The CIA tried to persuade Germany to silence EU protests about the human rights record of one of the US' key allies in its clandestine torture flights program, the Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.
According to a secret intelligence report, the CIA offered to let Germany have access to one of its citizens, an al-Qaeda suspect being held in a Moroccan cell. But US secret agents demanded that in return, Berlin should cooperate and "avert pressure from the EU" over human rights abuses in the north African country. The report describes Morocco as a "valuable partner in the fight against terrorism."
The classified documents prepared for the German parliament last February make clear that Berlin did eventually get to see the detained suspect, who was arrested in Morocco in 2002 as an alleged organizer of the Sept. 11 strikes on the US.
He was flown from Morocco to Syria on another rendition flight. Syria offered access to the prisoner on the condition that charges were dropped against Syrian intelligence agents in Germany accused of threatening Syrian dissidents. Germany dropped the charges, but denied any link.
After the CIA offered a deal to Germany, EU countries adopted an almost universal policy of downplaying criticism of human rights records in countries where terrorist suspects have been held. They also sidestepped questions about secret CIA flights partly because of growing evidence of their complicity.
The disclosure is among fresh revelations about how the CIA flew terrorist suspects to locations where they were tortured, and Britain's knowledge of the practice known as "secret rendition." They are contained in Ghost Plane, by Stephen Grey, the journalist who first revealed details of secret CIA flights a year ago. More than 200 CIA flights have passed through Britain, records show.
He describes how one CIA pilot told him that Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, was a very popular destination for refuelling stops and layovers.
"It's an `ask-no-questions' type of place and you don't need to give them any advance warning you're coming," the pilot said.
The CIA used planes of Air America, a group of private companies it secretly owned, and a second company, Aero Contractors.
A CIA Gulfstream V jet, frequently used for the secret rendition of prisoners, flew to Diego Garcia, the British Indian Ocean territory where the US has a large base, the book says. Grey plans to publish more than 3,000 logs of the CIA flights on the Internet this week.
CIA pilots, sometimes using false identities and whose planes regularly passed through Britain, ran up huge bills in luxury hotels after flying terrorist suspects to secret locations where they were tortured. But they revealed their whereabouts and identities by indiscreet use of mobile phones and allowed outsiders to track their aircraft's flights.
In 2002, CIA pilots and crew lived it up in Majorca after rendering Benyam Mohammed to Afghanistan where he was tortured.
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