Spain told US has no record of CIA stopover flights

Spain asked the United States in March and again this week if CIA planes carrying terror suspects made stopovers at Spanish airports, and both times the Americans said they had no record of such flights, the government said.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will appear in parliament to explain the controversy, the government said late yesterday. No date for the appearance has been set.

The Spanish government says a judge is investigating reports that from January 2004 to January 2005 at least 10 CIA flights made stopovers on the Spanish island of Majorca as part of a CIA programme in which Islamic terror suspects were transported to third countries without court approval.

CIA flights are also alleged in press reports to have passed through the Canary Islands off the coast of west Africa.

Spanish police began investigating in March after a Majorca newspaper reported that CIA planes involved in the covert program were using the airport in Palma for stopovers.

After that press report appeared, the Spanish foreign ministry official in charge of European and North American affairs, Jose Pons, contacted the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Madrid, Robert Manzanares, and asked for “all the information the American embassy had”, the statement said.

Manzanares consulted and reported back to the Spaniards that he “had no record whatsoever of possible airborne transport of detainees”, it added.

Yesterday, Spain again asked the US State Department about the issue and got the same answer it did in March, the statement said.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said “the subject did come up” in a general way in conversations Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried had with Spanish foreign ministry officials in Madrid on Tuesday and yesterday.

Ereli said Fried’s visit had been previously scheduled.

Ereli did not provide details of the conversation, and said he was not aware of any complaints from other allies.