Expose: Sri Lanka’s Covert Support To CIA Secret Detention And Extraordinary Rendition

By Colombo Telegraph -February 5, 2013 

“Sri Lanka permitted use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.” says New York based Open society Foundations. The report published byOpen society Foundations says; “ There have been no known judicial cases or investigations in Sri Lanka relating to its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.”

According to the OSF, this report focuses primarily on human rights abuses associated with the CIA’s post-September 11, 2001, secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. The report does not document extra-legal overseas transfers or secret detention of detainees by agencies other than the CIA. Thus, the U.S. Defense Department’s detention practices and its transfer of detainees to and from Guantánamo Bay or other military detention facilities are not the focus of this report.

The factual contents of this report are derived from credible public sources and information provided by reputable human rights organizations. Sources for the factual assertions are provided in accompanying endnotes. While every source has been carefully reviewed for indicia of credibility, it is ultimately impossible to corroborate every factual assertion due to the extraordinary level of government secrecy associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations

OSF report says; “Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency embarked on a highly classified program of secret detention and extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects. The program was designed to place detainee interrogations beyond the reach of law. Suspected terrorists were seized and secretly flown across national borders to be interrogated by foreign governments that used torture, or by the CIA itself in clandestine “black sites” using torture techniques.”

Globalizing Torture is the most comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. It details for the first time what was done to the 136 known victims, and lists the 54 foreign governments that participated in these operations. It shows that responsibility for the abuses lies not only with the United States but with dozens of foreign governments that were complicit.

More than 10 years after the 2001 attacks, Globalizing Torture makes it unequivocally clear that the time has come for the United States and its partners to definitively repudiate these illegal practices and secure accountability for the associated human rights abuses.

Page number 109 in the report says; “Sri Lanka permitted use of its airspace and airports for flights associated with CIA extraordinary rendition operations.Court documents indicate that at least one flight operated by Richmor Aviation (a company that operated flights for the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program)landed in Sri Lanka in 2003.The documents show that between August 12 and 15, 2003, a Richmor flight registered as N85VM took off from Washington, D.C., and stopped in Bangkok before making another stop at Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike international airport in Colombo, and then flying on to Kabul, Dubai, and Shannon airport in Ireland.That flight coincided in time with the capture of Riduan Isamuddin (Hambali) in Bangkok in 2003.Isamuddin spent the next three years in secret CIA prisonsbefore ultimately being transferred as a “high value detainee” to Guantánamo Bay in September 2006, where he remains detained.See the detainee list in Section IV.There have been no known judicial cases or investigations in Sri Lanka relating to its participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.”

The report also shows that as many as 54 foreign governments reportedly participated in these operations in various ways, including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories; detaining, interrogating, torturing, and abusing individuals; assisting in the capture and transport of detainees; permitting the use of domestic airspace and airports for secret flights transporting detainees; providing intelligence leading to the secret detention and extraordinary rendition of individuals; and interrogating individuals who were secretly being held in the custody of other governments. Foreign governments also failed to protect detainees from secret detention and extraordinary rendition on their territories and to conduct effective investigations into agencies and officials who participated in these operations.

The 54 governments identified in this report span the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, and include: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong,Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Read the full report here