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The CIA in Europe - Kidnappings and Secret Detentions

 

Background

Media Reports

Government & NGO Reports

Individual Cases

Photo Credits

 

Newest media report: Rendition Flights Promise Welcomed (3/11/2008/Irish Times)

Newest government/NGO report: “Dear Mr. Tyrie, …” (2/9/2008/U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

 

Background

 

“The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

 

“The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents. […]”

 

Excerpt of a Washington Post article from November 2nd, 2005.

CIA plane takes off

 

Diagram: Flights of CIA Prisoners to Secret Prisons

 

Media Reports

 

November 3rd, 2008 - Rendition Flights Promise Welcomed

1 news article by Irish Times

 

September 29th, 2008 - Crashed Jet Carrying Cocaine Linked to CIA

1 news article by Atlantic Free Press

 

September 5th, 2008 - Polish Prosecutors Probe Possible CIA Jail

1 news article by Reuters

 

September 4th, 2008 - Mexico Drug Plane Used for US ‘Rendition’ Flights: Report

2 news articles by Agence France Presse & CounterPunch

 

August 3rd, 2008 - US ‘Held Suspects on British Territory in 2006’

1 news article by the Observer

 

July 28th, 2008 - Lawyer Asks Taoiseach for Information on CIA Flights

1 news article by Irish Times

 

July 20th, 2008 - MPs Say Cannot Rely on U.S. Torture Assurances

1 news article by Reuters

 

July 8th, 2008 - Scandal at Diego Garcia

1 feature article by Counterpunch

 

July 5th, 2008 - UK Lawmakers to Launch New Rendition Probe

1 news article by the Associated Press

 

July 3rd, 2008 - US: Only 2 Rendition Flights Landed on UK Soil

1 news article by the Associated Press

 

June 24th, 2008 - European Role in Secret US Flights Criticised

1 news article by Financial Times

 

June 22nd, 2008 - Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation

1 news article by the New York Times

 

June 2nd, 2008 - US Accused of Holding Terror Suspects on Prison Ships

1 news article by the Guardian

 

May 25th, 2008 - Secret CIA Flights Raise Political Storm in Portugal

1 news article by Periódico 26

 

May 8th, 2008 - CIA Flights Haunt Romania

1 news article by the Inter Press Service

 

May 6th, 2008 - Guantánamo Briton Sues UK over ‘Torture Evidence’

2 news articles by the Guardian & Reuters

 

May 5th, 2008 - Renditions Ruin the EU Case

1 news article by Inter Press Service

 

April 24th, 2008 - CIA Foresaw Interrogation Issues

1 news article by the Washington Post

 

April 8th, 2008 - CIA Rendered 14 Prisoners to Jordan: Report

1 news article by Agence France Presse

 

April 3rd, 2008 - British Rights Group Hands Portugal Findings about Secret CIA Flights in its Airspace

1 news article by the Associated Press

 

March 13th, 2008 - Four Suspect CIA Flights Refuel at Airport

1 news article by the Limerick Reader

 

March 12th, 2008 - CIA Boeing Sighted in CEE

1 news article by Budapest Times

 

March 10th, 2008 - Fresh Questions on Torture Flights Spark Demands for Inquiry

1 news article by the Guardian

 

February 22nd, 2008 - Embarrassed Miliband Admits Two US Rendition Flights on British Soil

2 news articles by the Guardian & Associated Press

 

December 11th, 2007 - Irish Human Rights Body Wants CIA Flight Inspections

1 news article by Agence France Presse

 

September 8th, 2007 - CIA Chief Defends Detention of Prisoners

1 news article by the Associated Press

 

June 8th, 2007 - European Report Addresses CIA Sites

2 news articles by Washington Post & the New York Times

 

April 20th, 2007 - A CIA Man Speaks His Mind on Secret Abductions

1 news article by Congressional Quarterly

 

March 7th, 2007 - Soviet-Era Compound in Northern Poland was Site of Secret CIA Interrogation

1 news article by Raw Story

 

December 28th, 2006 - Hunt for CIA ‘Black Site’ in Poland

1 news article by BBC News

 

November 28th, 2006 - Europeans Accused of Obstructing CIA Prison Probe

1 news article by Reuters

 

September 7th, 2006 - President Moves 14 Held in Secret to Guantánamo

3 news articles by the New York Times, Washington Post & Reuters

 

June 12th, 2006 - EU Lawmakers Back Report on CIA Terror Kidnappings

2 news articles by Reuters and Sofia News Agency

 

November 2nd, 2005 - CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

1 news article by the Washington Post

 

 

Government & NGO Reports

 

September 2nd, 2008 - “Dear Mr. Tyrie, …”

Letter by James Hooley, UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

 

“[…] Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 23 May. I wrote to you on 23 June, 21 July and again on 18 August informing you that we had not yet reached a decision on where the public interest lay in respect of qualified exemptions engaged on your request and that this would take some further time.

