MEPs in CIA prison probe fear American cold-shoulder

Date: 16/02/06

Members of the European Parliament's committee investigating the alleged existence of CIA prisons in Europe are pressing to be taken seriously by the US.

During a meeting in Strasbourg of the temporary committee, MEPs said they were planning to question high-ranking US officials and secret agents as part of the inquiry. Italian Socialist Giovanni Claudio Fava, who will be drafting the committee's report, suggested sending a delegation to Washington DC to speak to American officials.

"We have to talk with representatives of the US administration in order to check the operative model being applied in the fight against terrorism," said Fava.

"We need to check who in the American administration would be willing to co-operate," he said, adding that he had heard that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be ready to talk.

But many of his colleagues said that a failure by US officials to take the committee seriously would damage its credibility.

"We must make sure that the people we want to see in the US will actually turn up, otherwise our credibility will suffer badly," said Cem ...zdemir, a German Green.

Italian Giusto Catania of the European United Left reminded his colleagues of an earlier Parliament committee investigating the alleged US spying system Echelon, whose members' visit to Washington "only lasted a few hours". "The American counterparts were not prepared," he said, adding that the delegation was not able to meet high-ranking officials.

A majority of the committee members stressed that the committee had to do more than come up with further rumours about alleged CIA prisons in Europe but provide facts.

Fava said: "We are not here to work on prejudices but on establishing what the truth is."

German Socialist MEP Wolfgang Kreissl-D�rfler warned that the committee could not come up with unfounded allegations. "If we do that, we'll produce a serious crisis in the EU," he said.

Promising "not prejudices, but facts," Fava said that "we are not a court of justice, we are a Parliamentary committee and we work for the benefit of Europe".

The investigation in its first stage will extend to six countries (Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, Sweden and Germany), which were alleged either to have hosted CIA prisons on their territory or to have had nationals abducted by the CIA. The 46-member temporary committee will focus its investigations on the participation of EU member state and candidate countries in alleged illegal CIA activities in Europe. These include rendition flights and CIA interrogation camps where torture could be used.

Franco Frattini, the European commissioner in charge of freedom, security and justice, told the committee that "facts need to be proven". "But if proven," Frattini added, the EU needed to take "these conclusions further on the basis of articles 6 and 7 of the EU treaty", which allow sanctions against a member state that has been proven to be in breach of human rights or fundamental freedoms.

Many MEPs were anxious that the committee should not be seen as an anti-American forum. "My fear is that this committee is intended as a platform for criticism of the US," said UK unattached MEP Roger Helmer, who pointed out that the US carried the burden of the fight against terrorism. "We benefit from it and we should be grateful," Helmer added.

• The Council of Europe's investigator on alleged illegal CIA activities in Europe, Dick Marty, will attend the committee's next session in Brussels on 23 February.

EU-US extradition treaty

Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for freedom, security and justice urged member states to speed up the ratification of the EU-US extradition treaty.

Although the treaty was signed in 2003, only four member states have so far ratified it. He told MEPs that the issue of speeding up the ratification of the treaty would be discussed at the next EU-US summit, which will take place in June. The commissioner added that the US Senate intended to approve the treaty in the course of 2006.

He insisted the treaty was a major step in the right direction in the fight against terrorism.

Article reports on the work of the Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners (TDIP). During a meeting of the Committee in Strasbourg on 13 February 2006, MEPs said they were planning to question high-ranking US officials and secret agents as part of the inquiry.

European Parliament: Temporary committee of inquiry: Alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners (TDIP) http://europarl.europa.eu/activities/expert/committees/presentation.do?committee=2073&language=EN

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