Madrid - Controversy continued in Spain on Wednesday over
allegations that the former conservative government gave permission
to the United States to secretly fly terrorist suspects via Spain to
the prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Conservative leader Mariano Rajoy denied having known anything
about such flights, while the left-leaning daily El Pais reported
that a 2002 Foreign Ministry document on the flights had mysteriously
disappeared.
Former conservative foreign minister Josep Pique was booed by a
group of students who slammed him as a 'war criminal,' 'killer,'
'fascist' and 'torturer.'
El Pais earlier claimed that the government of former conservative
prime minister Jose Maria Aznar had given permission in 2002 to US
planes taking Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners from Afghanistan to
Guantanamo to secretly make stopovers at two US military bases in
Spain.
The conservative opposition responded by claiming that nine out of
11 flights organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took
place under Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
who took office in 2004.
Rajoy reiterated the claim, calling on the foreign and defence
ministers to inform parliament about the flights, which Zapatero has
denied knowledge of.
Josep Pique, who was foreign minister in 2002, was meanwhile booed
and constantly interrupted while giving a lecture on the economy at a
Madrid university.
Students dressed as Guantanamo prisoners accused him of having
helped the US kill and torture people.
Pique referred to the current government's earlier statement that
nothing illegal had taken place, and said he had 'no moral problems'
with decisions he had taken as minister.
The Foreign Ministry launched an investigation into the affair
earlier this week after El Pais published a top secret document
showing that the US requested permission for prisoner transport in
2002.
The investigating commission has been unable to locate the
original document, El Pais said Wednesday.
The commission believes the document to have disappeared prior to
2005, when Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told parliament
that nothing illegal had occurred on US military flights making
stopovers in Spain, according to the daily.
The Foreign Ministry was due to hand the results of its
investigation over to the National Court, which is conducting an
inquiry into alleged CIA flights via Spain.
A Council of Europe 2006 report named Spain as one of several
countries having allowed secret CIA flights carrying terrorist
suspects.
USA
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