Abstract
This article explores the (passive) role of the Dutch government in the CIA extraordinary rendition flights (ERFs), also known as “torture flights”. It shows why researching ERFs, as a crime of the powerful, is inherently problematic. Afterward, a concise overview follows of European involvement in ERFs and reluctance to investigate them. The article then considers the (known) facts and legal responsibility of the Netherlands regarding the ERFs, concluding with a discussion of the Dutch political discourse of denial of ERF involvement. The main argument is that the discourse of ERF denial fits and reflects the colonial present in which the Dutch government resides, concealing its darkest pages in history while hiding behind its contemporary (political) culture of tolerance and progressiveness.
Highlights
This article explores the role of the Dutch government in the CIA extraordinary rendition flights (ERFs), known as “torture flights”
These extraditions are referred to as CIA “torture flights” (Cobain and Quinn, 2011) or “torture taxis” (Scahill, 2013). They are called extraordinary rendition flights (ERFs) comprising the transfer of an individual to a country where (s)he will be interrogated on terrorists acts they have been responsible for, or in some way, involved in; as distressing is that the individual has no possibility of a legal proceeding to challenge the transfer (Boon et al, 2010)
Circumventing human rights through ERFs is typical of the War on Terror, making it, according to Said (2003: 39), “the most reckless war in modern times”, in which “[i]t is all about imperial arrogance unschooled in worldliness, unfettered either by competence or experience, undeterred by history or human complexity, unrepentant in its violence and the cruelty of its technology”
Summary
‘‘We don’t kick the (expletive) out of them (terrorism suspects). We send them to other countries so they can kick the (expletive) out of them’’ (anonymous US official in Priest and Gellman, 2002: 2). 19 December 2005, Farah Karimi of the Dutch Green Left party (GroenLinks) asked for information about a landing of a possible CIA-flight at Rotterdam/The Hague Airport (TK, 2005e) This and other questions regarding ERFs in the Netherlands remained unanswered by the cabinet, which “is puzzling [...]. In normalizing plausible deniability about being neither actively nor passively involved, and despite working along with Marty’s investigation, there was no reason to eventually implement Marty’s recommendations to investigate flights through Dutch airspace and landings at airports in the Netherlands to strengthen the national procedures to prevent illegal transfers from happening. The passive complicity Koenders sheds light on, is a type of behaviour that fits the narrative of officially denial provided by the Dutch political elite on: unawareness and unavailability of ERF facts; the (fabricated) acceptance of critique on that ERF narrative; the silencing of dissenting politicians; and, the normalization of plausible deniability regarding ERF involvement. The official document that contains the questions about the CIA-Rendition program, with proof mark 143316.2 u, is no longer available; the questions exist though because they were answered by Verhagen on 29 June 2009
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