Thursday, November 17, 2005

CIA: Rendition Vacations?

Suspected terrorists may be skinned alive by America's ostensible allies in Iraq, disappear into "black sites" somewhere in Eastern Europe, or be snatched off the streets of Italy to be worked over in Egyptian dungeons, but it's good to know the guys who are doing all this work get a break now and again. We already traced the Agency's penchant for beach and ski resorts in Italy. Now we find that secret CIA fights were making frequent stops in Mallorca going to and from the interrogation centers. The Madrid daily El Pais has given extensive coverage to the case, based on court documents. Among the intriguing details, it seems that about 50 people from the 747s and Gulfstreams that stopped over in La Palma overnighted at the Gran Melia Victoria and the Marriott San Antonem Llucmajor. (I encourage you to click the links and take the "tours.") Remember when the ever-despicable Rush Limbaugh said Guantanamo should be called "Club G'itmo, the Muslim resort"? Probably he'd been hearing tales from the Mallorca crowd and just got confused... - CD

Shadowland background:

Shadowland: Bourne Again?,5 July 2005
The real-life spy adventure uncovered in Italy's "kidnapped imam" case raises more troubling questions about how the Bush administration came to invade Iraq, and what's happened to the war on terror.

Shadowland: The Road to Rendition, 16 June 2005
Did U.S. agents help to abduct an imam off an Italian street? An upcoming Milan case could embarrass both Bush and Berlusconi.

No comments: