CIA probe moves to the US

By David Cronin

Date: 06/04/06

MEPs investigating alleged CIA flights to secret detention in Europe will go on a fact-finding mission to the US next month.

Deputies taking part in the Parliament's visit are discussing a strategy for obtaining information from high-ranking politicians and security officials in Washington.

The MEPs are seeking meetings with Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld, the state and defence secretaries but it is thought more realistic that they could hold talks with such figures as George Tenet, the former head of the CIA.

The 8-12 May visit will be followed by an initial report from the temporary committee set up to probe the allegations. A separate visit to Macedonia, one of the countries where the US has been accused of setting up detention camps, is being organised, as well.

Giovanni Fava, the Italian Socialist who is drafting the report, said this week that EU governments were not co-operating with MEPs.

Amnesty International said yesterday (5 April) that it had records of nearly 1,000 flights, most of which have entered European airspace, by planes that appear to have been permanently operated by the CIA through front companies and of another 600 flights by planes "confirmed as having been used at least temporarily" by US intelligence.

Article previews a fact-finding mission to the US on 8-12 May 2006 by MEPs investigating alleged CIA flights to secret detention in Europe.

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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