bosnia-herzegovina

Bosnia-Herzegovina allowed the use of its airspace and airports for flights associ-ated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations. It also permitted the use of its territory for U.S. military bases that held detainees, but it is not clear whether the CIA was involved in the detentions.

At least one flight—registered as N85VM—operated by Richmor Aviation (a com-pany that operated flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program)⁹²² landed in Bosnia-Herzegovina at some point between November 6 and 7, 2003.⁹²³

According to a 2010 U.N. report, the United States used two military bases in Bos-nia-Herzegovina—the NATO base in Butmir and the American military’s Eagle Base in Tuzla—for secret detentions.⁹²⁴ It is, however, not clear that these bases were used for CIA (as opposed to U.S. Defense Department) operations. The Tuzla base was used to “process” eight detainees.⁹²⁵ Around September 25, 2001, Nihad Kar-sic and Almin Hardaus were arrested at work by Italian Carabiniers (part of the Ital-ian peacekeeping force) and taken to Butmir base and then to Eagle Base where they were held in secret detention.⁹²⁶ The two men report that they were frequently beaten and verbally harassed, stripped naked, deprived of food and sleep, pho-tographed, and subjected to solitary confinement.⁹²⁷ During their transport from Butmir to Tuzla, both men reported being hooded and handcuffed with earphones placed over their ears.⁹²⁸ Abdel Halim Khafagy, a 69-year-old Egyptian-born Mu-nich-based publisher was also held by U.S. authorities at Tuzla for several weeks, during which time German officials were alleged to have been involved in his inter-rogation.⁹²⁹ However, it is not clear that the CIA was involved in these cases.

There are no known judicial cases or investigations in Bosnia-Herzegovina regard-ing its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.

9. Canada

Canada provided information leading to the capture of a Canadian national who was extraordinarily rendered to Syria. Canada also permitted the use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provided inaccurate information regarding Maher Arar to the United States which likely led to his extraordinary rendition and torture in Syria.⁹³⁰ Arar, a dual national of Canada and Syria, was detained by U.S. authorities while he was in transit at JFK airport on September 26, 2002, based on “inaccurate and unfairly prejudicial” intelligence provided by the RCMP.⁹³¹ He was detained in New York City for almost two weeks before the regional director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service issued an order declaring that Arar was a member of Al Qaeda and directing his removal from the United States on October 7, 2002.⁹³² The next day, he was flown, in U.S.

custody, to Jordan and subsequently driven to Syria.⁹³³ He was imprisoned in Syria for nearly a year and tortured before being released and returned to Canada.⁹³⁴ See the detainee list in Section IV.

Canada also allowed use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary renditions. After September 11, 2001, about 20 aircraft linked to the CIA made 74 flights to Canada.⁹³⁵ According to a research report for the Canadian Parliament, “the Department of Public Safety in late 2005 reviewed flight logs filed with Canadian authorities. Officials concluded that there was no evidence of illegal activity by the United States, with officials from the Canada Border Services Agency and Nav Canada indicating that proper administrative and operational procedures were followed in relation to those flights.”⁹³⁶ However, flight logs re-cently obtained by Reprieve, a British human rights group, from the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency show that in 2004, a chartered plane suspected of transferring detainees for the CIA extraordinary renditions program departed from

Washing-ton, D.C.; stopped in Guantánamo Bay; then Gander, Canada; Bagram Air Base;

and eventually in Vilnius, Lithuania.⁹³⁷

In 2004, Canada launched a Commission of Inquiry (called the “Arar Commis-sion”) headed by Justice Dennis O’Connor to investigate and report on the ac-tions of Canadian officials in relation to Maher Arar.⁹³⁸ U.S. authorities declined an invitation to testify at the inquiry.⁹³⁹ The commission found that there was “noth-ing to indicate that Arar committed an offence or that his activities were a threat to the security of Canada.”⁹⁴⁰ The commission further concluded, among other findings, that the RCMP provided U.S. authorities with “inaccurate” information about Arar on which the United States likely relied in deciding to detain and re-move him to Syria; that there was cause for “serious concern in regard to a num-ber of actions taken by Canadian officials during Mr. Arar’s imprisonment, includ-ing some that could have had an effect on the time taken to release [him];” that Canadian consular officials should have been alert to the likelihood that Arar had been tortured in Syrian custody and therefore should have assessed the reliability of Arar’s statements in Syrian custody; and that “both before and after Mr. Arar’s return to Canada, Canadian officials leaked confidential and sometimes inaccu-rate information about the case to the media for the purpose of damaging [his]

reputation or protecting their self-interests or government interests.”⁹⁴¹ In 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Maher Arar for Canada’s role in his “terrible ordeal” and announced he would receive $10.5 million in a legal settlement with the government.⁹⁴²

10. Croatia

Croatia allowed the use of its airports and airspace for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.

In 2006, Amnesty International reported that flights N313P-N4476S, associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations, stopped over twice in Dubrovnik air-port in Croatia.⁹⁴³ Dubrovnik airport manager Tonci Peovic confirmed in April 2006 that “[t]he airport’s log book contains entries on a plane with registration number N4476S from Khartoum in Sudan landing in Dubrovnik on 23 April 2005 and leaving for the United States on 25 April 2005.”⁹⁴⁴ A 2009 report of the U.N. Special Rap-porteur on counterterrorism issues named Croatia as one of a number of countries that “facilitated extraordinary renditions in various ways.”⁹⁴⁵

There are no known judicial cases or investigations in Croatia relating to its partici-pation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.

11. Cyprus

Cyprus allowed the use of its airports and airspace for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations. In 2007, a European Parliament report

“[e]xpressed serious concern about the 57 stopovers made by CIA-operated air-craft at Cypriot airports that on many occasions came from or were bound for countries linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees;

[and] deplore[d] the stopovers in Cyprus of aircraft which have been shown to have been used by the CIA, on other occasions, for the extraordinary rendition of Ahmed Agiza, Mohammed El-Zari, Bisher Al-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna, Abou Elkassim Britel, Khaled El-Masri, Binyam Mohammed and Abu Omar.”⁹⁴⁶ A working docu-ment that provides underlying analysis for the European Parliadocu-ment report indi-cates that two airports in Cyprus (Larnaca and Paphos) had on various occasions allowed fifteen different CIA aircraft to land.⁹⁴⁷

Specifically, flight N313P, associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations, departed Larnaca at 6:39 p.m. on January 21, 2004 and arrived in Rabat, Mo-rocco, at 11:48 p.m. that night.⁹⁴⁸ In addition, between 2002 and 2005, Cyprus allowed use of its airports and air space for at least six flights operated by Richmor Aviation,⁹⁴⁹ a company that operated flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.⁹⁵⁰ Richmor flight logs obtained from U.S. court records show that flight N85VM stopped over in Larnaca at some point between December 4 and 8, 2002;

N85VM stopped in Paphos between August 11 and 15, 2004; N85VM stopped in Paphos between August 11 and 15, 2004; N70HS stopped in Paphos between November 9 and 12, 2004; N227SV stopped in Paphos between December 14 and 17, 2005; and N450D stopped in Paphos between May 23 and 26, 2005.⁹⁵¹ There are no known judicial cases or investigations in Cyprus relating to its partici-pation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.