ЦРУ в Европе
Feb. 2nd, 2007 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
borislvinhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101779.html
Travel Logs Aid Germans' Kidnap Probe
CIA Team's Movements Tracked With Spain's Help
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 2, 2007; Page A11
BERLIN, Feb. 1 -- If not for the pit stops on a Mediterranean resort island, where they relaxed in four-star hotels and went to the spa for a massage, the CIA operatives who now face arrest on kidnapping charges in Germany would have remained safely in the shadows, according to German prosecutors.
German investigators said they received detailed records of the intelligence agents' stopovers on the Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca from Spanish police last year. The documents, which included the operatives' passport numbers, hotel bills and aviation records, enabled prosecutors to identify a CIA abduction crew that allegedly kidnapped Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen, in a bungled counterterrorism operation in early 2004.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in Munich announced that a German court had issued arrest warrants for 13 people it named as CIA operatives involved in the Masri kidnapping. While most of the people used aliases and their true identities remain unclear, German authorities said the Spanish records provided a critical break and kept the investigation alive.
"It made it possible for us to identify specific individuals and to connect them with the kidnapping case," said Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, the chief Munich prosecutor, in a statement disclosing the warrants. "This information as well as other investigative evidence now leads to the grounds of suspicion against these 13 distinctly identifiable individuals."
It's not the first time that CIA officers have left a long trail of clues during an undercover counterterrorism operation in Europe. Italian prosecutors charged 25 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force officer with kidnapping a radical cleric in Milan in 2003 after investigators traced their cellphone logs and frequent-flier records. They also found that the operatives had racked up more than $150,000 in expenses while in Italy, including long stays at $500-a-night hotels.
Records of the other team's stopovers at Palma de Mallorca were gathered by the Guardia Civil, a Spanish police agency that has investigated the CIA's use of the island as a staging ground for other counterterrorism operations in Europe and North Africa. Some of the records were provided to The Washington Post by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group that has investigated extralegal abductions by CIA counterterrorism squads.
A CIA spokesman at headquarters in Langley, Va., declined comment for this article.
Aviation records show that the CIA operatives arrived at Palma de Mallorca at 10 p.m. Jan. 22, 2004, from Algiers. They spent the night at the Marriott Son Antem Golf Resort and Spa, paying $175 each for a room, including breakfast. One male member of the team, who stayed in Room 216, was billed for $85 worth of massages and a $23 bar tab. He and the others paid with their Visa cards.
The next day, the CIA crew departed in a privately chartered Boeing 737 for Skopje, Macedonia, where Masri had been detained secretly for three weeks by Macedonian security agents on suspicion of involvement with a terrorist network, according to German prosecutors. The plane stayed on the ground for less than six hours before departing with Masri on board, heading first to Baghdad and then to Kabul.
Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, said he was kept in a secret CIA prison that was known as the Salt Pit and interrogated about Islamic radicals in Germany before his captors realized they had the wrong man. He said he was flown back to the Balkans five months later, released on a hillside in Albania and warned to keep his mouth shut.
After delivering him to Afghanistan, the CIA operatives flew back to Palma de Mallorca after a brief stopover in Romania, aviation records show. The team spent three more nights on the Spanish island before returning to Washington. For the flight home, they ordered a shrimp cocktail for the pilot and two bottles of Pesquera red wine, according to invoices from the ground services crew at the Palma airport.
John Sifton, a senior researcher on counterterrorism for Human Rights Watch, said the operatives may have taken a carefree approach because they assumed they were being protected by European intelligence partners. Masri, for instance, was handed over to the CIA by Macedonian security agents. And in the Milan kidnapping case, top officials with the Italian military intelligence agency known as Sismi have been charged with conspiring with the CIA.
"I suppose they never expected there would be a flap about all this or else they would have been more cautious," Sifton said. "When you think a local government is cooperating with you in your criminal activities, you're probably less careful."
U.S. officials have never publicly admitted guilt or responsibility in the Masri case, and the U.S. Justice Department has refused to cooperate with requests for information from German prosecutors.
Masri sued the CIA for damages in U.S. District Court in Virginia. His complaint was dismissed in May on grounds that the lawsuit could generate revelations that would damage national security. Masri is appealing. His attorneys said the recent revelations from Europe show that the secrecy concerns are moot.
"It renders even more far-fetched the argument that every single development in this case is a state secret," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU lawyer who is representing Masri in his lawsuit.
Staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
Travel Logs Aid Germans' Kidnap Probe
CIA Team's Movements Tracked With Spain's Help
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 2, 2007; Page A11
BERLIN, Feb. 1 -- If not for the pit stops on a Mediterranean resort island, where they relaxed in four-star hotels and went to the spa for a massage, the CIA operatives who now face arrest on kidnapping charges in Germany would have remained safely in the shadows, according to German prosecutors.
