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E.U. report condemns CIA rendition flights

Member nations colluded with U.S. agency

STRASBOURG (France): The European Parliament approved a report on Wednesday accusing Britain, Germany, Italy and other European nations of turning a blind eye to CIA flights transporting terror suspects to secret prisons overseas in an apparent breach of E.U. human rights standards.

The report, concluding a year-long investigation into CIA activities in Europe, gives no direct proof that the U.S. intelligence agency ran secret prisons in Europe — an allegation that prompted the inquiry in November 2005 — but it accuses some E.U. Governments of complicity with the U.S. secret renditions programme. The report passed 382-256, with 74 abstentions.

Socialist and Liberal lawmakers argued that the report, based on the findings of a special parliamentary committee, exposed a string of abductions by U.S. agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, and proved insufficient parliamentary supervision of European security services.

``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 report. But Centre-Right lawmakers warned it accuses Governments of colluding with the CIA detention programme without sufficient proof, and demanded significant changes to the wording. Some of the criticism contained in the original draft was toned down, but that was not enough to win unequivocal support across parties.

Italian protest

``The report strongly implies that countries in Europe have been massively involved in extraordinary rendition activities and illegal detention. That is ... not a faithful interpretation of fact,'' said Jas Gawronski, Italian conservative of the European People's Party, which largely voted against. Criticism of Britain for allegedly not cooperating with the investigation was removed from the report at the insistence of British Labour Party deputies, and the final wording is also softer on the German Government, largely thanks to pressure from German Social Democrats.

But objections to a testimony by E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana remained, with Parliament accusing the E.U.'s top diplomat of makings ``omissions'' in his statement to the committee.

This prompted an angry reaction from current E.U. President Germany which insisted the Council of E.U. Ministers had cooperated well with the inquiry. — AP

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