 

“Having considered the public interest in relation to your request, we are now in a position to provide you with a full response without exemptions. I will address the points from your letter in turn.

 

“On request number 1 in your letter, I can confirm that the UK Government has sought information from the US Government in respect of the two flights through Diego Garcia in 2002, in which a US plane with a single detainee on board refuelled at the US facility on the island. The flight you ask about specifically in your letter (which may not be one of these two) was included on the list of flights that was passed to US officials on 15 May, based upon which we sought their specific assurance that none of the flights had been used for the rendition of an individual. The US confirmed that, with the exception of the two cases related to Diego Garcia in 2002, there have been no other instances in which US intelligence flights landed in the United Kingdom, our Overseas Territories, or the Crown Dependencies, with a detainee on board since 11 September 2001. […]”

 

July 15th, 2008 - CIA-Kidnappings: Document Request for EU/US Correspondence & Reports

 

July 9th, 2008 - Human Rights Annual Report 2007

Report by the U.K. House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee

 

“[…] 43. We have followed the issue of US Government policy and the use of extraordinary rendition closely in recent years, as part of our annual human rights reports, our discontinued series into the Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism and as part of our recent report into Overseas Territories. This latter report sets out the Government’s repeated acceptance in recent years of US assurances that UK territory had not been used for the purposes of rendition since 1998. We then noted:

 

“‘On 21 February 2008, the current Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon David Miliband MP, reported to the House that the US had now informed him, contrary to its previous assurances, that on two occasions in 2002 Diego Garcia had been used for renditions flights. In both cases a US plane ‘with a single detainee refuelled at the US facility’ on the island. Neither detainee was a British national or British resident. One was currently in Guantánamo Bay and the other had been released.’

 

“In the human rights report, the FCO expresses ‘concern and disappointment’ that UK territory was used for the purposes of rendition without the permission of the Government. In our report, we deplored the fact that US assurances ‘have turned out to be false’. […]

 

“47. We conclude that the Government has a moral and legal obligation to ensure that flights that enter UK airspace or land at UK airports are not part of the ‘rendition circuit’, even if they do not have a detainee on board during the time they are in UK territory. We recommend that the Government should immediately raise questions about such flights with the US authorities in order to ascertain the full scale of the rendition problem, and inform the Committee of the replies it receives in its response to this Report. […]”

 

June 26th, 2008 - Zypries: Renditions sind rechtsstaatswidrig

Report by the German Parliament/Deutscher Bundestag (in German)

 

“[…] Als ‘willkürliche Freiheitsberaubung’ und damit als Verstoß gegen rechtsstaatliche Standards hat Justizministerin Brigitte Zypries (SPD) die Renditions-Praxis der USA kritisiert. Renditions wird die Entführung Terrorverdächtiger und deren Transport in getarnten Flügen zu Geheimgefängnissen genannt, gemeinhin wird von CIA-Flügen gesprochen. Zum Auftakt ihrer Vernehmung vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss erklärte die SPD-Politikerin am Donnerstagnachmittag, auch beim Kampf gegen den Terrorismus dürften die Prinzipien von Demokratie und Rechtsstaat nicht aufgegeben werden.

 

“Diesen Grundsatz habe sie bereits 2003 in Washington mehrfach öffentlich und bei Gesprächen mit der Regierung betont. Bei der Frage, mit welchen Methoden man auf terroristische Bedrohungen reagieren solle, herrsche zwischen Deutschland und den USA nicht immer Übereinstimmung, so die Zeugin. Zypries sagte, bis Mai 2006 hätten neben Medienberichten keine sicheren Kenntnisse über die Nutzung deutschen Luftraums für Renditions vorgelegen. […]”

 

June 19th, 2008 - Steinmeier weist Mitverantwortung für geheime CIA-Flüge zurück

Report by the German Parliament/Deutscher Bundestag (in German)

 