German investigators said they received detailed records of the intelligence agents' stopovers on the Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca from Spanish police last year. The documents, which included the operatives' passport numbers, hotel bills and aviation records, enabled prosecutors to identify a CIA abduction crew that allegedly kidnapped Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen, in a bungled counterterrorism operation in early 2004.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in Munich announced that a German court had issued arrest warrants for 13 people it named as CIA operatives involved in the Masri kidnapping. While most of the people used aliases and their true identities remain unclear, German authorities said the Spanish records provided a critical break and kept the investigation alive.
"It made it possible for us to identify specific individuals and to connect them with the kidnapping case," said Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, the chief Munich prosecutor, in a statement disclosing the warrants. "This information as well as other investigative evidence now leads to the grounds of suspicion against these 13 distinctly identifiable individuals."
It's not the first time that CIA officers have left a long trail of clues during an undercover counterterrorism operation in Europe. Italian prosecutors charged 25 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force officer with kidnapping a radical cleric in Milan in 2003 after investigators traced their cellphone logs and frequent-flier records. They also found that the operatives had racked up more than $150,000 in expenses while in Italy, including long stays at $500-a-night hotels.
Records of the other team's stopovers at Palma de Mallorca were gathered by the Guardia Civil, a Spanish police agency that has investigated the CIA's use of the island as a staging ground for other counterterrorism operations in Europe and North Africa. Some of the records were provided to The Washington Post by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group that has investigated extralegal abductions by CIA counterterrorism squads.
A CIA spokesman at headquarters in Langley, Va., declined comment for this article.
Aviation records show that the CIA operatives arrived at Palma de Mallorca at 10 p.m. Jan. 22, 2004, from Algiers. They spent the night at the Marriott Son Antem Golf Resort and Spa, paying $175 each for a room, including breakfast. One male member of the team, who stayed in Room 216, was billed for $85 worth of massages and a $23 bar tab. He and the others paid with their Visa cards.
The next day, the CIA crew departed in a privately chartered Boeing 737 for Skopje, Macedonia, where Masri had been detained secretly for three weeks by Macedonian security agents on suspicion of involvement with a terrorist network, according to German prosecutors. The plane stayed on the ground for less than six hours before departing with Masri on board, heading first to Baghdad and then to Kabul.
Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, said he was kept in a secret CIA prison that was known as the Salt Pit and interrogated about Islamic radicals in Germany before his captors realized they had the wrong man. He said he was flown back to the Balkans five months later, released on a hillside in Albania and warned to keep his mouth shut.
After delivering him to Afghanistan, the CIA operatives flew back to Palma de Mallorca after a brief stopover in Romania, aviation records show. The team spent three more nights on the Spanish island before returning to Washington. For the flight home, they ordered a shrimp cocktail for the pilot and two bottles of Pesquera red wine, according to invoices from the ground services crew at the Palma airport.
John Sifton, a senior researcher on counterterrorism for Human Rights Watch, said the operatives may have taken a carefree approach because they assumed they were being protected by European intelligence partners. Masri, for instance, was handed over to the CIA by Macedonian security agents. And in the Milan kidnapping case, top officials with the Italian military intelligence agency known as Sismi have been charged with conspiring with the CIA.
"I suppose they never expected there would be a flap about all this or else they would have been more cautious," Sifton said. "When you think a local government is cooperating with you in your criminal activities, you're probably less careful."
U.S. officials have never publicly admitted guilt or responsibility in the Masri case, and the U.S. Justice Department has refused to cooperate with requests for information from German prosecutors.
Masri sued the CIA for damages in U.S. District Court in Virginia. His complaint was dismissed in May on grounds that the lawsuit could generate revelations that would damage national security. Masri is appealing. His attorneys said the recent revelations from Europe show that the secrecy concerns are moot.
"It renders even more far-fetched the argument that every single development in this case is a state secret," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU lawyer who is representing Masri in his lawsuit.
Staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 06:31 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 06:53 pm (UTC)А потом все хором удивляются - как то есть, выходит, что, типа, в ЦРУ работают такие же распиздяи как в DMV? Ну... да. Такие же. Умные люди там, конечно, есть - как и везде. Однако, большинство внутри этой конторы - такое же, как большинство снаружи.
Ну и один приятный момент - выпустили. Будь они умнее - предложили бы ему компенсацию. Дешевле бы вышло.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 06:59 pm (UTC)To есть этого чудака арестовали власти Македонии, и вывезли его из Македонии, а не из Германии.
Как об этом узнали немцы и испанцы ? Почему вся история называется "похищение" ? Если арест был незаконным - почему нет претензий к тем кто его совершил - македонским агентам ?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 07:19 pm (UTC)Мне кажется, что здесь есть (или может быть найдено) нарушение договорных прав задержанного, прежде всего права на консульскую защиту, но это вопрос двусторонних дипломатических отношений, а не уголовного права.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 08:45 pm (UTC)Отчетливые правовые проблемы на американской стороне могли возникнуть в тот момент, когда они ввезли этого деятеля в Америку. Но они его туда, как мне показалось, и не ввозили. Плюс, конечно, непонятный правовой статус американских учреждений в Кабуле и Багдаде.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 09:06 pm (UTC)Но вывезли его нелегально в Афганистан американцы, в чем и есть факт похищения.
