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Spanish official denies CIA stopovers in Spain
Dec 17, 2008, 13:43 GMT
Madrid - A former Spanish senior official Wednesday admitted that the former conservative government allowed US flights transporting terrorist suspects to make stopovers in Spain, but denied that stopovers actually took place, judicial sources said.
National Court judge Ismael Moreno questioned Miguel Aguirre de Carcer in the framework of his investigation into alleged flights of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) via Spain between 2002 and 2005.
Aguirre de Carcer wrote a 2002 top secret memo showing that the United States requested permission to fly Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects from Afghanistan via Spain to the US prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba.
The memo was published recently by the daily El Pais.
Aguirre de Carcer said he and two other officials recommended that Spain accept the US request, but that he did not know whether the final decision was taken by then foreign minister Josep Pique.
Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos earlier told parliament that stopovers had been allowed, but had not occurred.
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