Secret CIA flights landed in Germany, magazine reports News
Secret CIA flights landed in Germany, magazine reports

[JURIST] German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the German government has a list of at least 437 flights [Der Speigel report, in German] it suspects the US CIA [official website; JURIST news archive] operated in German airspace, landing in Berlin, Frankfurt, and US Air Base at Ramstein. The list, however, does not indicate what the CIA-operated planes carried. The report bolsters allegations that the CIA used secret flights to transfer Islamist terror suspects to secret European prisons for interrogation [JURIST report]. French newspaper Le Figaro reported Friday that CIA-chartered flights stopped in France [JURIST report] in 2002 and 2005, while Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Thursday that over 300 CIA flights landed at other European airports. The American Civil Liberties Union [official website] is preparing to file a lawsuit [BBC news report] against the CIA on behalf of an of a man allegedly taken under CIA authorization to a secret prison in Afghanistan. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice [official profile], traveling to Europe Monday, is expected to deliver a hard-line message [JURIST report] to European leaders to decrease their criticism of US treatment of terror suspects and the existence of alleged secret CIA prisons. BBC News has more.