То что местные гбшники подвезли Масри к американскому самолету этого не отменяет.
Если вы мне полюбовно передадите свою жену которую я увезу в Африку для личного использования, то я все равно буду похитителем (хотя вы, возможно, и соучасником). Особенно если пересеку state lines :)
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 09:32 pm (UTC)Хорошо бы увидеть само решение этого германского суда, чтобы понять, что именно инкримируют цээрушникам.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-02 10:55 pm (UTC)С женой тоже у вас натяжка - если ее похитил один похититель, а потом передал вам - вы окажетесь единственным похитителем ?
С другой стороны, наезды на США вполне обьяснимы - что взять с Македонии ? Аналогично, не так давно канадского сирийца выдали из Канады в Сирию, где ему показали традиционное сирийское гостеприимство. Вместо того чтобы судить сирийцев, которые его пошерстили, он судил канадцев, которые его пальцем не тронули. Опять же - правосудие и законы тут нипричем - чистая корысть. В Сирии все что ему могут это только еще раз рыло начистить, а с канадцев можно и пару долларов получить, тем более что лоеру треть отходит.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 12:16 am (UTC)И наше RCMP вело себя по свински, сначала сдав собственного гражданина а потом заметая следы. И справедливо влетело.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 01:13 pm (UTC)Whereas a warrant for Abbas' arrest was unsealed in October 1985 charging him with hijacking, and a bounty of $250,000 was offered for his arrest;
Whereas the Justice Department felt that it did not have the evidence to convict him, and citing the conviction, albeit in absentia by the Italian authorities, canceled the warrant for his arrest in January 1988;
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c104:S.RES.253:
Сам федеральный ордер на арест –– довольно малоинформативная бумага: имя разыскиваемого и за какое преступление, ну и внешние приметы разыскиваемого на обороте.
http://www.uscourts.gov/forms/AO442.pdf
no subject
Date: 2007-02-03 08:52 pm (UTC)Ну что же, тогда, наверно, не стоит и другим советовать см. этот загадочный документ?
В любом случае понятно, что независимый судья может выписать ордер на арест кого угодно - хоть Тарзана, хоть Будды. Это же не прговор, тут вольная вольница. Интереснее посмотреть юридическое обоснование, которое дают госслужащие, следователи и прокуроры. То же относится и к конгрессу, который принимает non-binding резолюции сотнями, с самыми экзотическими "требованиями". Например, было бы интереснее посмотреть документ минюста, ОТМЕНЯЮЩИЙ этот ордер
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 12:59 am (UTC)Если нечто другое - ту лучше объяснить, чтобы не был пункт 1.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 07:29 am (UTC)Сейчас вы занимаетесь фоменковщиной по поводу существовании этого ордера на арест этого Абу.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 07:43 am (UTC)Так вот, вы предложили мне ознакомиться с ордером на арест Аббаса. Никаких сомнений в существовании ордера у меня, естественно, не было, а был интерес в том, чтобы прочитать, что в нем написано и какие обоснования выдвигаются - в самом ли ордере, в решении ли судьи с обоснованием его выдачи, или где там это обоснование формулируется. Я полагал, что вы этот ордер видели. Оказалось - нет, не видели.
Вы, похоже, вычитали в этом мое сомнение в факте существования ордера. Если так, то вы ошиблись.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 07:53 am (UTC)И почему на этот ордер Вы не советуете ссылаться?
Вы стремитесь создать по поводу вполне надежного свидетельства впечатление ненадежности.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 08:13 am (UTC)А где я не советую ссылаться на его отмену? ссылайтесь пожалуйста, я собственно сам об этой отмене и упомянул.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 02:48 pm (UTC)Может быть, такая практика общепринята и типична. С интересом бы об этом что-нибудь прочитал. Прежде всего - вынужден повторить - формальные обоснования таких ордеров.
Например, типичны ли ситуации, когда американец терпит какие-нибудь страдания за границей (его грабят, бьют, сажают в тюрьму, лишают собственности), а американский суд впоследствии выписывает ордер на арест тех, кого этот американец считает виновным в своих страданиях? В том числе - официальных лиц той страны?
Впрочем, мой постинг был вообще вовсе не об этом, и я вовсе не возмущался действиями немцев.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-04 03:56 pm (UTC)Иностранец, находящийся заграницей, за свои действия заграницей против гражданина США заграницей может быть indicted федеральным судом США; исключений для официальных лиц, насколько я знаю, нет.
О таких indictments федеральные прокуроры и минюст объявляют периодически особенно последнее время в связи с терроризмом. Достаточно прогуглить indicted terrorism или нечто такое.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 02:58 am (UTC)Принцип, конечно, сильно кривоватый и сомнительный. Сейчас выложу релевантный пассаж.
История с ордером на Аббаса тоже прояснилась - в том смысле, что стало понятно, в каком политическом контексте этот ордер появился. Действительно, он был инициирован исполнительной властью, а не экстравагантным судьей, тут вы правы - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A731710
При этом сам indictment против Аббаса, к сожалению, найти не удается.
(frozen) no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 03:00 am (UTC)