Relaxation and Renditions in Mallorca

Extraordinary rendition is hard work. It’s tough on the victims, who are stripped, put in diapers, hooded, shackled and spreadeagled on the floor of the plane. Apparently it’s quite gruelling for the crew too. 

This must be why, in the course of transporting Binyam Mohammed and Khaled el-Masri in January 2004, the CIA renditions team aboard Boeing 737 N313P made not one but two pleasant stopovers in Palma de Mallorca. Here, they relaxed at taxpayers’ expense at the five-star Hotel Mallorca Marriot Son Antem (“With fragrant olive and almond trees perfuming the sun-kissed air, a paradise for golfers, pleasure seekers and meeting attendees alike”) and at the Gran Melia Victoria (“Timeless luxury with an avant-garde flair”). They checked in with false passports and made phone calls to friends and colleagues in the United States. These passport details, hotel bills and phone calls helped journalists, as well as investigators from the Council of Europe and others, to track them down and identify them. Reprieve published the story here.

Since 2007 they’ve been the subjects of Interpol arrest warrants by the Munich Prosecutor’s Office for their involvement in the kidnap and abuse of Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen. The Spanish set in motion their own enquiry and now, as described by El Pais yesterday, prosecutor Vicente González Mota has asked the National Court of Spain to issue warrants for the agents’ arrest.

Presumably they will be foregoing Balearic golfing holidays for a while and staying nearer to the safe confines of North Carolina, where their shell company, Aero Contractors, is based.