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29th Mar 2024

Secret agents on MEPs' wish list in CIA probe

  • Did the CIA fly prisoners from Europe to countries that condone torture? (Photo: European Commission)

A European Parliament committee investigating CIA activities in Europe has drawn up a list of people to call for questioning, including secret agents and US administration top officials.

MEPs in Strasbourg on Monday (13 February) debated a first draft agenda of the newly established temporary committee into alleged use of European territory by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of terror suspects.

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British liberal MEP Sarah Ludford indicated the committee should seek to speak with former members of US or other intelligence services who might be able to help with the inquiry.

The committee's rapporteur, Italian socialist MEP Giovanni Claudio Fava, in the draft calendar of the committee suggested sending a delegation to the United States to speak with officials there.

"We have to talk with representatives of the US administration in order to check the operative mode being applied in the fight against terrorism," Mr Fava said.

"We need to check who in the American administration would be willing to cooperate," he added.

Mr Fava suggested that the committee, besides seeking information from high-ranking journalists, US congress members and NGOs, should also ask to speak to CIA agents and top politicians in the Bush administration, such as secretary of state Condoleezza Rice or her predecessor Colin Powell.

Several members of the group however said that possible transatlantic trips had to be well-prepared, so as not to damage the credibility of the EU in the matter.

Leftist MEP Giusto Catania reminded his colleagues of an earlier EU inquiry group investigating the American Echelon spy system, which was only granted a few minutes of interrogation time at their arrival to the US, and not with particularly high-ranking officials.

The 46 MEPs in the temporary committee are expected to look into allegations of CIA activities in Europe, including rendition flights and prison camps potentially involving cases of torture.

The parliament committee is mainly focusing on the responsibility of EU governments and their alleged co-operation with American secret agents.

Documents and definitions needed

MEPs in Strasbourg urged EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini, who attended the debate, to clarify expressions and investigate documents surrounding EU-US agreements, notably a 2003 agreement on "facilitating transit", and "mutual assistance".

MEPs also asked about a seemingly forgotten EU-US extradition treaty from the same year, so far only ratified by four EU member states.

Swedish liberal MEP Cecilia Malmström urged the committee to obtain recent Amnesty International documents containing flight logs of six planes that have been used in CIA renditions, making 800 flights in and out of European airspace during 2001-2005.

"Where are those documents, and why do we not have them already?", Ms Malmström asked the audience.

Amnesty has called the log information "irrefutable proof that the United States is 'disappearing' people into secret facilities where they are held incommunicado without charge, trial, or access to the outside world."

The Swedish MEP also said the committee acts as a professional investigation group, despite the committee's limited judicial powers, with the European Parliament lacking power to subpoena EU leaders or US officials who refuse to testify.

"We should not let this be just a media event," she said.

Frattini urges member states

Meanwhile, commissioner Frattini urged EU member states to respond to questionnaires from the EU Council, the member states' secretariat, asking about alleged CIA flights and camps, before February 21.

"I have received official, public denials," he said characterising the current state of play, adding until a member state was proven guilty of breaching human rights articles in the EU treaties, he could not but accept the denials - as in any court.

EU member states have persistently denied knowledge of secret CIA activities in their countries, although reports have not stopped appearing about CIA operations in Europe since NGO Human Rights Watch and the Washington Post newspaper released the allegations late last year.

Ex-US secretary of state Colin Powell has, however, called European leaders insincere when denying knowledge of the practice of rendition of terror suspects.

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