According to the Amnesty International report, "the CIA used private aircraft operators and front companies to preserve the secrecy of these 'rendition' flights." The report defines "rendition" as "the transfer of individuals from one country to another, by means that bypass all judicial and administrative due process."
The report cites the case of Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni, who was arrested by Indonesian intelligence agents in January 2002. Seeking to appear to be an ally of the US in the so-called war on terror, Indonesian authorities apparently followed CIA instructions to fly him from Jakarta to Egypt. There he was rumored to have died. In fact, Amnesty reports, he had been secretly returned to Afghanistan via Pakistan in April 2002 and held there for 11 months before being sent to the US prison camps at Guanta'namo Bay, Cuba in March 2003.
The report also tells of three Yemeni men released earlier this year who say they were transported to unknown locations for interrogations, perhaps Europe or Central Asia. Held altogether for two years, Muhammad Al-Assad, Muhammad Bashmilah and Salah 'Ali Qaru spent 13 months in one secret facility before being flown to Yemen in May 2005 and, because no evidence could be found that they were involved in terrorism, eventually released last month.
Zammar, a citizen of Germany, was arrested in Morocco by Moroccan authorities in October 2001 and was interrogated by US authorities for weeks. That December, he was placed on board a CIA jet and sent to Syria, unbeknownst to the German government. Six months later, US officials admitted to the German government that Zammar was in Syria.
Former CIA agent Robert Baer admitted that Zammar, because US interrogators could not elicit enough information from him to hold him permanently for connections to terrorism, was sent to Syria for further interrogations.
Interviews of former prisoners held in the same facility in Syria conducted by Amnesty revealed a widespread system of torture and abuse. Near starvation, dirty conditions, lack of health care, torture and other abuses appear to be commonplace in the Syrian prison in which he reportedly has been held.
Zammar remains in custody without access to his family or to due process.
Amnesty reports that nearly 1,000 such rendition are linked to the CIA. Most of these flights appear to have used European airspace, and were operated by the CIA through front companies. One such company, Premier Executive Transport, has been based in both Delaware and Massachusetts.
An additional 600 flights were done using planes "confirmed as having been used at least temporarily by the CIA."
The former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, Vincent Cannistraro, openly admitted to the US media that in certain cases, prisoners were rendered in this secretive manner to countries where torture is permitted. Cannistraro admitted that at least one prisoner was sent to Egypt where intelligence officials there promptly pulled out his fingernails in order to get him to talk.
Other former CIA operatives have stated that Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan are among the states where rendition flights are sent. Classified information leaked to the media in recent months indicates that secrets sites in Europe were also used.
Cannistraro's and other's admissions contradict Bush administration claims that the US has not and will not transport anyone to a country where torture is permitted.
Because the main purpose of rendition is to evade legal protections for prisoners and their treatment, the use of torture and abuse is a major human rights concern. The Amnesty report notes that rendition flights "are crimes under international law, involving multiple human rights violations."
"In certain circumstances," the report reads, "they are crimes against humanity, and can be prosecuted in international criminal proceedings."
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