Pura hipocresía, Europa sabía por la CIA, dice Powell
Europe was aware of rendition, says Powell

Por Jerome Taylor *
The Independent. London, 19 December 2005
Página 12. Buenos Aires, 19 de diciembre de 2005

Los gobiernos europeos estaban bajo una creciente presión anoche para revelar cuán involucrados están en los controvertidos "traslados extraordinarios" de Estados Unidos.

Colin Powell, ex secretario de Estado, dijo que las aseveraciones de ignorancia hechas por los líderes europeos como Jack Straw sobre el transporte, la detención y la tortura de sospechosos no son creíbles.

"Hay un poco de la película Casablanca en esto, ya que, como saben, el inspector apareció diciendo, ’Estoy shockeado, shockeado porque este tipo de cosa suceda", aseguró en una entrevista con Sir David Frost.

Hablando con el canal televisivo BBC’s World ayer, Powell criticó a los aliados europeos de Estados Unidos por fingir ignorar los traslados y rechazó las sugerencias de que los gobiernos estuvieran sorprendidos de que sus aeropuertos pudieran estar involucrados.

"Muchos de nuestros amigos europeos no pueden estar sorprendidos de que este tipo de cosas sucedan. La realidad es que hemos realizado, a través de los años, procedimientos para liderar con las personas responsables de actividades terroristas, o sospechosas de actividades terroristas, y por eso lo que se llama traslado no es nuevo o desconocido para mis amigos europeos."

Los comentarios de Powell han puesto aún más presión sobre los gobiernos europeos para que revelen cuánto saben en realidad. Cuando los primeros detalles emergieron el mes pasado sobre los aeropuertos británicos, podrían haber sido utilizados para paradas técnicas de los aviones involucrados en los traslados ; el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Jack Straw, le escribió a la secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos, Condoleezza Rice, pidiendo una aclaración.

La semana pasada, Polonia se sumó a una larga lista de países europeos que anunciaron una investigación sobre si sospechosos de terrorismo habían sido transportados o retenidos dentro de sus fronteras.

Investigaciones separadas, realizadas tanto por periodistas como por organizaciones de derechos humanos, han sugerido que la CIA maneja prisiones secretas, conocidas como "lugares negros", en Polonia y Rumania. Los dos países han negado esta acusación, pero los críticos aseguran que no es probable que los gobiernos anfitriones ignoren por completo los centros de detención extranjeros.

A pesar que las concesiones han sido vistas en general como una iniciativa de la "guerra estadounidense el terrorismo", los países europeos también las han utilizado para atrapar sospechosos. En 1994, la inteligencia francesa capturó al notorio terrorista Carlos "El Chacal" en Sudán y lo trasladó a Francia para que enfrente un juicio por una serie de ataques de los setenta.

Una investigación parlamentaria en Suecia reveló recientemente que la policía sueca estuvo involucrada en el traslado de dos egipcios, que buscaban asilo, diez meses después de los ataques del 11-S. Ahmad Agiza y Muhammad Al Zahry fueron supuestamente transportados en avión por la CIA a Egipto después de que las autoridades suecas tuvieran dificultades para encontrar un avión para ellos.

Los dos dijeron que fueron torturados bajo la custodia egipcia. Zahry fue liberado, aunque se le prohibió salir del país o hablar con periodistas. Agiza todavía está en prisión.

Algunos argumentan que la participación en los "traslados extraordinarios" convertiría a los gobiernos europeos en cómplices de la tortura. En mayo de este año, el Comite de la ONU contra la tortura falló que Suecia había violado los tratados internacionales al involucrarse en el traslado de Agiza y Zahry.

Las acusaciones de un detenido en Guantánamo que creció en Gran Bretaña sugieren que los gobiernos europeos podrían estar trabajando activamente con los Estados Unidos en sus interrogatorios. El etíope Binyam Muhammad, trasladado a Marruecos, Pakistán y Afganistán antes de llegar a Cuba, afirmó a través de su abogado que las preguntas que le realizaron durante su interrogatorio sólo podían provenir de fuentes británicas.

