Madrid - The Spanish Foreign Ministry on Monday formed an internal commission to investigate allegations that the previous conservative government allowed secret US flights transporting terrorist suspects to make stopovers in Spain. Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos announced the move, following reports by the daily El Pais, which published a top secret Foreign Ministry document dating from 2002.
The documented showed that the United States had requested permission for CIA flights to make "emergency landings" in Spain.
The document clearly states that the flights transported Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners from Afghanistan to the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Then prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government granted the permission within 24 hours, according to El Pais.
Aware that the flights were illegal, the Aznar government recommended that they use the "discreet" airports of Moron de la Frontera and Rota, two US military bases in southern Spain, the daily said.
Moratinos said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government was not aware of the document published by El Pais.
The Foreign Ministry commission would investigate whether the report was true, and hand over its conclusions to the National Court, which is conducting an inquiry into alleged CIA flights via Spain, Moratinos said.
Conservative spokeswoman Dolores de Cospedal accused Moratinos of leaking the 2002 document to the press in an act of "tremendous irresponsibility" insofar as the matter affected national security.
De Cospedal urged Moratinos to inform parliament about the US flights, which she said had occurred under the Socialist government.
The government has handed the National Court documents on 11 flights making stopovers in Spain on their way to or from Guantanamo - and 13 others which used Spanish airspace - between 2002 and 2005.
Spain was one among several countries from which Washington requested permission for prisoner transport in 2002, according to El Pais. The other countries included Turkey, Italy and Portugal.
Former foreign minister Josep Pique, who allegedly was aware of the permission granted to the US, declined to comment on the El Pais report.
A Council of Europe 2006 report named Spain as one of several countries having allowed secret CIA flights carrying terrorist suspects.
