 BERLIN - The German government has a list of at least 437 flights operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency in German airspace, the news magazine Der Spiegel claimed in its edition to be published on Monday.
The number includes both movements by planes of the CIA spy agency in German airspace and landings at German airports, it says. âSuch planes could be used to transfer presumed terrorists and place them in secret locations,â Der Spiegel writes.
| Or moving our own people, or freight, or other stuff. The CIA uses planes for all sorts of things; you'd be amazed. Wanna see the freight manifestos? |
Der Spiegel says that in 2002 and 2003 two CIA aircraft alone accounted for 137 and 146 uses of German airspace or landings, chiefly at Frankfurt in the west, Berlin or the US base at Ramstein in western Germany.
| "We've been evacuating baby ducks from Afghanistan. They're on the endangered species list. Sssssh." |
In an interview published on Saturday in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper the secretary general of the German branch of the human rights organisation Amnesty International claimed the German government knew of the CIA flights.
Der Spiegel said the government was worried that the affair could prompt a fundamental debate about the use of German airspace by US planes for the war in Iraq and the basing of US troops in Germany. Berlin has also been asked to inform the 46-member Council of Europe by February 21 what action it has undertaken in specific cases of âkidnappingsâ after being told about them, the magazine says.
| Why, wait for proof, of course. |
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