Back in January, Germany indicted thirteen CIA officers, who allegedly kidnapped, Khaled al-Masri:

Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of one of its citizens. Munich prosecutors confirmed that the warrants were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent. Mr Masri says he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there. He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans realised they had the wrong man.

Then, in February, it was Italy’s turn at seeking justice in another renditions case involving, Abu Omar a Jordanian militant living in England and visiting Milan at the time of his kidnapping:

An Italian judge has ordered 26 Americans and five Italians to stand trial for the kidnapping of a terror suspect in Milan in 2003, in what will be the first criminal court case over the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme. The decision, which indicts a number of senior intelligence officials from the US and Italy, concerns the abduction of a radical imam known as Abu Omar, who was flown to Egypt where he claims he was tortured under questioning on February 17 2003. Prosecutors say that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the CIA to abduct the Egyptian cleric. All but one of the American suspects has been identified as CIA agents. Among them are said to be the former heads of the CIA in Rome and Milan - Jeff Castelli and Robert Lady – as well as the former Italian chief of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari. The other US citizen is an air force officer stationed at the time at Aviano, where Abu Omar was taken after being seized.

And now, it’s Scotland’s turn to take a stand for human rights:

A CIA "torture flight" airplane which regularly visited Guantanamo Bay landed at Edinburgh Airport on its way from Afghanistan to the United States, according to a new report. The civil rights charity Reprieve said it had evidence which showed one of the planes at the centre of the controversial "rendition" flights stopped in the Capital - and also highlighted a second "suspicious" landing. The refueling stopover was made on a flight from Kabul to Washington on November 25, 2002, at the height of the Afghanistan war. Reprieve has spent two years compiling evidence about the so-called torture flights, which are said to have taken prisoners from conflict spots to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Its report, based mainly on airplane companies' flight logs and prisoners' testimonies, identifies more than 100 suspect flights that landed in Scotland. It is believed the flight which landed in Edinburgh is more likely to have been carrying CIA interrogators home to the United States rather than transporting prisoners. The aircraft involved - the N85VM Gulfstream IV - is said by Reprieve to have flown to Guantanamo Bay on at least 51 occasions between June 2002 and January 2005.

The second "suspicious" flight landed at Edinburgh on May 13, 2005, when a plane from Reykjavik stopped off in the Capital on its way to Frankfurt. Reprievebelieves this particular flight was part of a longer journey from Afghanistan to the U.S. The charity has said that the two flights are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, with numerous more untraced rendition flights probably having stopped in the Capital.

After presented with the charity’s dossier yesterday, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said he will send all the information in Reprieve’s report to the Lord Advocate.

Mr MacAskill said: "This Government has made absolutely clear our opposition to illegal rendition flights and also how seriously we take allegations regarding attempting to commit torture being committed here. There are clear laws in Scotland that have to be upheld. Attempts to commit torture are crimes under Scots law and it is for the police to investigate allegations of such offences and for the procurator fiscal to decide whether to bring proceedings." Clive Stafford Smith, legal director for Reprieve, said: "There is extremely serious evidence of systematic cover-up of transfers to torture, and nothing has been done to prevent this happening again in the future. "Enforced disappearance, illegal transfer and the torture of prisoners raise the most serious moral concerns and issues under international law. Scottish airports have played central roles in facilitating the secret CIA programme, which has involved the torture and abuse of an unknown number of individuals, many of whom have since simply disappeared."

The fact that two out of three of these countries have dark pasts steeped in fascism is a stark irony to say the least. The fact that our fathers and grandfathers fought, bled and died to defeat that fascism is beyond any rhetorical device. It’s tantamount to a massive retrogressive meltdown of conscious.

I just hope and pray that we’re able to threaten convince Congress to put an end to these reprehensible acts... before we bloggers begin to "disappear."

Oops, I almost forgot. I doubt that Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzalez and George Tenet will be going to Europe on vacation any time soon either. They’re still wanted in Germany

Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

More information on CIA "torture" flights:

Throw da fascists out!

Peace