CIA plane landed in Copenhagen in March

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Sunday October 30, 2005 18:18 by Dr. Coilín Oscar ÓhAiseadha Máigh Nuad, Co. Cill Dara

Danish Red-Green Alliance demands an explanation

A CIA plane used to abduct suspected terrorists for torture in other countries landed in Copenhagen in March.

Frank Aaen, Danish MP for the Red-Green Alliance, party spokesperson on defence issues and member of the Foreign Policy Committee, is calling the Conservative Danish foreign minister to explain what the plane was doing in Copenhagen.

According to the Norwegian paper Aftenbladet, the foreign minister originally refused to put a stop to overflights of CIA abduction planes, stating that they were not in contravention of Danish law. He has recently told the American authorities that Danish airspace may not be used for purposes that are in contravention of international conventions. [But who knows how the US will interpret that?]

The article below is a translation from an article by the Danish wire service, Ritzau.

Posted to www.berlingske.dk on Saturday 29 October 2005 at 09:30

CIA plane in Denmark

Secret CIA plane spent 23 hours in Copenhagen. Danish Red-Green Alliance demands an explanation for what it was doing in Denmark.

One of the American intelligence agency CIA’s secret aeroplanes, which are used to transport suspected terrorists around the world, landed in Copenhagen in March.

It has previously been revealed that CIA planes have secretly flown through Danish airspace on several occasions since 2001, but this is the first time there has been information that one of the planes has landed at a Danish airport. As a result, Frank Aaen is calling the Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller to consultation in the Danish parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee to receive an explanation for what the CIA plane was doing for 23 hours in Denmark.

According to human rights organisations, the secret flights are used to fetch terror suspects and abduct them out of the countries they live in, to countries that are known to use torture in interrogations of prisoners.

/ritzau/