(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Storting, Olav Akselsen from the Labor Party, will not address the issue of CIA aircraft at Gardermoen. He does not want to comment on the case, but instead refers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first deputy chair of the transport and communications committee, the Liberal Party's Borghild Tenden, will not comment either. Like Akselsen, she believes that this is a matter that the government must deal with. SV's member of the defense committee, Bjørn Jacobsen, tells Ny Tid that it is necessary to get to the bottom of this matter, and get clarified what these planes are doing.
- We need transparency and information, therefore it is not sustainable if it turns out that the CIA does not comply with Norwegian laws and regulations. Norway demands that the United States treat terrorist prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention, but the United States refuses to do so. Therefore, we must ensure that the Americans do not use Norwegian airspace to transport these prisoners, says Bjørn Jacobsen.
Amnesty documents
After Ny Tid, together with Danish, Swedish and American newspapers, among others, began to look at the allegations about CIA planes, more and more politicians have woken up. These days, new documentation of extensive American activity around the world is pouring in.
Through its extensive work, Amnesty International has documented that a number of people have been transported around the world. Last week, they published a report that for the first time provides extensive testimony from prisoners who have been released from US secret prisons. Among those Amnesty has spoken to are the three Yemeni men, Muhammad al-Assad, Salah 'Ali and Muhammad Bashmilah. They were arrested and "disappeared" in 2003. Since then, they have been held in complete isolation, also from each other, in various secret prisons, allegedly run by the CIA, Amnesty reports. Their description of the prisons is consistent with the secret CIA prisons reported in the Washington Post earlier in November.
The three Yemeni prisoners were returned to Sana'a in Yemen in May this year. Yemeni authorities have told Amnesty International that they were instructed by US authorities to detain them, but have never been presented with a charge against the three.
Unrest in Europe
After Ny Tid focused on the aircraft "N50BH" and pointed out that this has landed in Sweden, Swedish newspapers have seriously started the hunt for these aircraft. On Tuesday, representatives of all parties in the Riksdag stated that it would be appropriate to take a closer look at the activity of these aircraft. Late Tuesday, the Swedish government chose to ask the aviation authorities to investigate the allegations and find out what kind of aircraft they are talking about and what they are doing in Sweden.
"N50BH" arrived in Norway on July 20 from Gander Airport in Canada. The plane arrived at Gardermoen at 07.40. Barely twelve hours later, at At 19.22, the plane took off again with a course towards Le Bourget airport in France, Avinor informs.
A spokesman for Avinor, Ove Narvesen, states that there were two passengers on board in addition to the crew. They do not know anything about the aircraft's mission in Norway on 20 July.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed on Wednesday by the American ambassador to Norway that "N50BH" on this occasion had not been hired by the CIA or other state American institutions.
More surveys
In Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, among others, analyzes of the CIA's activities in Europe have been going on since 11 September 2001.
On Friday 11 November, the prosecuting authority in Milan chose to call for 22 people who are all suspected of being CIA agents. It reports the news agency Associated Press (AP). These agents are said to have taken part in the abduction of Abu Omar, also known as Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, on an open street in Milan on February 17, 2003. He was sent by plane to Germany and then to Egypt where he, according to the Swedish news agency AP, still in jail. The aircraft in which Abu Omar was transported, a Gulfstream 4, had been marked "N227SV", and that aircraft was over Norway on 17 December 2004. The aircraft has been frequent at Guantanamo Bay. It is no longer possible to track the aircraft itself on American pages that follow air traffic, but it is possible to find, among other things, that a Gulfstream 4 aircraft has landed on Guantanamo Bay on a number of occasions, but the characteristic is blocked.
The Abu Omar case and the connection to Rammstein Airport in Germany have led German politicians to consider a comprehensive investigation into these American planes that act as civilians, but which there are strong suspicions of operating in CIA service.
In Spain, the government decided on Tuesday that the allegations in a recent report will be investigated. The report states that planes that have been in the CIA's service at least ten times have stopped over on the Spanish tourist island of Mallorca, Spanish newspapers report.
In Denmark, among other things, the Unity List follows closely what is happening around these aircraft. After the party began to look more closely at the matter, a number of planes have appeared that have flown over Danish airspace, and some have also landed in Denmark. These overflights have continued even after the Danish government in August informed the Americans to stop this form of overflights.
