The CIA's secret "ghost flights"----eg., covertly transferred terrorist suspects across the European continent---- are deemed by the Washington administration as "a vital tool" in the campaign against terrorism.

Martin Rowson

These ghost flights are a core part of a state-sponsored form of kidnapping of those suspected of terrorism or involvement with terror groups and then handing them over into torture in foreign countries that torture to obtain information. It is alleged that this use of torture to fight terrorism takes place in secret prisons in eastern Europe (possibly in Romania and Poland) beyond the reach of any legal system.

Condoleezza Rice does not deny that rendition was taking place--only that the US does not knowingly send people to be tortured.

Often the CIA grabs suspects off the street who later turned out to be innocent.That is Mamdouh Habib, 49, an Australian citizen. Given the Australian government lack of sympathy to Habib, after he was released without charge and allowed to return to his wife and three children in Sydney, one presumes the Howard government tacitly supports renditions.

Alas Condoleezza Rice, who had defended the renditions as a necessary part of of the US war on terror, said the US Government had the knowing cooperation of the relevant European Governments, including that of the Schroder Government in Germany. It had publicly broken with the Bush administration over invasion of Iraq yet it remained silent about the ghost flights.