STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
Europe, CNN Pressure US to Reveal Rendition Program
By Staff News & Analysis - September 07, 2011

Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites.' … The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe urged countries that have hosted secret CIA prisons to come clean Monday, as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches. Thomas Hammarberg said Poland, Romania and Lithuania were among at least seven countries that hosted "black sites" for "enhanced interrogation" during the "war on terror." … "Darkness still enshrouds those who authorized and ran the black sites on European territories," he said. "The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated." CIA officials have acknowledged the rendition program, but refused to discuss details and denied violating any laws. Efforts to challenge the agency and get details about it in U.S. courts have been turned aside. – CNN

Dominant Social Theme: Courageous reporters from CNN are pressing the US government to come clean about its illegal activities under the Bush administration.

Free-Market Analysis: It is interesting that Europeansn and US media as welln are suddenly demanding a narrative of CIA renditions. At the very least, it gives the idea that these programs are finished, when in fact, they have expanded in scope until they take in much of the so-called Third World.

In a series of recent, ground-breaking articles, the DB has reported that instead of building secret prisons, American interrogators, the Pentagon and CIA have simply begun to use the security mechanisms, secret police and prisons of a variety of third party dictators and oppressors. This salient fact has not been reported in the West and is still resolutely not being mentioned, anywhere.

Instead, we get reports like this one (excerpted above) that try to give the impression that rendition programs are part of the history of the Bush administration and are not a factor going forward. This is hardly the case. The CIA has had 10 years to organize these programs as it ramps up its participation in the so-called war on terror. There are reports that the CIA in particular has killed up 2,000 or more "fundamentalists" as it pursues its confrontation with what it terms "radical Islam."

What are the particular reports that are causing the current stir? The putative reason for the renewed pressure to find out what's going on supposedly comes from the discovery of papers liberated from Muammar Gaddafi's "compound" in Libya. The papers deal with extraordinary rendition: "the questioning of terror suspects in third-party countries" where U.S. law does not apply.

CNN reporters claim they have already seen a March 6, 2004, CIA letter to Libyan officials about "Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former jihadist with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now a senior commander in the anti-Gaddafi forces."

This is ironic on two levels. First, it reinforces the idea that the US has joined forces with Jihadists (al-Qaeda) to overthrow Gaddafi. This seems indisputable, no matter that the NATO and the Pentagon continually slough it off.

Second, those pushing for more information about these programs within the mainstream media are working for CNN. CNN has functioned as virtually a third arm of government when it comes to the war on terror and we remain suspicious of any reporting on these issues from the CNN network.

If the US government wanted the reports to go away, they likely would, especially given where they are coming from – CNN. Instead, CNN reporters continue to cover the issue, giving rise to suspicions that the US government wants the issue aired out. It is well known that the CIA has staff operating within the environs of CNN, even as on-air reporters.

The reports concern, in detail, the Malaysian arrest of one Abdullah al-Sadiq Belhaj, who was taken into custody with his pregnant wife. They were apparently put on a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London via Bangkok and then on to Libya. Belhaj supposedly fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan but left after their fall in 2001, and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. Here's some more from the article:

The Council of Europe's Hammarberg said the CIA had held "high-value detainees," including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in Poland, between 2002 and 2003. The Polish site closed and a new secret prison opened in Romania in 2003, Hammarberg charged, and existed for over two years.

Lithuania also hosted two sites, he said. Polish prosecutors and Lithuanian lawmakers have investigated the phenomenon, but Romania has shown "little genuine will to uncover the whole truth," Hammarberg charged. "Effective investigations are imperative and long overdue," he said.

But Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would not comment while prosecutors in the country are still investigating. The Council of Europe is a 47-member group that promotes democracy and human rights on the continent.

One notes how old the reports are. The impression is surely left that these events – and extraordinary renditions in general – were taking place in 2003-2004 when in fact the system of extra-curricular renditions, questioning and even torture exists today, in dramatic fashion.

No doubt the CIA and the great banking families of Europe that are determinedly tearing down a system of civil jurisprudence that goes back nearly a thousand years, would like to give the impression for now that rendition is an old program and severely limited in scope. But that's simply not the case. What the US and NATO have built throughout the Middle East and Africa deserves significant coverage. The implications are vast and frightening.

After Thoughts

As we've pointed out, rendition is at this point merely a name for an entire Third World Gulag of sorts based initially in the Middle East but expanding relentlessly as the "war on terror" continues. There is no doubt that this essentially lawless and vicious system will increasingly find its way into the West as the corrosive effects of a vague and nebulous "war on terror" continue to poison the body politic. This seems to be the plan.

Posted in STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
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