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The courageous Swiss investigator Dick Marty

Written by Administrator

Tuesday, 01 January 2008

Dick Marty has shed light on the CIA's covert activities

Dick Marty strongly deplores ‘flagrant injustice’ of UN Security Council blacklisting people suspected of terrorist links without evidence of wrong-doing

Strasbourg, 25.04.2007 – Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) investigator Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) today strongly deplored the UN Security Council for the “flagrant injustice” of blacklisting individuals suspected of having links to terrorism without evidence of any wrong-doing, flouting its own principles.

The process of blacklisting – in which individuals have their assets frozen and are banned from travelling – is carried out behind closed doors by a New York-based committee (the “1267 committee”) at the request of Security Council members. Those blacklisted are not informed or given a chance to be heard, and there is no appeal. The list currently contains 362 individuals and 125 companies or organisations.

Speaking on the fringes of a major Council of Europe conference taking place today in Strasbourg on “Why terrorism?”, Mr Marty said the UN’s current blacklisting procedure was a “dangerous ongoing erosion of fundamental rights and freedoms, even within the instances mandated to protect and promote them” and discredited the international fight against terrorism.

He also announced that he would be extending his inquiry to a similar system of blacklists run by the European Union.

In a preliminary report made public this week, Mr Marty cited the example of “Mr Y”, a successful Swiss-based businessman whose assets have been frozen and who has been barred from leaving the country since 2001. An Italian national of Egyptian origin and a Muslim, he was suspected of having funded the 11 September attacks – even though a subsequent four-year inquiry by Swiss prosecutors failed to find any evidence.

Mr Marty pointed out that three permanent members of the Security Council – France, Russia and the United Kingdom – were members of the Council of Europe, and were therefore bound by the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial, including the right to be heard.

>> Link to Mr Marty’s introductory memorandum: UN Security Council black lists (PDF)

>> Link to the web page of the UN Security Council’s 1267 committee

>> Link to the website of the Council of Europe conference “Why terrorism?”

Report names Poland and Romania in CIA scandal

A Swiss investigator says he has proof Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA prisons under a pact to track down suspected terrorists wanted by the United States.

Releasing details from his second report in Paris on Thursday, Dick Marty said Poland housed some of the CIA's most sensitive prisoners.

They included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he masterminded the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people.

"There is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania," Marty said in the report for the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog.

Marty issued a preliminary report last year, accusing 20 countries of colluding in a network of secret CIA jails and flight transfers.

President Bush confirmed last year the CIA had run secret detention centres abroad where terrorism suspects had been interrogated, but he did not name any countries.

On Thursday, Marty accused the former Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, and the current and former presidents of Romania, Ion Iliescu and Traian Basescu, of having known and approved of the secret CIA operations on their soil.

His report said US intelligence contacts and other sources confirmed Poland and Romania "did host secret detention centres under a special CIA programme established by the American administration in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 to 'kill, capture and detain' terrorist suspects deemed of 'high value'".

The Swiss senator added that Germany and Italy had used "state secrecy" to obstruct investigations.

EU involvement

The facilities were "run directly and exclusively by the CIA" and European governments connived with the secret transfers and detentions, known as extraordinary renditions, Marty said.

Analysts say Marty's report could embarrass European governments, who have criticised the detention without trial of suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

Reacting to Marty's report, the European Commission called on Romania and Poland to hold urgent, independent investigations into the allegations and ensure any victims were compensated.

However, government officials in Poland, Romania and Germany either denied allegations of the presence of secret prisons on their soil or involvement of any kind.

Global spider's web

Marty stated in his preliminary report last year that 20 mostly European countries colluded in a "global spider's web" of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorist suspects stretching from Asia to Guantanamo Bay.

Switzerland also allegedly knew of the secret prisons. A Swiss newspaper revealed that in late 2005 the country's intelligence services intercepted a fax from Egypt claiming that the US was operating a secret prison in Romania.

And earlier this year, the cabinet authorised plans to launch criminal proceedings over a suspected CIA flight that took a Muslim preacher kidnapped in Italy across Swiss airspace.

The latter case could have far-reaching consequences. As Marty released his report, 26 US citizens suspected of being CIA agents went on trial in absentia in Italy for the kidnapping.

The Muslim cleric who was on Washington's list of terrorist suspects says he was tortured after he was brought to Egypt after a so-called extraordinary rendition from Italy.

swissinfo with agencies

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George Arden - The courageous Swiss investiga

| 86.138.212.xxx | 2008-01-02 14:55:21

[Dick Marty is paid by the "Council of Europe" (mainly Rusia) to discredit Romania and Poland who are amongst the most critical of the Kremlin mafia. He didn't even come to any of the two acused countries to look for himself in spite of the insistent invitations of the respective governements. Courageous?????, all FSB agents like him fabricate "proofs"and are part of the Kremlin 5th column in Europe.

Joe Noory - Nice Job

| 64.241.193.xxx | 2008-01-16 20:50:24

Recyling a news story about Dick Marty from June of 2006... Wow. Impressive!

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