Minister denies 'secret' CIA flight allegations

A news magazine reported today that Portugal’s foreign minister withheld information from European Parliament officials investigating alleged CIA flights in Europe while he was defence minister.

Luis Amado also allegedly gave parliament contradictory information about the flights, the magazine Visao reported.

Amado denied he had lied to or misled EU officials.

Visao cited a flight list from the air traffic control authority sent to the European Parliament’s CIA flights committee on Tuesday, stating that of 94 flights to or from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 17 landed in the Azores islands and 77 passed through Portuguese airspace.

The agency could not confirm the authenticity of the list. “We have been asked by the EU committee for details about these flights, but I cannot say if this supposed list is accurate because I have not seen it,” air traffic control spokesman Pedro Gaspar said.

The magazine report alleged Amado’s Defence Ministry provided wrongful information to EU officials in June when it said, in a letter sent to the EU parliament, that it had no knowledge of state or military flights linked to Guantanamo.

Ana Gomes told TSF radio today: “The ministry of defence and the foreign office had to know about these flights because they give out authorisations for landing and stopovers.”

Amado denied the allegations.

“We acted in good faith,” Amado said. “Ana Gomes knows all elements she requested were provided. We don’t have the time to check hundreds of flights from 2002. There is no data to confirm this government or the previous one was in breach of any law.”

The US has been allegedly engaged in extraordinary rendition across Europe, a controversial and secret process in which suspected terrorists are flown to countries other than the US for imprisonment or interrogation.

In September, US President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time that terror suspects have been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but did not specify where.