Nacht und Nebel

On December 7th, 1941, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler issued the following instructions to the Gestapo: " ..it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offences against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. ... An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. "
Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel continued: "Efficient and enduring intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measures by which the relatives of the criminals do not know the fate of the criminal. The prisoners are, in future, to be transported ...secretly, and further treatment of the offenders will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because - A. The prisoners will vanish without a trace. B. No information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate."

'Night and Fog prisoners were ... usually arrested in the middle of the night and quickly taken to prisons hundreds of miles away for questioning and torture, eventually arriving at concentration camps ... if they survived.’

In today’s papers we read, “large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice." and there is ,"now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA [existed] in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania". ...‘run "directly and exclusively" by the CIA with... "collaboration at various institutional levels of America's many partner countries".
(Report to the Council of Europe by Swiss senator Dick Marty, a former state prosecutor heading the Council’s inquiry into ‘extraordinary rendition’)

The full extent of British logistic support for the extraordinary rendition programme was first disclosed by the Guardian, which reported in September 2005 that aircraft operated by the CIA had flown in and out of UK civilian and military airports hundreds of times.

Here are the Directives of 7 December 1941, setting up the practice of Night and Fog: (put the word ‘State’ for the word ‘Reich’, ‘elsewhere' for the word ‘Germany’).

Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the Reich or the occupying power:
I. Within the occupied territories, the adequate punishment for offences committed against the Reich or the occupying power which endanger their security or a state of readiness is on principle the death penalty.
II. The offences listed in paragraph I as a rule are to be dealt with in the occupied countries only if it is probable that sentence of death will be passed upon the offender, at least the principal offender, and if the trial and the execution can be completed in a very short time. Otherwise the offenders, at least the principal offenders, are to be taken to Germany.
III. Prisoners taken to Germany are subjected to military procedure only if particular military interests require this. In case Reich or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information.
IV. The Commanders in the occupied territories and the Court authorities within the framework of their jurisdiction, are personally responsible for the observance of this decree.
V. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces (or for the 'War on Terror', the CIA) determines in which occupied territories this decree is to be applied. He is authorized to explain and to issue executive orders and supplements. The Reich Minister of Justice (the Attorney General) will issue executive orders within his own jurisdiction.

A Nacht und Nebel practice keeps the State from being held accountable;
avoids complaints by other governments or humanitarian organizations; prevents the exact cause of internment or death, indeed whether or not the event has occurred, being known; avoids public outcry and reduces the moral qualms of the public as well as that of servicemen, in an agreed and/or ignorant silence; permits the silent veto of international treaties and conventions.

This time, we have been told.

Update

The Mail on Sunday is reporting that one of the planes known to be used in extraordinary rendition landed at Mildenhall a few days ago and was immediately surrounded by US military; it left later with no declaration of who or what is being carried. The photograph shows it landing.