“[…] Man müsse ‘die Tatsachen schon sehr verdrehen’, um eine Mitschuld der deutschen Regierung an der ‘Renditions’-Praxis der CIA zu konstruieren, unter der die Entführung Terrorverdächtiger verstanden wird, die zu Geheimgefängnissen geflogen und dort möglicherweise misshandelt oder gefoltert wurden. Dies erklärte Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier am Donnerstagnachmittag zum Auftakt seiner Vernehmung vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss. Der unter Kanzler Gerhard Schröder als Chef der Regierungszentrale amtierende SPD-Politiker sagte, er sei erst zum Jahresbeginn 2005 durch Berichte in US-Medien auf die Renditions aufmerksam geworden. Als Außenminister habe er Ende November gegenüber der US-Regierung rasch deutlich gemacht, dass diese Methoden ‘nach deutschem Recht nicht akzeptabel’ seien. Beim Kampf gegen den Terrorismus müssten rechtsstaatliche Standards beachtet werden. […]”

 

June 5th, 2008 - Uhrlau: Kanzleramt über Misshandlung Khafagys nicht informiert

Report by the German Parliament/Deutscher Bundestag (in German)

 

“[…] Die Leitung des Kanzleramts sei nicht über die rechtsstaatswidrigen Haftbedingungen des Ende September 2001 von US-Militärs in Sarajewo verhafteten Deutsch-Ägypters Abdel Halim Khafagy unterrichtet gewesen: Dies erklärte am Donnerstagnachmittag Ernst Uhrlau, damals Geheimdienstkoordinator in der Regierungszentrale, zum Auftakt seiner Vernehmung vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss.

 

“Laut dem heutigen BND-Präsidenten wurde in den vom seinerzeitigen Kanzleramtschef Frank-Walter Steinmeier geleiteten Sicherheitslagen von der Spitze des Bundeskriminalamts (BKA) auch nicht zur Sprache gebracht, dass es wegen der inakzeptablen Umstände der Gefangenschaft im US-Lager Eagle Base in Tuzla zwei nach Bosnien entsandte BKA-Beamte abgelehnt hatten, den in München ansässigen 69-Jährigen zu befragen. Schon im Oktober 2001 über die Haftbedingungen Khafagys informiert gewesen zu sein, ‘schließe ich aus’, so der Zeuge. Er habe damals auch nicht die schweren Verletzungen vermuten können, die der Ägypter bei seiner Verhaftung erlitt. Uhrlau sagte, erst im Herbst 2006 im Zuge der Recherchen des Untersuchungsausschusses von diesen Vorkommnissen Kenntnis erhalten zu haben.

 

“Khafagy war irrtümlich unter Terrorverdacht geraten und in Bosnien Misshandlungen ausgesetzt, unter anderem fanden sich Blutspuren an seinen Unterlagen. Er wurde nach Kairo ausgeliefert und konnte dann nach München zurückkehren. […]”

 

May 30th, 2008 - “Unfroh überrascht” über Misshandlung Khafagys

Report by the German Parliament/Deutscher Bundestag (in German)

 

“[…] Die Verhaftung des Deutsch-Ägypters Abdel Halim Khafagy Ende September 2001 in Sarajewo (Bosnien-Herzegowina) durch US-Militärs war nach Angaben Konrad Wenckebachs in der Zeit danach Thema im Kanzleramt. Am Donnerstagabend erklärte der damalige Stellvertreter des seinerzeitigen Geheimdienst-Koordinators Ernst Uhrlau vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss, laut Aktenvermerken sei der Fall Khafagy auch in der mit Sicherheitsfragen befassten Staatssekretärsrunde unter Leitung des ehemaligen Kanzleramtschefs Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) erörtert worden. Er wisse aber nicht, so der Zeuge, ob dabei auch die Misshandlungen zur Sprache gekommen seien, denen der seit langem in München lebende Ägypter ausgesetzt gewesen sei. Khafagy war offenbar irrtümlich unter Terrorverdacht geraten und im US-Camp ‘Eagle Base’ in Tuzla (Bosnien-Herzegowina) inhaftiert worden, bevor er über Ägypten nach Deutschland zurückkehren konnte.

