Azerbaijan is among European nations aided CIA renditions, report says

The report, a summary of which was seen by The New York Times, claims that the American intelligence agency has used more than a dozen European airports for flights suspected of transporting detainees.

It claims, for example, that rendition missions were launched from airports in Germany, Turkey, Spain and Azerbaijan.

Airports in Ireland, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic were used for re-fueling, the report says.

The report alleges that detainees were picked up for "unlawful transfer" in Sweden, Macedonia, Italy, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Detainees who passed through these places were dropped off for interrogation or transfer onward in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Romania, Uzbekistan and Poland, among other countries, the report alleges.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which comprises 46 countries, has been investigating the rendition network since media reports late last year claimed that American extra-judicial detainees had been held in Eastern Europe.

Any participation in the CIA program by member states would constitute a breach of European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe investigation, headed by the Swiss senator and chairman of Council's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Dick Marty, used seven separate sets of data from Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, together with specific information from about 20 national aviation authorities.

The report distinguishes four categories of aircraft landing points, indicating "different degrees of collusion on the part of the countries concerned."

The Eurocontrol data include flight plans filed in advance and information about actual flight paths for the period between the end of 2001 and early 2005.

The Council investigators, working with "external experts and investigators familiar with the topic," built a "profile of the characteristics of CIA flights."

"As our work has progressed, we have been able to narrow down the number of aircraft movements that are of interest to our work and develop our analysis into a more sophisticated, realistic measure of the extent of illegality in the CIA's clandestine flight operations," the report reads.

A Council of Europe report on the CIA's practice of abducting and transporting terrorism suspects for interrogation in secret detention centers, to be made public Wednesday in Paris, says that several European countries acted as staging areas or transfer points in the program's global network.

The report, a summary of which was seen by The New York Times, claims that the American intelligence agency has used more than a dozen European airports for flights suspected of transporting detainees.

It claims, for example, that rendition missions were launched from airports in Germany, Turkey, Spain and Azerbaijan.

Airports in Ireland, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic were used for re- fueling, the report says.

The report alleges that detainees were picked up for "unlawful transfer" in Sweden, Macedonia, Italy, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Detainees who passed through these places were dropped off for interrogation or transfer onward in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Romania, Uzbekistan and Poland, among other countries, the report alleges.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which comprises 46 countries, has been investigating the rendition network since media reports late last year claimed that American extra-judicial detainees had been held in Eastern Europe.

Any participation in the CIA program by member states would constitute a breach of European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe investigation, headed by the Swiss senator and chairman of Council's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Dick Marty, used seven separate sets of data from Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, together with specific information from about 20 national aviation authorities.

The report distinguishes four categories of aircraft landing points, indicating "different degrees of collusion on the part of the countries concerned."

The Eurocontrol data include flight plans filed in advance and information about actual flight paths for the period between the end of 2001 and early 2005.

The Council investigators, working with "external experts and investigators familiar with the topic," built a "profile of the characteristics of CIA flights."

"As our work has progressed, we have been able to narrow down the number of aircraft movements that are of interest to our work and develop our analysis into a more sophisticated, realistic measure of the extent of illegality in the CIA's clandestine flight operations," the report reads.

By Craig S. Smith, The New York Times

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