Turkey a Main Hub in Transporting Terrorism Suspects to Guantanamo

Translated By Garabet Moumdjian

5 December 2008

Edited by Sonia Mladin

Turkey - Radikal - Original Article (Turkish)

The revelation comes from Spain, where the court presiding over the case opened against Spain’s participation in transporting so called “terrorists” to the Guantanamo concentration camp, announced that Turkey was a main point of the transportation process. This information was derived from a secret document, which was presented to the court by Spain’s Defense Ministry.

According to the released document, which was classified as ‘Top Secret,” Turkey was one of the main hubs from where American military airplanes transported “terrorists” captured in Middle Eastern countries to Guantanamo. The news was first released by Spanish newspapers, which quoted sources from the Spanish Defense Ministry. This necessitated the ministry of releasing the "Top Secret” document to the court.

According to the prestigious Spanish newspaper “El Pais,” the Ministry released the list of such hubs after State Attorney Ishmael Morneo asked it to deliver to the court a list of countries that acted as hubs for transporting terrorist suspects to Guantanamo by way of Spain.

According to the released document, Turkey was the initial hub for 4 of the 11 flights that transported such suspects to Guantanamo through Spanish Military airports. Moreover, 12 other such flights did not land on Spanish soil for refueling.

THE LIST

According to the document, between 2002 and 2006 a total of 24 flights were registered as transporting terrorism suspects to Guantanamo. Of these 11 landed in Spain, while 13 others didn’t. Of the ones that landed in Spain, 4 initiated from Turkey.

‘El Pais' also wrote that in January 2002 a C-141 type American military plane that landed at the “Jabal Tariq” [Gibraltar] Spanish military base airport, was transporting 23 suspects to Guantanamo.

THE FLIGHTS

The list of the flights originating from Turkey is as follows:

May 2, 2002, flight RCH709, C-141 type American military plane landed at the Moron airport base in Seville. The reason for the flight was registered as “logistics.”

October 28, 2002, flight RCH319, C-17 type American military plane landed at the Ussu airport at Cadiz. The reason for the flight was registered as “logistics.”


April 4, 2005, flight RCH950, C-17 type American military plane Landed at Rota coming from Adana. The flight assumed a direct route to Guantanamo. The reason for the flight was registered as “logistics.”
October2, 2006, flight RCH919, KC-10 type American military plane had an itinerary of Turkey-Moron-Guantanamo. The reason for the flight was registered as “logistics.”

There is also a log for an uncompleted flight in the opposite direction, which was supposed to take place on April 11, 2005. The flight had to land in Spain on its way to Turkey, where it was supposed to be an escort for a plane transporting suspects to Guantanamo. This flight didn’t materialize.