In response to the U.S. Senate’s release of an excerpt of a report of the CIA’s interrogation methods last week, the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued a statement, saying access to the full report has been requested.
The ministry’s staff have reviewed the 500-page excerpt and found that stopovers in Iceland on the CIA’s extraordinary rendition flights with detainees weren’t mentioned. The ministry is therefore requesting access to the full report, or at least to the chapters concerning Iceland.
In 2007, the ministry appointed a special task force to look into claims of extraordinary rendition flights landing in Iceland.
The task force concluded that aircraft had landed at the airports in Keflavík and Reykjavík from September 2001 to July 2007, which may have carried alleged terrorists who were destined for interrogation without the protection of international treaties.
The government stated that U.S. authorities had not applied for permission for flying through Icelandic airspace or landing at Icelandic airports for such purposes.
The government would not have authorized the practice given that it is at odds with international law and Iceland’s obligations, the Foreign Ministry’s statement concludes.
