Europe colluded with CIA over prisoners
FRANCE: More than 20 countries colluded in a "global spider's web" of
secret CIA prisons and flight transfers of terrorist suspects stretching
from Central Asia to Guantanamo Bay, a European rights watchdog said.
Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty said the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency's well-oiled system fell short of torture but
amounted to a form of "legal and judicial apartheid" that could
exacerbate Muslim anger and spawn new terrorists.
The United States maintained a stance of neither denying nor
confirming the allegations but challenged the credibility of the Council
of Europe's report. Some European governments denied breaking laws,
while others were silent or went on the attack.
European governments have faced embarrassing allegations over
cooperation with U.S. policies unpopular with domestic opinion. It has
fuelled perceptions some were ready to ignore national laws due to U.S.
pressure to back the war on terrorism.
Marty said in the report many of the Council's 46 member states had
provided limited cooperation with his inquiry, but witnesses, plane
enthusiasts, confidential sources and flight records had helped him
partially lift a "veil of silence".
"It is now clear - although we are still far from having established
the whole truth - that authorities in several European countries
actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities," said
Marty.
"Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know," he
said, adding he had amassed a great deal of circumstantial evidence of
secret CIA detention centres but had "no formal evidence".
The Council can "name and shame" countries but cannot launch legal
proceedings, the preserve of judicial authorities in member
states.Washington says it acted with the full knowledge of the
governments concerned, acknowledges the secret transfer of some
terrorist suspects between countries and denies any wrongdoing.
"There seem to be a lot of allegations (in the report) but no real
facts behind it," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters in Washington, adding cooperation between countries had saved
lives in the war against terrorism.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz told reporters: "These
accusations are slanderous. They are not based on any facts and that is
all I know and all I have to say."
The report said:
* Poland and Romania ran secret detention centres
* Germany, Turkey, Spain, Cyprus and Azerbaijan were "staging points"
(from where operations were launched) for flights involving the unlawful
transfer of detainees
* Ireland, Britain, Portugal, Greece and Italy were "stopovers" (for
refuelling) for flights involving the unlawful transfer of detainees
* Sweden, Bosnia, Britain, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia,
Germany and Turkey handed over suspects
* Cairo, Amman, Islamabad, Rabat, Kabul, Guantanamo Bay, Tashkent,
Algiers and Baghdad served as detainee transfer/drop-off points
Despite the lack of "smoking gun" evidence, Marty said there were a
"number of coherent and converging elements (that) indicated that secret
detention centres have indeed existed and unlawful inter-state transfers
have taken place in Europe".
Marty said 10 cases involving 17 individuals had come to light but
many of the Council's member states had been reluctant to provide
information.
More cases could follow. Paris, Thursday, Reuters |