CIA abductions known to EU leaders

Belgium (AP) - Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy and other EU countries were aware of secret CIA flights over Europe and the abduction of terror suspects by U.S. agents, according to a report approved by a special committee of the European parliament on Tuesday, despite opposition from centre-right legislators. The report, the conclusion of a yearlong investigation into CIA activities in Europe, also accused EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other high-ranking officials of not co-operating with the probe and not revealing all they know about the U.S. secret detention program. It called for unspecified sanctions against member states found to have violated EU human rights principles. The report said evidence gathered did not prove that CIA secret prisons were based in Poland, an allegation that prompted the investigation in November 2005. The report, drafted by Italian Socialist Giovanni Fava, was backed by the Socialist and Liberals, but slammed by centre-right deputies, who rejected it as too ideological, biased and inaccurate.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said the report indulged in political point-scoring. "While the full European parliament will have an opportunity to examine the report again in mid-February, it is a matter for disappointment that this committee has not come up with a more accurate, forward-looking document," he said. Peter Struck, the parliamentary leader of Germany's Social Democrats, one half of the country's governing coalition, said the report "can't be taken so seriously" because it was produced largely on the basis of reports that are available to the public, such as press reports.

While thin on proof to back up its allegations, the committee said information came from secret documents and confidential sources, including records of meetings between EU, NATO and senior U.S. State Department officials and dozens of hours of testimony by individuals who said they were kidnapped by U.S. agents in Europe soil and transferred to secret prisons.

It also obtained information from Eurocontrol, the EU's air safety agency, according to which more than 1,200 undeclared CIA flights entered European airspace since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"We have uncovered serious breaches of human rights. We recognize the need to combat terrorism but this can only be done using legal methods," said Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, a Socialist member of the committee.

But members of the European People's Party, the largest political grouping in the European parliament, disputed the credibility of the report, arguing much of it was based on hearsay. "The report is full of phrases like 'we believe' or 'we think' - that's unacceptable. It did not come up with anything we would not have known, but it did manage to split the assembly according to who's pro-American and who's anti-American," said Italian conservative Jas Gawronski.EU countries found to have violated the continent's human rights treaties could face sanctions from fellow member states or even lose their voting rights, but it was unlikely EU leaders would sanction a country based on the parliamentary report. No EU governments have admitted that the alleged anti-terror operations were being carried out on their soil. Allegations that CIA agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centres were first reported in 2005. Human Rights Watch identified Poland and Romania as possible locations of secret prisons, but both countries have denied involvement. In September, U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that terrorism suspects have been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but did not specify where.
Source: By Jan Sliva, cnews.canoe.ca