19 December 2011 - Almost two-thirds of countries asked by human rights groups about their involvement in extraordinary rendition flights have failed to comply with freedom of information requests – with European nations in particular accused of withholding evidence of the controversial CIA programme.Legal action charity Reprieve and open government pressure group Access Info Europe made a total of 67 requests for flight data relating to the years 2002 through to 2006. They contacted 28 countries, plus the international air traffic agency Eurocontrol, but only seven released the information. Five said they no longer held the data, 13 did not reply, and three countries along with Eurocontrol denied access.
For the last year, the two organisations have been building an overview of the aircraft and flight routes used by United States intelligence to transport captured terror suspects. The groups said they had identified 54 American-registered aircraft involved in rendition. It has previously been reported, but unacknowledged by the CIA, that it ran prisons in Poland, Lithuania and Romania, as well as Thailand and Afghanistan – with human rights advocates accusing the US of using the programme to move suspects to countries where torture was allowed. read more>>>
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