Controversy continues in Spain over CIA flights (Roundup)

Dec 3, 2008, 15:08 GMT

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.