Secret CIA prisons in Europe. Extraordinary goings-on

Date: 03/12/05

The CIA prison row may overshadow Condoleezza Rice's European tour

AMERICA'S secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, can expect a bumpy reception when she flies to Berlin next week at the start of a four-day European tour. Mutterings over reports that the CIA is using airports and secret prisons in Europe for the incarceration and possible torture of terrorist suspects have grown into a full-blown protest. Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, wrote this week to Ms Rice on behalf of the 25 members of the European Union, of which Britain is the current president, demanding clarification.

For many months, human-rights groups have been criticising the CIA's practice of "extraordinary renditions" to third countries, some with appalling human-rights records. But it was not until the Washington Post reported last month that two of the secret prisons were in eastern Europe that EU governments became excited. The consequences for those hosting such camps could be "extremely serious", to the extent of a possible loss of voting rights, said Franco Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner.

In a second report this week, the Washington Post alleged that, besides Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the CIA had held al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several (unnamed) eastern European democracies. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights lobby, claims to have identified two of these "with a high degree of confidence" as Poland and Romania. Both countries vehemently deny the charge.

A dozen western European countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Norway, have now set up inquiries into allegations of CIA kidnappings on their territory or CIA use of their airports or airspace to transport terrorist suspects. The Council of Europe has invoked its powers under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights to ask its 45 members (including Russia) for information on suspicious CIA activities, as part of its own investigation into the affair. It is only the eighth time since the convention came into force in 1953 that this procedure has been used.

Ms Rice's tour, which will include stops in Romania, Ukraine and Brussels, is officially aimed at bolstering transatlantic support for America's "war on terror". But the CIA scandal may well prove a big distraction. So far American officials, including Ms Rice, have refused to confirm or deny any of the allegations, insisting that they never discuss America's intelligence activities. But Europeans are unlikely to be satisfied with the bland assertion that America always complies with both domestic and international laws. Sadly, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are reminders that this claim cannot always be believed, particularly in the war on terror.