For a number of years the American intelligence agency CIA has secretly been using Greenland as a stop over in order to get their planes to Europe and further on to the Middle East. The planes are under suspicion of being part of the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" programme - a secret operation which illegally abducts terrorist suspects from European territory. Oppositions in a number of European countries have demanded independent investigations to find out if the CIA has been using national airspace or airports in connection with the secret prisoner programme. But most of the European governments have refused to investigate the matters so far
