Clarified Rice
Rice faces barrage over CIA claims Anthony Browne, Brussels
WHEN US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tours Europe next week, she will fly into an extraordinary storm over alleged US counter-terrorism practices that threatens to send the fragile trans-Atlantic relationship into a tailspin.
Allegations that the CIA has been conducting clandestine operations across Europe were sparked by an article in The Washington Post and have multiplied so rapidly that they have now engulfed most European governments.
The allegations are potentially devastating, encompassing an abuse of national sovereignty and human rights.
It is claimed that the CIA has illegally abducted terrorist suspects in Europe, covertly used European airports for transporting terrorist suspects and has been interrogating them in secret prisons - "black sites" - on the Continent.
The row has been fuelled by Washington's steadfast refusal to confirm or deny the allegations.
In Washington yesterday, Dr Rice assured visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the White House would reply to an expected formal query from the European Union on the matter, her spokesman Sean McCormack said.
She also dodged the matter in a newspaper interview ahead of her trip to Brussels, Poland and Romania, but said: "We have never fought a war like this before where ... you can't allow someone to commit the crime before you detain them. Because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die."
Eight European governments, including Britain, have appealed directly to the US for "clarification", a dozen are conducting internal investigations and the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental human rights body, has opened a pancontinental inquiry. The Netherlands has given warning that, if true, the allegations would have serious consequences for its participation in military operations in Afghanistan.
On Monday. the European Commission threatened political sanctions including the potential loss of voting rights against any EU member that harboured CIA prisons.
The Washington Post article alleged that the CIA had been interrogating suspects in secret prisons around the world, including in unnamed "eastern European democracies".
East European countries lined up to plead innocence, but the US-based Human Rights Watch said it was practically convinced that the allegations were true.
There was then a spate of reports that the CIA had been covertly using European airports to transport terrorist suspects around the world, in so-called extraordinary renditions - secretly moving suspects from one territory to another for interrogation that may include torture.
But the most serious allegations against the CIA are that it has been abducting suspects in Europe.
German prosecutors are investigating the alleged CIA kidnapping of Khaled Masri in Macedonia in 2003. And an Italian prosecutor is trying to extradite from the US 22 CIA agents who he accuses of abducting the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003.
WHEN US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tours Europe next week, she will fly into an extraordinary storm over alleged US counter-terrorism practices that threatens to send the fragile trans-Atlantic relationship into a tailspin.
Allegations that the CIA has been conducting clandestine operations across Europe were sparked by an article in The Washington Post and have multiplied so rapidly that they have now engulfed most European governments.
The allegations are potentially devastating, encompassing an abuse of national sovereignty and human rights.
It is claimed that the CIA has illegally abducted terrorist suspects in Europe, covertly used European airports for transporting terrorist suspects and has been interrogating them in secret prisons - "black sites" - on the Continent.
The row has been fuelled by Washington's steadfast refusal to confirm or deny the allegations.
In Washington yesterday, Dr Rice assured visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that the White House would reply to an expected formal query from the European Union on the matter, her spokesman Sean McCormack said.
She also dodged the matter in a newspaper interview ahead of her trip to Brussels, Poland and Romania, but said: "We have never fought a war like this before where ... you can't allow someone to commit the crime before you detain them. Because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die."
Eight European governments, including Britain, have appealed directly to the US for "clarification", a dozen are conducting internal investigations and the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental human rights body, has opened a pancontinental inquiry. The Netherlands has given warning that, if true, the allegations would have serious consequences for its participation in military operations in Afghanistan.
On Monday. the European Commission threatened political sanctions including the potential loss of voting rights against any EU member that harboured CIA prisons.
The Washington Post article alleged that the CIA had been interrogating suspects in secret prisons around the world, including in unnamed "eastern European democracies".
East European countries lined up to plead innocence, but the US-based Human Rights Watch said it was practically convinced that the allegations were true.
There was then a spate of reports that the CIA had been covertly using European airports to transport terrorist suspects around the world, in so-called extraordinary renditions - secretly moving suspects from one territory to another for interrogation that may include torture.
But the most serious allegations against the CIA are that it has been abducting suspects in Europe.
German prosecutors are investigating the alleged CIA kidnapping of Khaled Masri in Macedonia in 2003. And an Italian prosecutor is trying to extradite from the US 22 CIA agents who he accuses of abducting the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003.
posted by professor rat at 5:34 AM
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