By Charles Recknagel, Asia Times Online, Feb. 7, 2013

An international human rights group says 54 foreign governments participated in the US intelligence agency's secret detention and rendition operations following terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

The new report, prepared by the New York-based Open Society, is the most extensive description yet prepared by a nongovernmental organization concerning a highly classified program run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Amrit Singh, the author of the report [....] speaking from New York, says she found evidence that 25 countries in Europe, 14 in Asia, and 13 in Africa lent some sort of assistance to the CIA in addition to Canada and Australia. [....]

It also claims that Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Macedonia were among the countries that themselves detained suspects and turned them over to the CIA. Moreover, the report maintains that Iran was involved in the capture and indirect transfer of individuals to the CIA [....]