Colin Powell aceptó que las acusaciones sobre los traslados pueden dañar la imagenglobal de un país. "Estados Unidos está atravesando actualmente un período en que la opinión pública mundial está en contra nuestro. Creo que es una consecuencia de algunas de las políticas que hemos seguido en los últimos años con respecto a Irak y que no están solucionando el problema del Medio Oriente, y quizás por la manera en que comunicamos nuestras perspectivas al resto del mundo. Hemos dado la impresión de que somos unilateralistas, que no nos importa lo que piensa el resto de mundo. No creo que esa sea una impresión adecuada." La presión sobre Estados Unidos también para revelar más sobre si retiene a los sospechosos de terrorismo, y cómo lo hace, ha aumentado luego que surgieran rumores hoy de que EE.UU. operó una "prisión oscura" secreta en Kabul, apenas el año pasado.

Traducción : Laura Carpineta.

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EUROPE WAS AWARE OF RENDITION, SAYS POWELL
By Jerome Taylor
The Independent. London, 19 December 2005

European governments, including Britain’s, were under growing pressure last night to reveal the extent of their involvement in controversial US "extraordinary renditions".

Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, said that statements of ignorance by European leaders such Jack Straw about the transport, detention and torture of suspects were not believable.

"There’s a little bit of the movie Casablanca in this, where, you know, the inspector says, ’I’m shocked, shocked that this kind of thing [gambling] takes place’," he said in the interview with Sir David Frost.

Speaking on the BBC’s World TV channel yesterday, Mr Powell criticised the US’s European allies for feigning ignorance of rendition, and dismissed suggestions that governments were surprised that their airports may have been involved in rendition.

"Most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place. The fact is that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."

Mr Powell’s comments have placed more pressure on European governments to reveal just how much they really know. When fresh details emerged last month that British airports may have been used as refuelling stops by planes involved in renditions, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, wrote to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, asking for clarification.

Last weekend, Poland joined a long list of European countries to announce an investigation into whether terrorist suspects have been transported or held within their borders.

Separate investigations by both reporters and human rights organisations have suggested that the CIA ran secret prisons, known as "black sites" , in Poland and Romania. Both countries have denied the accusation, but critics say it is unlikely that host governments would be wholly ignorant of foreign detention centres.

Although rendition has largely been seen as an American "war on terror" initiative, European countries have also used it to return suspects. In 1994, French intelligence captured the notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal in Sudan and rendered him to France to face trial for a string of attacks in the 1970s.

A parliamentary investigation in Sweden recently revealed that Swedish police were involved in the rendition of two Egyptian asylum-seekers 10 months after the 11 September attacks. Ahmad Agiza and Muhammad al-Zahry were allegedly flown by the CIA to Egypt after Swedish authorities had difficulty finding a plane to transport them.

Both say they were tortured in Egyptian custody. Mr Zahry has since been released, but is banned from leaving the country or talking to reporters. Mr Agiza remains in prison.

Some have argued that participation in "extraordinary rendition" could make European governments complicit in torture. In May this year, the UN’s committee against torture ruled that Sweden had broken international treaties in its involvement with the rendition of Mr Agiza and Mr Zahry.

Allegations from a Guantanamo detainee who grew up in Britain suggest that European governments could be actively working with the US in their interrogations. Ethiopian-born Binyam Muhammad, rendered between Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan before arriving in Cuba, has said through his lawyer that questions asked during his interrogation could only have come from British sources.

Colin Powell accepted that allegations over rendition can damage a country’s global image. "The United States is going through a period right now where public opinion world-wide is against us."I think that’s a function of some of the policies we have followed in recent years with respect to Iraq and in not solving the Middle East’s problem, and perhaps the way in which we have communicated our views to the rest of the world. We have created an impression that we are unilateralist, we don’t care what the rest of the world thinks. I don’t think that’s a fair impression." Pressure on the United Sates, likewise, to reveal more about where and how it holds terror suspects increased following further suggestions today that that the US operated a secret "dark prison" in Kabul as recently as last year.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch released fresh allegations from a number of Guantanamo detainees who claim to have been held in complete darkness while being bombarded with loud music in a prison five minutes from the main airport. Binyam Muhammad is one of the inmates who claims to have spent time there.

Speaking through his lawyer, he told Human Rights Watch : "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night ... Plenty lost their minds" .

The allegations are consistent with a video of four detainees who escaped from Bagram last July obtained by the Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya, who say they were held in a "dark prison" in Kabul.

