COUNCIL OF EUROPE INQUIRY ON RENDITION FLIGHTS:

C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENNA 000310 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR L, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2016 TAGS: PREL AU EUN SUBJECT: COUNCIL OF EUROPE INQUIRY ON RENDITION FLIGHTS: AUSTRIAN DIPLOMATIC NOTE Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Scott Kilner Reasons: 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (C) DCM met Austrian MFA Legal Advisor Ferdinand Trauttmannsdorff (at the latter's request) regarding Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty's inquiry into "Alleged Secret Detentions in Council of Europe Member States." SIPDIS Trauttmansdorff handed over a Verbal Note (sic) requesting information regarding certain flights enumerated in a list provided by Marty's committee and based on Eurocontrol data. Embassy has faxed a copy of the Verbal Note and the attached list to L/PM. The Verbal Note is reproduced verbatim below: ¶2. (C) Text of Verbal Note: The Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria presents its compliments to the Embassy of the United States of America in Vienna and has the honour to refer to the following: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe/Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has appointed Mr. Dick Marty Rapporteur on the issue of "Alleged Secret Detentions in Council of Europe Member States." SIPDIS Through the national Parliamentary Delegations of the Member States, Mr. Marty requested all Member States to provide information on possible flights across their territory as well as landings on their territory by aircraft suspected to have been chartered by the US-Central Intelligence Agency for the purpose of carrying out illegal transportation of prisoners with or without the permission of the Member States concerned. Attached to this memorandum is a list of aircraft suspected of having been chartered by the CIA for the indicated purposes. This list has been provided to all Member States of the Council of Europe by Mr. Dick Marty and served as a basis for a request to EUROCONTROL to provide a list of all flights by the aircraft concerned over European territories. This list by EUROCONTROL has in the meantime been forwarded to Mr. Marty. In order to be able to reply to the Council of Europe's request for information, the Austrian government would be grateful for any information that the United States Government may provide on the following issues: The competent US-authorities are kindly requested to provide any information regarding flights of aircraft mentioned in the attached list or of any other aircraft chartered by the CIA, to, from or over Austrian territory during the past four years that may have been used for the illegal transportation of prisoners. In particular information is kindly requested about any landings of such aircraft on Austrian territory. Furthermore, the Ministry would be grateful for any available information on the existence of secret detention centers in Europe. The Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs takes this opportunity to assure the Embassy of the United States of its highest consideration. Vienna, 27 January 2005 Embassy of the United States of America Bolzmanngasse 16 1090 Vienna Fax Nr. 317-7826 (End text) McCaw