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<font size=3><b>Secret CIA flight plans reveal how European authorities
were duped<br>
</b> <br>
New documents exposing well-disguised CIA flights through Europe
demonstrate the need for more robust inquiries into EU states’ complicity
in the CIA’s secret prisons programme, according to legal action charity
Reprieve.<br>
<br>
Data focusing on Lithuania, but linked to suspected CIA activity in a
raft of other countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East and
North Africa, has been identified by Reprieve investigators and passed to
the Lithuanian prosecutor.<br>
<br>
Reprieve is now calling on the Lithuanian authorities to re-open their
investigation into CIA renditions and secret prisons on their own soil,
and to probe the newly-discovered web of suspicious flight links to other
countries.<br>
<br>
The new documents show that:
<ul>
<li>Lithuania’s attempts to establish what the CIA did in the country
between 2004-06 have been oddly unsuccessful, failing to identify key
clues to several potential rendition flights
<li>Two flights entered Lithuania from Morocco and Bucharest – known
secret prison sites – in February 2005, around the time that ‘High Value
Detainee’ Abu Zubaydah was transferred to a CIA black site in Lithuania
<li>A crucial plane identified by the previous Lithuanian inquiry
(registered as N787WH) tried to disguise its true destination (Lithuania)
by filing a route plan to Gothenburg, Sweden
<li>Many other European countries now linked to the CIA’s rendition
flight programme have questions to answer, including Austria, Canada,
Germany, Iceland, Jordan, Portugal, Romania and the USA
</ul>In a letter to Lithuania’s Deputy Prosecutor General, Darius
Raulušaitis, <b>Reprieve’s Director, Clive Stafford Smith</b> said:
<i>“Compelling new information that has now come to light about the
landings of CIA-connected planes in Lithuania makes a rigorous and
wide-ranging investigation all the more urgent. It is now clear that
previous efforts to chart the extent of the CIA’s rendition operations in
Europe revealed ONLY the tip of the iceberg.”<br>
</i> <br>
<b>Lydia Medland of Access Info Europe</b> said: <i>“Once information
about violations of human rights has come to light through compliance
with the public’s right to know, government have an obligation both to
act on this information and to ensure that they release all other related
documents.”<br><br>
</i> <br>
ENDS<br>
<br>
<b>Notes to editors<br>
</b> <br>
1.
Documents<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=03b59cf499&e=f8755a10f3">
recently released</a> by
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=b663e57c73&e=f8755a10f3">
Reprieve</a> show how US-based conglomerate, Computer Sciences
Corporation (CSC), contracted a Richmor Aviation plane, N85VM, to perform
renditions and other government missions on behalf of the CIA between
2002 and 2005. Confidential documents in possession of Reprieve show that
the same corporation contracted two other jets in February 2005 to fly
into Lithuania from two other known secret prison sites: Morocco and
Bucharest. The flight plans of each plane included multiple stop-offs,
and multiple possibilities for disguising the true provenance and purpose
of the flights. The arrival of these planes in Lithuania was confirmed by
a freedom of information request made jointly by Reprieve and Access Info
Europe.<br>
<br>
2. The planes flew into Lithuania within 24 hours of each other in
February 2005 – significant timing in the light of public source accounts
stating that “high value detainee” Abu Zubaydah was moved from Morocco to
Lithuania around this time.<br>
<br>
3. Records collected by a previous Lithuanian inquiry showed that a plane
registered as N787WH flew from Bucharest, Romania to Lithuania on 18
February 2005. Documents obtained by Reprieve and the Helsinki Foundation
for Human Rights show that this plane disguised its true destination by
filing a route plan to Gothenburg, Sweden. Furthermore, it has yet to be
disclosed where this plane stopped prior to Bucharest; in particular, the
question arises as to whether it shared some of the same stop-off points
as N724CL, which landed in Lithuania en route from Morocco on the
previous day.<br><br>
4. Freedom of Information replies from
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=2de8f7d028&e=f8755a10f3">
the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Authority</a>, showing the landings of
N724CL and N787WH in Lithuania;
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=fe328ff31a&e=f8755a10f3">
from Vilnius Airport</a>, confirming the landing of N724CL in Vilnius;
and
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=a2eac7ca84&e=f8755a10f3">
from the Polish civil aviation authority</a> showing the overflight
permission for N787WH and its disguised route plan (to Gothenburg) are
available on Reprieve's website.<br>
<br><br>
<img src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349/images/Reprieve.JPG" width=144 height=56 alt="Reprieve logo">
<b>Reprieve<br>
PO Box 52742<br>
London EC4P 4WS<br>
Tel: 020 7353 4640<br>
Fax: 020 7353 4641<br>
Website:
<a href="http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=bdf31a5b4e&e=f8755a10f3">
www.reprieve.org.uk<br>
</a></b></font><font face="arial" size=3> <br>
</font><i>Reprieve is a charitable company limited by guarantee;
Registered Charity No. 1114900 Registered Company No. 5777831 (England)
Registered Office 2-6 Cannon Street London EC4M 6YH; Chair: Ken Macdonald
QC; Patrons: Alan Bennett, Julie Christie, Martha Lane Fox, Gordon
Roddick, Richard Rogers, Ruth Rogers, Jon Snow, Marina Warner, Vivienne
Westwood <br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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