French demand Judicial enquiry into Rendition flights on French soil.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is urging French prosecutors to open a judicial inquiry into allegations that CIA-operated rendition flights stopped at French airports. A local French prosecutor has already opened a preliminary investigation into claims that CIA planes which landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris carried terror suspects being transported to countries where they could be subject to torture.

FIDH believe - if the facts can be established - that these procedures for transporting prisoners can be likened to a form of arbitrary detention and illegal confinement and may constitute, blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions. In addition, it has now been established that the techniques called “intensive interrogation” by CIA operatives involve the use of torture and mistreatment and are therefore officially prohibited by the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Punishment or Treatment of 10 December 1984. There is now every reason to fear that such practices have been carried out on prisoners while they were being transported on two suspect flights.

FIDH are currently filing their complaint with the Public Prosecutor of the Administrative Court of Bobigny,(le procureur de Bobigny, Francis Molins) as Paris-Le Bourget Airport is situated within its jurisdiction ( and also limited to that). They intention is to emphasise the responsibility of the French authorities, to inquire into the activities of these planes and to pursue their perpetrators." ("détentions arbitraires, séquestrations, tortures, et de violations de la troisième convention de Genève sur le sort des prisonniers de guerre".)

Following a report released by Amnesty International earlier this month detailing the CIA's alleged use of private air carriers and "front" companies to hide its rendition practices, the FIDH is calling for an international judicial commission to look into the allegations.

US officials have always denied using rendition to allow torture of suspects by foreign governments, although Condoleezza Rice acknowledged making mistakes in the "war on terror," when having a jolly time with Jack in Blackburn recently. Der Spiegel preferred to call it "Condi's Tale of Lies".In March, the Council of Europe Secretary General issued a report (by Swiss Senator Dick Marty) concluding that there was no clear evidence of any secret CIA detention facilities in Europe.

Suspicions have persisted, however, with declassified Canadian memos...(22/2/06

One note, stamped secret, says 20 planes with alleged CIA ties have made 74 flights to Canada since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The note adds the Canada Border Services Agency, which compiled the figures, and Nav Canada, the civil aviation regulatory body, "have indicated that proper administrative and operational procedures were followed in relation to those flights."

.... and UK air traffic controllers (Guradian) suggesting that the US did use rendition to transfer suspects through their domestic airspaces. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak recently said that he is certain that the United States has secret detention facilities in Europe and has demanded access to them, he has catalogued in a 15-page U.N. report for the UN Council how the systems works and which countries have been involved. AFP has (Eng.) more. Le Monde (Fr.) has local coverage.

Pic (Prison Planet) is of Prestwick Airport from Google Earth, just when Pres. Bush's Galaxy's were unloading his fleet of bomb proof limo's for the G8 Summit. Rendition flights have passed through Prestwick however.More.