What a difference 65 years makes? Not

November 25, 2005 -- US envoys being called in to explain CIA torture flights have interesting backgrounds. Two of the several U.S. ambassadors in Europe being called in by foreign ministries to explain the presence of CIA "torture" flights in the host countries where they are posted have some interesting backgrounds. For example, U.S. ambassador to Estonia Adona Zofia Wos has the following biography on the State Department web site: "Ambassador Wos is the daughter of Paul Zenon Wos, who is a survivor of Flossenburg Concentration Camp, former member of the Polish Home Army (AK) and recipient of “Righteous Among the Nations” medal from Yad Vashem, among other distinguished awards. As a child of a survivor, Ambassador Wos is passionate about presenting and preserving full and accurate information about the Polish experience during World War II. On September 11, 2001, Ambassador Wos sponsored, organized and coordinated the largest educational program in North Carolina on the Polish experience in World War II. Participants included the most prestigious historians and authors in the United States on Polish history, as well as survivors of concentration and slave labor camps, members of the Home Army, and journalists. Despite the September 11 attacks, more than 2,000 people attended this program. In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Ambassador Wos to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. She was re-appointed to serve on the Council in 2004."

Similarly, U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands Clifford Sobel's State Department biography states he, "was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1996, and in 2000, and served on the Platform Committee and the Sub-Committee on Foreign Policy in 2000. He served as the New Jersey financial chairman of the primary and presidential campaigns for then-Governor George W. Bush. In 1998, he accompanied Governor Bush on a fact-finding mission to Israel. In his home state of New Jersey, Ambassador Sobel is a member of the Board of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and served on the executive committees of Prosperity New Jersey, a state committee for the growth of New Jersey, and of the United Jewish Federation of Metrowest NJ."

Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, the US ambassador to Finland during 2003, when a CIA plane landed at Helsinki's Vantaa airport, went on the chair America's "oldest and most trusted humanitarian organization," the American Red Cross. The President of Finland awarded her the Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion for "humanitarian work involving the advancement of entrepreneurship, child protection and health initiatives." As is the case with Wos in Estonia, McElveen Hunter, also a North Carolina native, has close ties to Sen. Elizabeth Dole, having served as her chief fundraiser for her abortive presidential campaign in 2000.]

Too bad people like these so-called "do gooders" would not be more strenuously opposed to the use of their host nations, especially Estonia and the Netherlands, as weigh stations for transporting tortured prisoners. But then again, some people have neither shame nor memories.


What a difference 65 years makes? Not
Meanwhile, EUROCONTROL, the system that monitors all flights over European airspace is having its records throughly checked and matched against European satellite intelligence photos of airfields and nearby prison sites. There is also the possibility that European law enforcement personnel could, if they discover the presence of secret prisons, storm them by force to free prisoners held by U.S. and contractor personnel

Link Here