14 Countries Part of CIA's Global 'Spider Web' Says Investigator

June 07, 2006 2:40 PM

Maddy Sauer Reports:

Fourteen European countries were part of the global "spider web" used by the CIA to secretly transfer terrorism suspects, according to a new report released today.

Dick Marty, the Swiss investigator for the Council of Europe, said in his report that seven council member states could be held responsible for human rights violations.

"It is now clear… that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know," said. Mr. Marty who released his findings in Paris earlier today.

Marty said it is possible that the rights of specific suspects were violated in Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, Italy, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany and Turkey.

Several more countries colluded, actively or passively, in the detention or transfer of unknown persons, he said.

ABC News reported last year that Romania and Poland were two of the countries that had allegedly housed terror suspects. The Polish Minister of Defense, at the time, denied that any secret prisons were in his country. Marty's report concluded that both Poland and Romania housed prisoners at secret detention centers.

Marty also added that 'staging points' for the CIA flights were located in Germany, Turkey, Spain and Cyprus. He cited that the illegal flights transporting prisoners also made stops in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy.

While Marty faults the U.S. for creating "this reprehensible network," he also faults the European countries for their "intentional and grossly negligent collusion," adding that the claim that Europe was a victim of secret CIA plots "does not seem to correspond to reality."

This afternoon, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department dismissed the report's findings. "I think that we're certainly dissappointed in the tone and the content of it," said Sean McCormack. "There seem to be a lot of allegations but no real facts behind it."

Read the full report on the Council of Europe's website.

June 7, 2006 in CIA, CIA Secret Prisons | Permalink | User Comments (32)

High Marks for Hayden from CIA Critic

June 02, 2006 10:34 AM

Brian Ross Reports:

New CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden is being praised by one of the agency's once staunchest critics, former CIA officer Robert Baer.

Baer, portrayed by George Clooney in the movie "Syriana," says Gen. Hayden has already lifted the spirits of many senior CIA employees who had been considering quitting or going public with their frustrations.

"I'm going against the grain to say Gen. Hayden is just what the CIA needs," Baer told me on the Charlie Rose program broadcast on PBS Thursday night.

Baer says the CIA has "fairly good" human and electronic intelligence coming out of Iran and credible insights into that country's intentions.

"We know they want the bomb," Baer said.

June 2, 2006 in CIA | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Criminal Charges Possible Against Former No. 3 at CIA?

May 12, 2006 6:12 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Federal officials tell ABC News criminal charges against Foggo are considered likely, based on lavish vacations to Hawaii and Europe he has been said to receive in exchange for CIA contracts.

His attorney did not return calls for comment today but has previously denied that Foggo accepted bribes for rewarding CIA contracts.

Today was to be Dusty Foggo's last day on the job at the CIA. But when he arrived early this morning at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he was barred from the building and sent home as agents began to comb through his files looking for financial and travel records.

May 12, 2006 in CIA | Permalink | User Comments (29)

Foggo: First Public Corruption Case in CIA History

May 12, 2006 1:42 PM

Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

ABC News' Rhonda Schwartz contributed to this report.

The FBI raid on the home and office of the Executive Director of the CIA took place this morning, seizing business records, computer hard drives and other information in what is the first significant public corruption scandal in the history of the nation's premier intelligence agency.  Officials said the raid took place at 6 a.m. Agents from the FBI, the IRS, the Criminal Investigative Division of the Pentagon and the CIA's Inspector General's office were involved in the raid.

The outgoing Executive Director of the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, announced his resignation last Monday -- the first business day after his boss, CIA Director Porter Goss, stepped down. In itself the move was unusual. In the past, the senior operational officers have always remained in place for several weeks or months while a new director moves in and acclimates to the Langley Virginia based agency's culture.

News of Foggo's hasty departure was first reported by ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross, along with disclosures of a career marked by ethical lapses and documented insubordination long before Foggo's current place at the center of an FBI probe into sweetheart sole-source government contracts signed or overseen by Foggo and the possibility of kickbacks.

The Foggo criminal probe is being conducted parallel to an internal investigation by the CIA Inspector General, which is said to be reviewing each and every contract Foggo signed or oversaw during the time he headed a CIA administrative section and during a period where he was the chief logistical support officer at the CIA's largest resupply base which is located at a Frankfurt, Germany airbase.

May 12, 2006 in CIA | Permalink | User Comments (15)

Veteran CIA Operative Returns as Hayden Deputy

May 08, 2006 3:54 PM

Christopher Isham Reports:

Sources close to the White House said that Michael Hayden is expected to name Stephen R. Kappes as his deputy. Kappes, a highly respected long-time CIA officer, was Deputy Director of Operations  before he resigned less than two months after Porter Goss became Director. Among other accomplishments, Kappes was instrumental in convincing Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddaffi to give up his weapons of mass destruction. The move is designed to stop the hemorrhaging of talent out of the agency, shore up the clandestine services and restore confidence in the institution and its leadership. 

May 8, 2006 in CIA | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Europeans in U.S. To Probe CIA Prisons

May 08, 2006 12:05 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

As the CIA reels from its management shake-up, a committee of the European Parliament arrives in Washington, D.C. today to continue its investigation of the CIA's secret prisons in Europe.

Members of the committee are seeking to meet with former CIA employees who may know of the existence of the facilities.

The United States maintains that it "does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture."

ABC News has reported the CIA established secret prisons in Romania and Poland in 2002-2003 to house about a dozen top al Qaeda leaders.

ABC News also reported the prisons were shut down earlier this year and the al Qaeda figures moved to a facility in North Africa.

The CIA has declined to comment on the reports.

May 8, 2006 in CIA, CIA Secret Prisons | Permalink | User Comments (8)

CIA's Foggo Expected to Resign Soon

May 08, 2006 11:40 AM

Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

Dusty Foggo, the executive director of the CIA linked to a bribery investigation, is expected to resign soon, according to CIA officials and his associates.

Outgoing CIA Director Porter Goss had refused to remove Foggo from his powerful post after Foggo came under investigation by the FBI and the CIA Inspector General.

A CIA official said Foggo's resignation would be "pretty normal" following the resignation of Goss as Director.

The choice of Foggo to run the agency's day-to-day activities has been cited as an example of Goss' mismanagement of the spy agency.

Before being handpicked by Goss, Foggo had been written up for insubordination by his supervisor, the highest ranking African American woman in the CIA.

A CIA official confirmed the incident but said the insubordination report was never formally filed.

The supervisor, Jeanette Moore, resigned shortly after Foggo was promoted by Goss.

Foggo recently admitted that he attended Washington, D.C. poker parties that figure in a widening corruption scandal involving a defense contractor, Brent Wilkes, who is a longtime friend of Foggo.

Federal officials are investigating whether Wilkes also provided prostitutes at the parties.  Foggo has denied seeing any prostitutes at the parties he attended.

The FBI and the CIA Inspector General are both investigating whether any of the CIA contracts awarded to Wilkes were handled improperly. 

Foggo has strongly denied any impropriety involving CIA contracts.

May 8, 2006 in CIA | Permalink | User Comments (10)