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A communication from the U.S. embassy in Madrid exposes the Spanish
government’s complicity in torture carried out by the CIA. As a part of
the “extraordinary rendition” policy, flights carrying prisoners to be
tortured at “black sites” in U.S. client states routinely stopped in
Spain with the full consent of its government.
Because this abuse is conducted outside of the borders of the Untied
States, Washington considers it less damaging to its international
image. Although a scandal erupted in Spain in 2005 over this issue, the
embassy cable released by WikiLeaks is from 2006. It was released by the
Spanish newspaper El Pais. The cable mentions discussions in
which Spanish officials ask the United States to act more discreetly and
minimize the political fallout.
Torture is one of the most horrifying byproducts of imperialism. To
protect the ability of western capital to exploit workers in every
corner of the world, imperialist states will resort to the most brutal
methods in an attempt to crush resistance to their dominance.
