Jan. 31, 2007 - Germany Orders Arrests RE CIA Kidnapping and Torture - 3 Suspects in North Carolina Indicted
3 North Carolinians Indicted in CIA Kidnapping/Torture case involving Aero Contractors out of Lenoir and Johnson Counties
Germany Orders 13 Arrests Over Alleged CIA Kidnapping (Update2)
By Patrick Donahue
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- A court in Munich ordered the arrest of 13 people for the alleged abduction of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who says he was seized by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and taken to a secret prison in Afghanistan.
Evidence collected by prosecutors yielded ``clearly identifiable'' individuals who may be undercover CIA agents...
... most of the suspects live in North Carolina and three of them have refused to address the allegations when confronted. NDR said the crew operated out of Majorca and worked for Aero Contractors, the successor of the CIA's former secret airline Air America.
El-Masri flown to Baghdad and then Kabul to be "interrogated":
Khalid el-Masri, a German national whose story is confirmed by German officials, says he was arrested on the Macedonian border on New Year’s Eve, 2003. After being held for three weeks by Macedonian officials who pressed him to admit that he was an al- Qaeda member, he was driven to Skopje airport, beaten, stripped, shackled and flown to Baghdad, and then to Kabul.
El-Masri says he woke in a jail cell and was told: “You’re in a country without laws and no one knows you are here.” After being held for five months in solitary confinement, he was flown back to the Balkans last May and dumped on a hillside, where Macedonian border guards returned his passport and cash.
The USA should be a moral beacon to the world.
Governor Easly should order an investigation of the rendition flights from North Carolina's soil, and indeed has been repeatedly asked to do so by a group of state lawmakers and advocacy groups.
Congress should act as well.
Ultimately it is up to all of us, the people, to hold our public servants accountable.
Currently torture flights are staged out of Lenoir and Johnson County airports, subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
A grassroots campaign has been underway in North Carolina since November 2005 to persuade state and Johnston County officials to investigate Aero Contractors’ participation in CIA-sponsored renditions. To date, Governor Easley, the Global TransPark Authority Board, and the Johnston County Board of Commissioners have declined to initiate an investigation.... StopTorture Now website
Your help is needed to stop our airports from being used to shuttle prisioners to torture and non judicial confinement for the CIA.
Take Action:
NCSTN will continue to work until the state complies with its legal requirement. To accomplish this we need your help:
- Contact Governor Easley and request that he stop the State’s hosting of torture flights: Mike Easley, Office of the Governor, 30301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699-0301, 919/733-5811, (Fax) 919/733-2120, governor.office@ncmail.net .
- Stop Torture Now Petition! Get people to sign – see www.ncpeaceaction.org
- Ask members of the N.C. General Assembly to call for an SBI investigation. See www.ncleg.net for contact info for General Assembly members.
- Check our website, www.ncstoptorturenow.org, and email stoptortureflights@riseup.net if you want to get news & actions through our listserve.
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