"The US government must shed some light on Kabul’s ’dark prison,’" said John Sifton, terrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. "No one, no matter their alleged crime, should be held in secret prisons or subjected to torture."

* US Vice-President Dick Cheney visited Iraq for the first time since the 2003 invasion yesterday. Mr Cheney, a chief architect of the war, met Iraqi politicians in an eight-hour visit.

European governments, including Britain’s, were under growing pressure last night to reveal the extent of their involvement in controversial US "extraordinary renditions".

Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, said that statements of ignorance by European leaders such Jack Straw about the transport, detention and torture of suspects were not believable.

"There’s a little bit of the movie Casablanca in this, where, you know, the inspector says, ’I’m shocked, shocked that this kind of thing [gambling] takes place’," he said in the interview with Sir David Frost.

Speaking on the BBC’s World TV channel yesterday, Mr Powell criticised the US’s European allies for feigning ignorance of rendition, and dismissed suggestions that governments were surprised that their airports may have been involved in rendition.

"Most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place. The fact is that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."

Mr Powell’s comments have placed more pressure on European governments to reveal just how much they really know. When fresh details emerged last month that British airports may have been used as refuelling stops by planes involved in renditions, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, wrote to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, asking for clarification.

Last weekend, Poland joined a long list of European countries to announce an investigation into whether terrorist suspects have been transported or held within their borders.

Separate investigations by both reporters and human rights organisations have suggested that the CIA ran secret prisons, known as "black sites", in Poland and Romania. Both countries have denied the accusation, but critics say it is unlikely that host governments would be wholly ignorant of foreign detention centres.

Although rendition has largely been seen as an American "war on terror" initiative, European countries have also used it to return suspects. In 1994, French intelligence captured the notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal in Sudan and rendered him to France to face trial for a string of attacks in the 1970s.

A parliamentary investigation in Sweden recently revealed that Swedish police were involved in the rendition of two Egyptian asylum-seekers 10 months after the 11 September attacks. Ahmad Agiza and Muhammad al-Zahry were allegedly flown by the CIA to Egypt after Swedish authorities had difficulty finding a plane to transport them.

Both say they were tortured in Egyptian custody. Mr Zahry has since been released, but is banned from leaving the country or talking to reporters. Mr Agiza remains in prison.

Some have argued that participation in "extraordinary rendition" could make European governments complicit in torture. In May this year, the UN’s committee against torture ruled that Sweden had broken international treaties in its involvement with the rendition of Mr Agiza and Mr Zahry.

Allegations from a Guantanamo detainee who grew up in Britain suggest that European governments could be actively working with the US in their interrogations. Ethiopian-born Binyam Muhammad, rendered between Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan before arriving in Cuba, has said through his lawyer that questions asked during his interrogation could only have come from British sources.

Colin Powell accepted that allegations over rendition can damage a country’s global image. "The United States is going through a period right now where public opinion world-wide is against us."I think that’s a function of some of the policies we have followed in recent years with respect to Iraq and in not solving the Middle East’s problem, and perhaps the way in which we have communicated our views to the rest of the world. We have created an impression that we are unilateralist, we don’t care what the rest of the world thinks. I don’t think that’s a fair impression." Pressure on the United Sates, likewise, to reveal more about where and how it holds terror suspects increased following further suggestions today that that the US operated a secret "dark prison" in Kabul as recently as last year.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch released fresh allegations from a number of Guantanamo detainees who claim to have been held in complete darkness while being bombarded with loud music in a prison five minutes from the main airport. Binyam Muhammad is one of the inmates who claims to have spent time there.

Speaking through his lawyer, he told Human Rights Watch : "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night ... Plenty lost their minds".

The allegations are consistent with a video of four detainees who escaped from Bagram last July obtained by the Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya, who say they were held in a "dark prison" in Kabul.

"The US government must shed some light on Kabul’s ’dark prison,’" said John Sifton, terrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. "No one, no matter their alleged crime, should be held in secret prisons or subjected to torture."

* US Vice-President Dick Cheney visited Iraq for the first time since the 2003 invasion yesterday. Mr Cheney, a chief architect of the war, met Iraqi politicians in an eight-hour visit.
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