Several months ago, the Guardian published an article about the CIA's extraordinary rendition flights, focusing on the excesses of the CIA agents involved. They pulled out all the stops at a resort in Palma de Mallorca, "luxuriating in the hotel's spa where, as the brochure put it, they could 'journey to deep inner peace.'"
But as the crew were basking in comfort at US taxpayers' expense there was little peace for their cargo. In the hold on that day was Benyam Mohammed, a former Guantánamo Bay detainee alleged to be one of the world's most dedicated jihadists. In Morocco, Mohammed would later allege, he had been doused in hot liquids, subjected to incessant loud noise and had his penis slashed with a scalpel.
A couple of weeks later, just after the November election, Carl Levin, new chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, let it be known that an investigation was planned.
Guardian reporters have two articles in today's edition. One reveals the use of Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, has been part of the shuttle stops in secret CIA flights, as has a remote airport in Poland. The reports also confirm what we already know: "axis of evil" countries were used routinely by the Bush administration as partners of the CIA.
A quick sweep of the New York Times, which ought to be at least as assiduous as the Guardian in updating this story, is disappointing.
