Μακαριος Δρουσιώτης

The Council of Europe report on the issue of   CIA   flights for the ferrying of illegally-arrested terrorist suspects to secret prisons in Europe and elsewhere, has revealed that Cyprus was not a mere transit point, as the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been claiming, but a staging point for illegal operations.  It was in Cyprus, and specifically Larnaca Airport, where the planes and their crews were being prepared and the point where CIA agents in charge of the operations used to meet.  According to the above report, in addition to Cyprus, similar staging points operated in Washington, Frankfurt, Incirlik in Turkey, the Ramsteim  military base in Germany, Mallorca in Spain and Baku in Azerbaijan.

 

The CIA secret flights to various parts of the world, the abduction of suspects and their incarceration in secret prisons was first revealed by the Washington Post on 3 November 2005. International human rights protection groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, announced that they had secured evidence of illegal detentions and torture of suspects in secret prisons in Rumania and Poland.  These operations were carried out after the September 11th attack and formed part of the war declared by the United States against international terrorism.

 

Reacting to the high-handed actions of the super power, the Council of Europe decided to carry out an investigation to establish the extent of involvement by its members.   Last Wednesday [7 June 2006] the rapporteur of this investigation, Swiss Senator Dick Marty presented to the Council of Europe Parliament in Strasbourg his conclusions. Although his report sheds considerable light to the CIA-run secret operations, he was unable to unravel the case completely.

 

The report divides the Council of Europe member-states into three categories, depending on the extent to which the human rights of the detainees were violated.   The more grave violations were committed by Rumania and Poland, where the suspects were illegally detained and subjected to torture. Cyprus has been placed in the next category, together with Turkey, Germany and Spain.  These four European countries were used as the staging points for the secret operations.  The third category refers to states that were simply used as stopovers, such as Ireland, Britain, Portugal, Greece and Italy.

 

For … technical reasons

 

When this issue originally came to the attention of the public, the Government of Cyprus announced that it had no information.   However, after Amnesty International issued, on 6 April 2006, its own report about the illegal arrests of suspects by the CIA and also gave the names of the countries that had cooperated with the United States, a list that included Cyprus, the Ministry of Communications and Works issued an announcement on 10 June 2006 saying that “no request of this kind was submitted on behalf of the United States and no such permission was given by the Government of Cyprus.”     

 

After the publication of Dick Marty’s report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the “US Government had never” informed the Cyprus Government “about the transport or detention of terrorist suspects.”  The same announcement, however, went on to add that on “seven occasions during 2004 permission was requested for the technical landings of private US-owned aircraft” and that the Cypriot authorities agreed to the request and gave landing permission for “technical reasons,” in other words only for refueling.

 

However, the Council of Europe report does not mention Cyprus as a refueling stop but merely as a staging point for the operations.  It is impossible to believe that the United States decided to use Larnaca Airport for this type of sensitive operations without the consent of the government.  As Swiss Senator Dick Marty reported, “the authorities of many European countries actively participated, together with the CIA, in illegal operations while others ignored them although they knew or did not wish to know about them.”  Cyprus, because of the nature of the services it was providing to the CIA operations should be included among the countries that were actively participating.

 

Tassos is proud

 

After all, President of the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos in a speech he delivered on 1 June 2004 to Princeton University’s J.F. Kennedy School of Government said that after the terrorist attack of 11 September “Cyprus immediately participated, in an active manner, with the United States in the international alliance against terrorism. Since then, in close cooperation with the United States we have taken many concrete steps in the war against terrorism.”

 

More recently, in his 2 May 2006 interview to Elevtheros Tipos, he commented on the level of relations with the United States and said that Cyprus is not in a confrontation with the United States.  “On the contrary,” as he said, “we have shown our good intentions toward the United States in a variety of manners, which is not proper to mention at this stage.”

 

This last reference by the President is a clear indication that Cyprus has offered facilities to the United States, beyond those already announced, such as assistance in the operations against Iraq.  Another example is the agreement allowing inspections on board Cypriot-registered ships suspected of carrying freight on behalf of terrorist organizations. 

 

Silence about the FBIS

 

The revelations about the major role played by Cyprus in the CIA secret flights indicate the wider cooperation existing between our country and the US intelligence services.  According to three separate reports printed in Politis (on 7 May 2006, 14 May 2006 and 21 May 2006) each year the Government of Cyprus receives an undisclosed amount of money in return for the operation of the FBIS radio station. In contravention of the constitution, the above amounts are not paid into the state budget but are instead received “black” in order to be paid out using procedures that lack transparency and for undeclared purposes.

 

When Politis first published this information, the government responded by trying to mislead.  More specifically, it tried to present the 0.5 million dollars it receives every year for the operation of a Voice of America relay station as compensation for the operation of the FBIS. In our own articles, we had pointed out how and why the government has tried to mislead public opinion and asked for clarifications.  However, the government preferred to keep silent.

 

Politis has received information on how the money received from the CIA was spent, which we are investigating further.   As part of our investigation, on 23 May 2006 we submitted to Acting Government Spokesman Yeoryios Lillikas a detailed questionnaire asking for answers.  Until now, the government insists on its policy of silence.

Makarios Drousiotis

11/06/2006