[Mb-civic] U.S. Will Address E.U. Questions on CIA Prisons - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

U.S. Will Address E.U. Questions on CIA Prisons
Body May Sanction Countries Involved

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; A01

The Bush administration pledged yesterday to respond to a formal inquiry 
from the European Union over reports of covert CIA prisons for al Qaeda 
captives in Eastern Europe, acknowledging for the first time that the 
controversy over the secret prison system has upset European allies.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, writing on behalf of the European 
Union, sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a letter yesterday 
seeking "clarification" about the matter, the British Embassy said. 
Franco Frattini, the union's top justice official, warned Monday that 
any E.U. country discovered to have hosted CIA prisons will face 
"serious consequences," including losing its E.U. voting rights.

The controversy over the prisons has threatened to overshadow Rice's 
planned five-day trip to Europe next week, and she used a meeting 
yesterday with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's new foreign minister, 
to respond to the growing clamor for answers.

"The United States realizes that these are topics that are generating 
interest among European publics as well as parliaments, and that these 
questions need to be responded to," State Department spokesman Sean 
McCormack told reporters, adding, "These are certainly legitimate 
questions."

McCormack said Rice assured Steinmeier that the United States has not 
violated either its own laws or international treaties, but he 
sidestepped questions about whether the prisons -- the existence of 
which he did not confirm or deny -- violate European laws. Intelligence 
officials and legal experts have said that the CIA's internment 
practices would be considered illegal under the laws of several host 
countries.

The Washington Post reported early this month that the CIA has been 
hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at 
a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe as part of a covert prison 
system that at various times has included sites in eight countries, 
including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern 
Europe. The Post did not identify the Eastern European countries at the 
request of senior U.S. officials, who said the disclosure could disrupt 
counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and make them 
targets of retaliation.

The report spawned a frenzy of investigations and news reports in 
Europe, dismaying administration officials who have painstakingly tried 
to repair U.S.-European relations this year after they ruptured over the 
Iraq invasion. "There is a tone in a European press, an anti-American 
sentiment, that I have not seen in a year," said one senior U.S. 
official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

McCormack stressed to reporters that questions about the prisons should 
be viewed in a "larger context" of the battle against terrorist 
networks: "The terrorists know no boundaries. They know no regulations 
or rules or they don't comply with any laws."

After the Post report, Human Rights Watch cited flight records of 
aircraft allegedly linked to the CIA to suggest that facilities in 
Poland and Romania were used. Poland is an E.U. member and Romania is a 
candidate for admission; both countries have denied they housed secret 
CIA prisons.

An investigator for the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, 
the continent's main human rights body, reported last week that he had 
received the information from Human Rights Watch. The investigator, Dick 
Marty, proposed to visit suspected sites, examine satellite imaging and 
analyze aircraft movements.

Rice will visit Germany, Romania, Ukraine and NATO headquarters in 
Brussels, and U.S. officials expect questions about the prisons to dog 
her at every stop.

European commentators have questioned how the United States can 
celebrate democracy in Ukraine when reports about the prisons appear to 
undermine its own traditions of freedom. In Romania, Rice will sign a 
bilateral defense cooperation agreement, formally permitting U.S. troops 
to use Romanian bases as part of a redeployment of forces in Europe.

Straw's letter was not publicly released. The United Kingdom holds the 
rotating presidency of the European Union, and a British Embassy 
spokesman said Straw wrote the letter at the request of several European 
delegations. The letter seeks "clarification on the allegations that the 
CIA has terror camps in Eastern Europe," said the spokesman, who under 
British tradition was not identified. "They remain allegations, but 
nevertheless it is right to ask the United States for more information."

Rice and Steinmeier also discussed reports of transport flights for al 
Qaeda suspects by CIA aircraft in German airspace, McCormack said. 
German media have reported that some CIA planes landed at six German 
airports, a potential embarrassment for the government of Germany's new 
chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has hoped to improve relations with the 
United States.

U.S. officials are also keen to build ties after experiencing a rocky 
relationship with Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel's openly anti-Bush 
predecessor. Hours after Steinmeier's visit with Rice, Deputy Secretary 
of State Robert B. Zoellick flew to Berlin for two days of talks with 
top officials in the new government, including Merkel. Rice also will 
meet with Merkel in Berlin next week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901665.html?referrer=email
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20051130/c6f5f9c9/attachment.htm