Condi Rice in serious denial
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will seek to deflect growing European pressure over allegations that the CIA has been running secret prisons in the region on a trip to the continent next week.
Faced with European demands that the United States explain a newspaper report that secret detention centers to interrogate terrorism suspects were located in two unnamed east European countries, Rice intends to remind the Europeans that they are in a joint fight against an enemy that she says obeys no laws.
Her trip will include stops in Germany, Romania and at the EU headquarters Brussels.
"I think that the conversation will take place in the broader context of our common struggle against terrorism," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"This is a struggle that all free countries, including the countries of Europe, share with us: how to deal with groups of people, individuals, that respect no law, that wear no uniform, that follow no regulations."
Rice's planned approach on next week's trip matches the U.S. response to a weeks-old scandal that has fueled -- rather than defused -- concerns among European governments and the public.
Since The Washington Post reported this month that the CIA has held detainees in secret in eastern Europe, the Bush administration has refused to deny or confirm the allegation. Instead, it has repeatedly insisted it is waging a war on militants who act outside of the law.
The report has prompted new concern about America's tactics in its war on terrorism in Europe, already critical of U.S. prisoner abuse in Iraq and the detention of prisoners for years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Human rights groups say incommunicado detention is illegal and often leads to torture.
SCANDAL TO CLOUD TRIP
Initially, Europe's reaction to the allegations was muted as governments waited for U.S. clarification of the report.
But Rice, who will also visit Ukraine, can expect to be dogged during her trip by questions over the prison allegations and over related investigations that the CIA transports suspects in secret using airports throughout Europe.
"We have received inquiries from Europe concerning these press reports," McCormack said. "We're going to do our best to answer these questions in as complete and forthright a manner as we possibly can."
On Monday, an EU commissioner warned any European Union state that secretly hosted a prison faces loss of its voting rights and said Washington should punish any violations.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has identified one of Rice's stops, Romania, along with Poland, as one likely host of a secret prison. Both governments have denied the allegation.
Germany, where Rice will hold her first talks with the new chancellor, is also concerned about the scandal.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose first official visit to Washington starts on Monday, is expected to raise the issue, German officials said.
"I presume that the seriousness of these (accusations) is being recognized in Washington," Steinmeier said at the United Nations.
Mr. Eugene Robinson, a black reporter for the Washington Post, interviewed Secretary of State Condi Rice during her recent flight from Washington to Alabama, and wrote a newspaper column about the experience. Mr. Robinson's revealing observations about Ms. Rice and her family coincide, at least to a point, with what I ( Search Counterpunch article on Rice ) have said several times on my radio show. However, I know more about the Rice's family relation to the civil rights movement and the black struggle than Mr. Robinson because I was in Birmingham during the tumultuous civil rights years.
Mr. Robinson wrote that the parents of Ms. Rice did their best to shelter their only daughter from Jim Crow racism. The truth is they did a helluva lot more than shelter Ms. Rice. They misled her about the justice of the civil rights movement, misled her about the courage of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, misled her about the greatness of Rev. Martin King and misled her about all the dedicated people risking their lives in the streets and jails in Birmingham. Ms. Rice and most upper middle class blacks in Birmingham were misled in the 1960s about the black struggle and they were taught that the civil rights movement represented what black folks should not to do.
Ms. Rice's father, a prominent pastor in Birmingham, looked down on Shuttlesworth and his small working class congregation, and publicly called them "uneducated, misguided Negroes." But, in 2005, a life-size statute of Shuttlesworth stands majestically for all the ages in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum. Rev. Rice's monument is his daughter's high position in a Republican administration that has 2% support in black America.
Faced with European demands that the United States explain a newspaper report that secret detention centers to interrogate terrorism suspects were located in two unnamed east European countries, Rice intends to remind the Europeans that they are in a joint fight against an enemy that she says obeys no laws.
Her trip will include stops in Germany, Romania and at the EU headquarters Brussels.
"I think that the conversation will take place in the broader context of our common struggle against terrorism," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"This is a struggle that all free countries, including the countries of Europe, share with us: how to deal with groups of people, individuals, that respect no law, that wear no uniform, that follow no regulations."
Rice's planned approach on next week's trip matches the U.S. response to a weeks-old scandal that has fueled -- rather than defused -- concerns among European governments and the public.
Since The Washington Post reported this month that the CIA has held detainees in secret in eastern Europe, the Bush administration has refused to deny or confirm the allegation. Instead, it has repeatedly insisted it is waging a war on militants who act outside of the law.
The report has prompted new concern about America's tactics in its war on terrorism in Europe, already critical of U.S. prisoner abuse in Iraq and the detention of prisoners for years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Human rights groups say incommunicado detention is illegal and often leads to torture.
SCANDAL TO CLOUD TRIP
Initially, Europe's reaction to the allegations was muted as governments waited for U.S. clarification of the report.
But Rice, who will also visit Ukraine, can expect to be dogged during her trip by questions over the prison allegations and over related investigations that the CIA transports suspects in secret using airports throughout Europe.
"We have received inquiries from Europe concerning these press reports," McCormack said. "We're going to do our best to answer these questions in as complete and forthright a manner as we possibly can."
On Monday, an EU commissioner warned any European Union state that secretly hosted a prison faces loss of its voting rights and said Washington should punish any violations.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has identified one of Rice's stops, Romania, along with Poland, as one likely host of a secret prison. Both governments have denied the allegation.
Germany, where Rice will hold her first talks with the new chancellor, is also concerned about the scandal.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose first official visit to Washington starts on Monday, is expected to raise the issue, German officials said.
"I presume that the seriousness of these (accusations) is being recognized in Washington," Steinmeier said at the United Nations.
Mr. Eugene Robinson, a black reporter for the Washington Post, interviewed Secretary of State Condi Rice during her recent flight from Washington to Alabama, and wrote a newspaper column about the experience. Mr. Robinson's revealing observations about Ms. Rice and her family coincide, at least to a point, with what I ( Search Counterpunch article on Rice ) have said several times on my radio show. However, I know more about the Rice's family relation to the civil rights movement and the black struggle than Mr. Robinson because I was in Birmingham during the tumultuous civil rights years.
Mr. Robinson wrote that the parents of Ms. Rice did their best to shelter their only daughter from Jim Crow racism. The truth is they did a helluva lot more than shelter Ms. Rice. They misled her about the justice of the civil rights movement, misled her about the courage of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, misled her about the greatness of Rev. Martin King and misled her about all the dedicated people risking their lives in the streets and jails in Birmingham. Ms. Rice and most upper middle class blacks in Birmingham were misled in the 1960s about the black struggle and they were taught that the civil rights movement represented what black folks should not to do.
Ms. Rice's father, a prominent pastor in Birmingham, looked down on Shuttlesworth and his small working class congregation, and publicly called them "uneducated, misguided Negroes." But, in 2005, a life-size statute of Shuttlesworth stands majestically for all the ages in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum. Rev. Rice's monument is his daughter's high position in a Republican administration that has 2% support in black America.
posted by professor rat at 7:07 AM
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