SWISS Military investigating newspaper over CIA prison story
New York, January 10, 2006—Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid has instructed military officials to open a criminal inquiry after a Zurich-based weekly SonntagsBlick published a confidential document about purported CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, according to international press reports.
Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Blaise Defago said on Monday that Schmid "ordered an investigation into how this secret document became public" and may take legal action against SonntagsBlick for publishing the document in violation of Swiss law, The Associated Press reported.
On Sunday, SonntagsBlick published the contents of a fax from Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit to the Egyptian Embassy in London regarding a purported CIA prison in Romania and suggesting there were other such prisons in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Ukraine.
SonntagsBlick reported that the fax was sent by satellite from Cairo to London on November 15 and intercepted by the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service (SRS).
The Swiss army's chief auditor is investigating SonntagsBlick Editor-in-Chief Christoph Grenacher and the two reporters who wrote the article—Sandro Brotz and Beat Jost—for allegedly publishing military secrets. Military investigators are also seeking to determine how the newspaper obtained the fax, according to international press reports.
The journalists face up to five years in prison if convicted under the Swiss military penal code, according to Alex Biscaro, a spokesman at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Grenacher has issued a statement taking responsibility for publishing the document and saying that he personally decided that the public interest of disclosure outweighed state security interests, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
The publication of the fax comes at a politically sensitive time as the European Union and Council of Europe seek to determine whether the CIA operated secret prisons within the EU and in neighboring East European countries, some of whom are seeking EU membership.
"We're troubled any time a government seeks to prosecute journalists for disclosing information that serves the public interest," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
[andend] - 2006 Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org E-mail: info@cpj.org
RELATED REFERENCES & LINKS:
* MSNBC - Live Vote: Do you believe President Bush's actions justifyimpeachment? - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/
* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq
* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp
* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v
* 'Spreading democracy' - Countries & US Death Squads - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/drnca - A 55' second sound bite concerning the US 'bringing democracy' everywhere - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v
* 'Crying Wolf' - Media Disinformation and Death Squads in Occupied Iraq - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ttx8
* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org
* Al Qaeda – The Database - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqx69
* The 9/11 WTC drama was PNAC terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9np7d - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d
* Wayne Madsen - ''The neo-cons have done to the U.S. Intelligence Community what Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America has never been weaker. Rather than creating a "New American Century," the neo-cons have created a new global "Dark Age" of fear and constant war.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754
* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
* NWO letter: ''we can cancel your credit or freeze your accounts'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cjo7l
* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - http://tinyurl.com/8ncal
* He who travels far will often see things
Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.
When he talks about it in the fields at home,
He is often accused of lying,
For the obdurate people will not believe
Inexperience, I believe,
Will give little credence to my song.
'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse
* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE WERE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm ] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
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http://tinyurl.com/6v8ru
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http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
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Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Blaise Defago said on Monday that Schmid "ordered an investigation into how this secret document became public" and may take legal action against SonntagsBlick for publishing the document in violation of Swiss law, The Associated Press reported.
On Sunday, SonntagsBlick published the contents of a fax from Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit to the Egyptian Embassy in London regarding a purported CIA prison in Romania and suggesting there were other such prisons in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Ukraine.
SonntagsBlick reported that the fax was sent by satellite from Cairo to London on November 15 and intercepted by the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service (SRS).
The Swiss army's chief auditor is investigating SonntagsBlick Editor-in-Chief Christoph Grenacher and the two reporters who wrote the article—Sandro Brotz and Beat Jost—for allegedly publishing military secrets. Military investigators are also seeking to determine how the newspaper obtained the fax, according to international press reports.
The journalists face up to five years in prison if convicted under the Swiss military penal code, according to Alex Biscaro, a spokesman at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Grenacher has issued a statement taking responsibility for publishing the document and saying that he personally decided that the public interest of disclosure outweighed state security interests, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
The publication of the fax comes at a politically sensitive time as the European Union and Council of Europe seek to determine whether the CIA operated secret prisons within the EU and in neighboring East European countries, some of whom are seeking EU membership.
"We're troubled any time a government seeks to prosecute journalists for disclosing information that serves the public interest," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
[andend] - 2006 Committee to Protect Journalists. http://www.cpj.org E-mail: info@cpj.org
RELATED REFERENCES & LINKS:
* MSNBC - Live Vote: Do you believe President Bush's actions justifyimpeachment? - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/
* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq
* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp
* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v
* 'Spreading democracy' - Countries & US Death Squads - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/drnca - A 55' second sound bite concerning the US 'bringing democracy' everywhere - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v
* 'Crying Wolf' - Media Disinformation and Death Squads in Occupied Iraq - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ttx8
* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org
* Al Qaeda – The Database - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqx69
* The 9/11 WTC drama was PNAC terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9np7d - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d
* Wayne Madsen - ''The neo-cons have done to the U.S. Intelligence Community what Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America has never been weaker. Rather than creating a "New American Century," the neo-cons have created a new global "Dark Age" of fear and constant war.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754
* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
* NWO letter: ''we can cancel your credit or freeze your accounts'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cjo7l
* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - http://tinyurl.com/8ncal
* He who travels far will often see things
Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.
When he talks about it in the fields at home,
He is often accused of lying,
For the obdurate people will not believe
Inexperience, I believe,
Will give little credence to my song.
'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse
* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE WERE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm ] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/6v8ru
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
-0-
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