/Civ/03%20October.htm

Glasgow

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/egpfgla/jun03/29.html
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/egpfgla/jul03/10.html

by Jim Bob Mon Oct 04, 2004 11:10

Actually there have been questions in the Dail, by the likes of Finian McGrath, Senator Henry, John Gormley, Dan Boyle, Joe Higgins and Michael D.

In some cases they got waffle, and in one case, McDowell simply ignored Dan Boyles question.

That's why there needs to be pressure inside and outside.

by redjade Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:10

US officer predicts Guantánamo releases
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/192851d2-163b-11d9-b835-00000e2511c8.html

Most of the prisoners being held at Guantánamo Bay, the US military base on Cuba, are expected to be released or transferred to their own countries, the deputy commander of the unit that runs the base has said.

The US military is currently holding 550 alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters at the base.

Of these, 15 are facing military trials. The rest face tribunals, as ordered by the US Supreme Court, to decide whether the detainees were correctly designated as "enemy combatants".

Some 200 detainees have been released since the first prisoners arrived at the base in early 2002. But Brig Gen Martin Lucenti, deputy commander of the joint task force that controls the base- including its legal proceedings - has said he expects most will be freed or extradited.

"Of the 550 that we have, I would say most of them, the majority of them, will either be released or transferred to their own countries," he told the FT.

"Most of these guys weren't fighting. They were running. Even if somebody has been found to be an enemy combatant, many of them will be released because they will be of low intelligence value and low threat status.

by redjade Wed Oct 06, 2004 20:29

Ahmed Agiza & Muhammad al-Zery

Summary
Thanks to excellent reporting by a Swedish TV program and the Washington Post, this case is the best window we have into how "extraordinary rendition" works in practice.

On December 18, 2001, the United States transported Swedish asylum seekers Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad Al-Zery from Sweden's Bromma airport to Cairo. And for once we have a named witness. Paul Forell, a policeman stationed at the airport that night, described it to the TV show "Kalla Fakta":

Forell waited with the Swedish security police and two Americans in civilian clothing for the prisoners to arrive. 20 minutes later, the suspects arrived. They were handcuffed, footcuffed and blindfolded. They were each escorted by 3-4 American agents, who were also wearing hoods or balaclavas. Forell said one of the masked American agents was giving orders, and all were "very professional in their way of acting, and if you´d compare with anything it would be the National action force (Swedish elite police unit for special actions). They acted very deftly, swiftly and silently," and had "absolutely" done this before.
------

Obsidian Wings Blog has been covering the topic of 'extraordinary rendition' regularly....

by more info Tue Nov 16, 2004 01:13

Don't look for tail number N379P if you are seeking a clandestine transporter of enemy combatants to undisclosed locations for Extraordinary Rendition, i.e., delivery of detainees to foreign locations for advanced interrogation. A straightforward open source analysis reveals that N379P is now N8068V, same serial number (581), same owner (Premiere Executive Transport Services Inc.), and one might surmise, the same purpose, (And when someone awakes to the public recognition of this datum, expect it to change again, or change ownership, or contract provider, and possibly the aircraft.)

http://spaces.icgpartners.com/index2.asp?NGuid=53D0DFB7D3B64B39BE2316DFCB79707E

by redjade Sat Nov 20, 2004 15:14

http://pierrotsfolly.blogspot.com/2004/11/torture-jet.html

by Swedish documentary Sat Nov 20, 2004 15:22

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=N8068V&hl=en&lr=&selm=200404020728.i327STVq070530%40clark.pathlink.com&rnum=2

by Anthony G Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:10

Last week's Sunday Times had a good article containing a lot of info about the comings and goings of this particular aircraft. (The link is working at the moment but I've been told that the Times Online make only their more recent articles available on the web to non-subscribers.)

by Tim Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:11

A few helpful indymedia heads, subtititled espisode 1 for me, usign the script translation provided by TV4.

there's a few copies of it in Dublin, and I have on in Limerick, if people want to organise a showing of it, let me know

087-9777703

by pc Mon Nov 22, 2004 22:13

dyathink?

by Domain owner Wed Feb 23, 2011 00:28

I've had the same refresh here going for the below related link. time for an update. sugestions?