Just another piece of 'military liaison?'
On any other day it would have been the lead story.
But yesterday’s news day was no ordinary day. The conviction of 23 CIA operatives by the still independent judiciary in Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy was a remarkable first.
The CIA staff who included the Milan station chief (What is a secondary European city doing with a CIA station chief at all?) marked a major step in the struggle to bring to justice those responsible for the rendition and torture of suspects in the aftermath of 9/11.
The case involved the seizure of a Muslim cleric on the streets of Milan and his rendition to a ‘third country’ for interrogation, where he claims he was tortured.
None of the convicted CIA people is ever likely to serve the five years in jail to which they have been sentenced (the station chief got eight years).
But the case itself must be bringing closer the day when the political leaders of the time, particularly in Europe and America, will be questioned and perhaps themselves brought before the International Court in the Haig.
My Paris informant identified fears of such investigations against Tony Blair as another ingredient in President Sarkozi’s ‘deceleration’ of support for Mr Blair’s candidacy for the Presidency of Europe.
This brings me to the presence of a 22-seater Gulfstream jet at Birmingham Airport on October 2nd. N478GS was identified there last month by plane spotters.
This is a plane that, according to a report in the Guardian (November 1st) has previously been seen at Bagram military air base in Afghanistan, Shannon in Ireland, Prestwick in Scotland, and Stuttgart in Germany. There have been persistent allegations that the jet has been used for the ‘movement’ of prisoners.
Can we be assured that rendition is not still being practised? The MOD says of the Birmingham incident that the plane’s visit had nothing to do with ‘past allegations’.
They say it was engaged in ‘routine military liaison between allies’.
Isn’t that exactly what the rendition of suspects for torture in third countries could have been described as?
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Two things distrurbing there.
What state evidence was not revealed and how significant was it?
I am not against the CIA having a base in Milan if it aids in the prevention of terrorist activities, but if that means that careless accusations and the transporting of prisoners to a place of torture is commonplace then that acitivity needs curtailing
The movement of the jet between the UK and Afghanistan is highly suspicious, but would be more so, if any prisoners themselves were seen boarding.
Margaret:yes, it’s dodgy. It’s cold comfort, but I keep wondering, maybe the only thing that changes is the technology of surveillance. You’ve only got to think about Marlowe in the 16thC – are things qualitatively different?No.I know that’s a bleak thing to say, but States look after themselves – that’s why they’re States.
My Formula For Happiness: Watch The Matrix Until It Makes Sense, And When It Does Makes Sense Fall Asleep On The Sofa And Watch It Again. And become a Borgia.
Does my Formula work?
No.
Interesting stuff indeed.
It would be good to see Political leaders of recent times, particularly Tony Blair up before the beak in the Hague, even if he eventually gets off with only mildly slapped-wrists.
It would introduce a lot more accountability into the process of going to war and would make the world a better place.
Future cases couldn’t then be “sexed-up” for the public or bullied through Parliament or the reluctance in the UN bypassed in quite the way that it was in 2002/03…
The “great” CIA will always get away.. whats more is that it all happened in good old Italy where well, I will write no more on that for now, Italy that is, not the “interogation” methods used and constant sickening breeches of human rights.
Though I will add that the Russian and Chinese secret agencies are definitely ones to look for. They are at least ten times nastier than the Mcdonalds eating CIA agents but then again the CIA itself has Russians and Chinese working for them…and a few Italians here and there of course.
adzmundo CND
no longer is the adage “all’s fair in love and war” correct.Don’t forget terroists have human rights
Yes Phil the same things go round and round, the same moves, the same deceits. The difference now is that we can do thinks almost at the speed of light.
When money can be exchanged in nanoseconds , corruption is equal to that speed.
I am glad that you reminded me again about the spelling of quantitative and qualitative.. it’s the A T I keep wanting to omit.
This is why fundamentally things dont change , but with increasing globalisation , the increasing power of persuasion plays a greater part..that’s the worry…. who has the most sway.. the reasonable or the passionately misdirected.
M B-J:”When money can be exchanged in nanoseconds, corruption is equal to that speed.” Good point, good prose.
“…the reasonable or the passionately misdirected” – nice dichotmomy; trouble is, the passionately misdirected tend to get things done!Think of Hitler and Churchill – the older I get the more find pathological commonalities bt.these ‘opposites’.Both needed a time/a moment/a war.It’s just that Churchill’s ‘passionate misdirectedness’ outwitted Hitler’s(thank God).These are thin lines, close calls, but I wonder if reasonableness is all we want it to be.
The trouble with the terrorists we are dealing with is a greater percentage of them make judgement on themselves by blowing themselves into infinity or so they see it. They take their rights and judge others as they would themselves.
Good on the US CIA for sending a suspected Al Queda radical Islamist back to his own country from his Italian refuge. As Bush promised after 9/11,” we will bring the perpetrators to justice”.
You can run,but you cannot hide.
Flying the Gulfstream, only 12 seats by the way, I flew convicted murders from US jail home to Knom Penn .They’re in the army now. Why should we pay for the coddling of foteign criminals in our jails. Foreign countries have a way of converting them to good use.
As Lord Wellesly ( Wellington ) said,” my soldiers are the dregs of British society.:criminals,cutthroats,robbers, rapists. It’s my job to bring them into position to fight the enemy where they become the best soldiers in the world”.
Jon Snow recently reported a disgruntled Afgan police trainee turned his weapon on a group of British soldiers killing several along with a number of his Afgan mates. Then he jumped on his motorbike and took refuge in a nearby Taliban stronghold.
How can this be ? How can there be a Taliban stronghold near a British checkpoint? Why don’t we ‘root them out? Is this some gruesome game like Vietnam?
Lord Nelson instructed his Captains”,Engage with the enemy. Have at them” It saves lives in the long run.
The best Christmas present for Great Britain and the USA would be to bring our troops home. But — continue to attack the Taliban and Al queda useing hi-tech airpower. Air planes with smart bombs and drones flying off aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, directed to targets by satellite and other inteligence.