on
CIA secret flights, torture
The European parliament has
approved a damning report on secret CIA flights, condemning member states which
colluded in the operations.
The
The EU parliament voted to
accept a resolution condemning member states that accepted or ignored the
practice.
The EU report said the CIA
had operated 1,245 flights, some taking suspects to states where they could face
torture.
The report was adopted by a large
majority, with 382 MEPs voting in favour, 256 against and 74
abstaining.
Vigilance
The final version denounces
the lack of co-operation of many EU member states and it condemns the actions of
secret services and governments who accepted and concealed renditions.
It is unlikely, the report
says, that European governments were unaware of rendition activities on their
territory, something the British government, among others, has
denied.
"This is a report that
doesn't allow anyone to look the other way. We must be vigilant that what has
been happening in the past five years may never happen again," said Italian
Socialist Giovanni Fava, who drafted the document.
The parliament also called
for an "independent inquiry" to be considered and for closure of the
Human rights campaigning
group Amnesty International welcomed the EU lawmakers' vote, but urged member
states to carry out independent investigations.
Revealing
facts
Although the report has no
force in EU law, Mr Fava said during the parliamentary debate that the related
investigation, over a year, had uncovered much new
evidence.
EU states
involved
Many of those taken from EU
states were subjected to torture to extract information from them, the report
said.
It said there was a "strong
possibility" that this intelligence had been passed on to EU governments who
were aware of how it was obtained.
It also uncovered the use of
secret detention facilities used as the flights made their journey across Europe
towards countries such as
It was not possible to
contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centres were operated
in
'Incommunicado
detention'
Centre-right MEPs - the
largest group in parliament - have been highly critical of the report, saying it
is primarily motivated by anti-Americanism.
EU Justice Commissioner
Franco Frattini said the commission would act on the truth, even if it were
uncomfortable or unpalatable. But he called for a relaunching of the
Euro-Atlantic relationship and said Europe must continue to work with its
During the course of their
investigation, delegations of MEPs travelled to countries including
The governments of
The report defines
extraordinary renditions as instances where "an individual suspected of
involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into
the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for
interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention
and torture".
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