| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.45, 15.12.05 |
| Publication Date | 15/12/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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By David Cronin Date: 15/12/05 Political group leaders in the European Parliament have agreed to create a temporary committee to investigate claims that the CIA secretly flew suspected terrorists to and from Europe. But the committee, which is expected to be formally approved by the Parliament's plenary next month, is likely to have a more restricted mandate than many left-leaning MEPs had hoped. The assembly's second largest group, the Socialists, had been wanting a fully fledged committee of inquiry to be set up with key figures in politics and security summoned to give evidence. But lawyers advising the Parliament said that a body of that nature could only be formed if EU law had been breached or wrongly applied. According to the legal service, there was no hard evidence that this had occurred in the case of the allegations of CIA-chartered flights. A temporary committee would be similar to the one which concluded in 2001 that a global electronic surveillance network known as Echelon might have been used by the US to spy on European companies such as Airbus while they were negotiating deals worth several billion euros. The largest group, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP-ED), has accepted the lawyers' advice. "The only thing we can do is set up a temporary committee," said German Christian-Democrat Ewa Klamt, the group's spokeswoman on civil liberties. Although the Socialist group leader Martin Schulz said he would accept a proposal for a temporary committee, he added that the lawyers' recommendations should not be regarded as "gospel". Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford said Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, should not accept recent assurances by the US authorities at "face value". Although Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, acknowledged last week that so-called rendition flights had taken place, she insisted that America did not practise torture or transport detainees to countries where it believed they would be tortured. A spokesman for Frattini said that the commissioner welcomed national investigations into the allegations about the CIA flights or about the US having secret detention facilities on this continent being conducted in Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland, as well as the probe by the 46-country Council of Europe. "If he was 100% satisfied by Rice's statements, I don't think he would have insisted so much that he wants these investigations to continue," the spokesman added. Diplomats at the US Mission in Brussels declined to comment, apart from saying that they stood by Rice's remarks. Earlier this week, Swiss senator Dick Marty said he considered as "credible" reports that the US had temporarily detained prisoners in Europe without any judicial authorisation. Marty, who is leading an investigation for the Council of Europe, added that he believed prisoners involved were moved to North Africa in early November. The European Parliament agrees to set up a Temporary Committee to investigate claims that the CIA secretly flew suspected terrorists to and friom Europe, December 2005. Extraordinary rendition is a United States government term for an extra-judicial procedure that sends criminal suspects, generally suspected terrorists, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation. |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Security and Defence, Values and Beliefs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe, United States |
