Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/664438
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 APRIL 2016 26 Letters A report by Amnesty International on the US rendition flights which took off from European airports have confirmed two landings in Malta of the civilian airplanes transporting prisoners. The human rights watchdog's report "USA – Below the radar", claims to have registered over 1,000 flights that can be linked to the CIA, two of which landed in Malta. Flight N313P is a Boeing 737 aircraft for which there are 396 recorded landings or taking offs between 22 November 2002 and 8 September 2005. According to a report in The Guardian, flight N313P allegedly landed here from a UK base via Tripoli back in December 3, 2003. The Foreign Ministry has requested information from the British government Human Rights Watch has identified it as the "plane that the CIA used to move sev- eral prisoners to and from Europe, Afghani- stan, and the Middle East in 2003 and 2004 – it landed in Poland and Romania on direct flights from Afghanistan on two occasions in 2003 and 2004." Amnesty said the flight information comes form FAA flight records, European flight records, actual flight logs and airport records. The use of privately contracted planes enabled the CIA to land at foreign airports without informing local authorities, unlike government or military planes, Amnesty said. The organisation said extraordinary ren- ditions, transferring prisoners from one country to another by bypassing due judi- cial and administrative rules, had been used consistently by the US in the so-called "war on terror". Amnesty interviewed various victims of the US rendition programme, which it said was being carried out with the "collabora- tion, complicity or acquiescence of other governments", and in which physical and psychological brutality feature prominently in interrogations. Every one of the victims of rendition interviewed by Amnesty Interna- tional has described incidents of torture and other ill-treatment. "The rendition network's aim is to use whatever means necessary to gather intelli- gence, and to keep detainees away from any judicial oversight… Most victims of rendi- tion were arrested and detained illegally in the first place: some were abducted; others were denied access to any legal process, in- cluding the ability to challenge the decision to transfer them because of the risk of tor- ture." Those rendered to other countries for in- terrogation have said they were beaten with hands or sticks, made to stand for days on end, hung up for falaqa (beatings on the sole of the foot) or deprived of food or sleep. In some cases, the conditions of detention, including prolonged isolation, have them- selves amounted to cruel treatment. Yet no one can investigate this, much less stop it, because the condition and whereabouts of most rendition victims remain concealed. Amnesty confirms two CIA rendition landings in Malta Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Looking over the parapet Blinded by self-grandeur I have never been one to shy from putting my head above the parapet to express an opinion, though that opinion may draw f lak on me. And I am not about to start do- ing so now. The country is febrile, with a leader of the opposition stoking bad blood against all those not agreeing with his rabid views. Though he often depicts himself and his party as victims, he never hesitates to claim and act on his rights. He took his cohorts to the courthouse on Wednesday, as he had every right to do, though he has no right to intimidate the courts. And today he is calling a protest against corruption. Whose? I ask. And all this because he wants to be Prime Minister. His per- sonal ambitions are boundless, it would seem. He sees blood spill- ing – Minister Konrad Mizzi's blood – and is salivating at the prospect of maybe forcing Joseph Muscat's hand. Which would be terrible to behold. It would be disastrous for the country to see the captain changing course. The Prime Minister has stuck by his minis- ter so far, and should hold steady in that. Nothing wrong has been proved so far against Konrad Mizzi, apart from the awfully poor thinking about his personal way forward. Except for that, Mizzi has been delivering and earning his min- isterial salary. Malta has profited from his labours, and so have we. Because the energy rates were cut, which the Nationalist Party had told us first that this could not be done, and when it happened they claimed credit for 'making it possible' by bequeath- ing the Delimara wherewithal. Darn it, Lawrence Gonzi had the Delimara power plant at his disposal when he was Prime Minister but I cannot forget his virago scream in parliament that he would be voting wholeheart- edly for the hefty energy rates increase. You see, that was the easy thing to do – to raise the energy rates, though there were so many who would not afford the higher bills. Of course, allowance has to be made for the stress Gonzi was under, but he showed no compassion for all those who were hardly eating enough for having to pay their energy bills. In government, the PN could not be bothered with seeing how they could ease the lot of those who could not vote themselves a €600 a week increase. What has Konrad Mizzi done to attract all this opprobrium? He did what was heinous – set- ting up a shady company, in Panama of all places. But there has been no evidence so far of what Busuttil has been trying to make us believe. No millions stashed away. We have been fed Busuttil's thinking, but we can hardly see Busuttil as a disinterested spectator, can we? The fact is there has never been a minister whose execution of his duties has been so fruitful, who has worked so hard and willingly and with such admira- ble results. Make no mistake about it, Simon Busuttil is so relentless in his fanatical criticism of Mizzi only because Mizzi is such a suc- cess as a minister. In three years Mizzi gave the debt-ridden Ene- malta a future and is handing us a gas-fired power station. It took the PN in government more than a decade to pour some concrete into the sea at Cirkewwa and build the ferry terminal there. Lawrence Gonzi complained he had no talent in his parlia- mentary group. He opened his heart about that to a foreigner. He could not tell it to his party. Now here's Simon Busuttil, green with envy of the talented and resourceful Konrad Mizzi. Simon wants Konrad out. I can see why and do not know that I would not be doing the same in his position. If I had that much cheek. He fears the minister's abilities, so would rather have him out of his hair. Which, come to think of it, is unpatriotic. Are we so rich in talent that we can afford to lose this man? Let us see first if he has done wrong, apart from the abysmal Panama company decision. And if he has done other wrong, let him be removed. But otherwise, let him get on with his assiduous work for the country. Oh, by the way, if you're think- ing I am benefitting in any way from writing all this, you are wrong. I have never met, or spoken to Konrad Mizzi, and never had any contact with him of whatever sort. Or with any of his staff. Neither am I one of the so many benjamini whom this government is rewarding with such wild abandon. Roger Mifsud Rabat News - 9 April, 2006 A few days ago, 'wake-up-and- smell-the-café-premier' Mus- cat, referring to the Panama Papers fall-out in which a top minister is embroiled, said he was listening to the people. Another top minister, worlds apart from the previous, Ed- ward Scicluna, suggested on Tuesday evening in Parliament most elegantly that he was throwing down the gauntlet at Muscat. Some 24 hours earlier, during a Cabinet meeting, reports emerged that a number of min- isters made it plain that they wanted Konrad Mizzi to go. The choice he had was to jump or be pushed. But Muscat is not listening. He has the uproar ringing in his ears of a near-mutiny and made the biggest mistake of his career, managing to antagonise George Vella, who has given his life to the party. To think that this man, in all his years in Labour, has never had any accusation of sleaze levelled against him, would stand by as an upstart, must mean Muscat is blinded by some self-gran- deur. Did he really expect the dep- uty prime minister under the squeaky clean administration of Alfred Sant to let him off the hook over what happened these past three years? He's already said it's his last stint in politics. Many credit Muscat for his instinct for survival, against all odds. But he is not listening to the people. It's tinnitus ringing in his ears from what results in that Cabinet meeting. Joe Genovese Birkirkara