Turkey Cooperated in CIA Extraordinary Renditions by Scott Horton

[Jefferson23]

The conservative Hamburg-based newspaper Die Welt reports in an online feature that Turkey permitted the American CIA to use İncirlik Air Base as a transit point for extraordinary renditions flights at least up to February 2006. When controversy first erupted surrounding the renditions program in 2006 and the Council of Europe launched an investigation into the practice, Turkish Government spokesman Namik Tan had emphatically denied that İncirlik Air Base had been used in connection with the program. “Turkey has participated in no phase of the secret CIA activities,” he said in carefully worded remarks, “and it will continue not to do so.” When pressed as to whether the flights might have landed without the knowledge of Turkish authorities, Tan replied that “İncirlik is a Turkish air base. We are fully informed about what transpired there.” Now, however, a diplomatic cable has been released and published by The Guardian and Oslo’s Aftenposten showing that the Turks first approved the renditions flights and then withdrew their authorization (my translation, substituting the original text of the cable):

In a June 2006 cable classified as “Secret/NoForn” issued by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, it states “The Turkish military had allowed us to use Incirlik as a refueling stop for Operation FUNDAMENTAL JUSTICE detainee movement operations since 2002, but revoked this permission in February of this year.”

The cable is a “backgrounder” for General Norton A. Schwartz, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, who was due for a visit with Turkish officials in Ankara on June 14, 2006. The embassy advised the general to avoid the subject in his discussions with his Turkish counterparts.

The Welt report notes that the notoriously autonomous Turkish military may have given the okay without the knowledge or approval of the AK Party government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Erdoğan government has been critical of American human rights abuses during the War on Terror, including torture and mistreatment of prisoners associated with the CIA’s extraordinary renditions program. However, Die Welt concludes (my translation):

remainder: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/01/hbc-90007932