 

“Wenckebach berichtete vor den Abgeordneten, er sei einige Wochen nach der Verhaftungsaktion in Sarajewo vom Leiter der Abteilung internationaler Terrorismus unterrichtet worden, dass es wegen der rechtsstaatswidrigen Umstände der Festnahme und der Inhaftierung Khafagys zwei nach Bosnien entsandte Mitarbeiter des Bundeskriminalamts (BKA) abgelehnt hätten, den Gefangenen zu befragen. Von Details wie etwa blutverschmierten Unterlagen Khafagys, die den BKA-Vertretern von US-Seite übergeben wurden, habe er nichts erfahren. […]”

 

May 8th, 2008 - Kanzleramt war über den Fall Khafagy informiert

Report by the German Parliament/Deutscher Bundestag (in German)

 

“[…] Über ‘Indizien für Menschenrechtsverletzungen’ seitens der US-Militärs in Bosnien gegenüber dem Ende September in Sarajewo verhafteten Deutsch-Ägypter Abdel Halim Khafagy wurde im Oktober 2001 eine Sicherheitsrunde im Kanzleramt in einem vom Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) erstellten ‘Sprechzettel’ unterrichtet: Dies erklärte am Donnerstag vor dem Untersuchungsausschuss Manfred Klink.

 

“Der ehemalige Leiter der nach den New Yorker Attentaten vom 11. September 2001 gebildeten BKA-Sonderermittlungsgruppe bestätigte damit Angaben des Zeugen Thomas Port. Dieser BKA-Beamte hatte es zusammen mit seinem Kollegen Klaus Zorn wegen der mit ‘deutschen Rechtsnormen nicht vereinbaren Umstände’ zur Inhaftierung des damals 69jährigen Anfang Oktober 2001 abgelehnt, den seit vielen Jahren in München lebenden und offenbar irrtümlich unter Terrorverdacht geratenen Verleger im US-Camp ‘Eagle Base’ in Tuzla zu befragen. Laut Port wurden die BKA-Zentrale, das Innenministerium, das Kanzleramt und der deutsche Botschafter in Sarajewo in schriftlichen und mündlichen Berichten über die ‘irritierende Situation’ in Tuzla informiert. Zorn sollte am Spätnachmittag als Zeuge aussagen. […]”

 

April 2008 - Double Jeopardy/CIA Renditions to Jordan

1 report by Human Rights Watch

 

 

“[…] From 2001 until at least 2004, Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID) served as a proxy jailer for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), holding prisoners that the CIA apparently wanted kept out of circulation, and later handing some of them back to the CIA. More than just warehousing these men, the GID interrogated them using methods that were even more brutal than those in which the CIA has been implicated to date. The prisoners were typically held for several months in GID custody - and in at least one case, for nearly two years.

 

“While the exact number of transfers cannot be ascertained, Human Rights Watch has found that at least 14 non-Jordanian prisoners were sent from United States to Jordanian custody during this three-year period, and the actual figure may be much higher. While a few other countries have received individuals rendered by the United States in recent years (that is, transferred without formal legal process), no country is known to have detained as many as Jordan.

 

“Human Rights Watch has credible information indicating that the prisoners included at least five Yemenis, three Algerians, two Saudis, a Mauritanian, a Syrian, a Tunisian, and one or more Chechens. They may also have included a Libyan, an Iraqi Kurd, a Kuwaiti, one or more Egyptians, and a national of the United Arab Emirates. The majority of the men whom the US brought to Jordan were initially arrested in either of two places: in Pakistan, particularly the city of Karachi, and in Georgia, from the Pankisi Gorge. One reportedly said that he was held for three months at a US prison in Iraq before being moved to Jordan, while many others were later held in secret CIA detention in Kabul or at the US military base at Bagram, in Afghanistan. […]”

 

October 16th, 2007 - “Dear President Pöttering …”

Document by the Council of the European Union

 

October 8th, 2007 - Report on the Legislators’ Dialogue 63rd EP/US Congress Meeting

Report by the Delegation for Relations with the US of the European Parliament

 

“Meeting With Secretary Michael Chertoff […] - Secretary Chertoff also answered questions about Data Protection (PNR, SWIFT) and the need to find convergence on ‘basic principles’, also in view of review procedures and the conclusion of final agreements, the level of controls on private aircraft (including CIA rendition flights), the nature of imminent security threats in both the US and Europe: he identified ‘local plots by small groups of home-grown terrorists’ as the most dangerous threat, and as the major challenge for internal security forces, effectiveness depended on adequate technology and ‘critical infrastructure’; at the same time, democratic accountability was of importance.

 

“The Chairman, Mr Jonathan Evans thanked Secretary Chertoff and stressed the importance of continuing the close relationship established between the Secretary and the European Parliament. […]”

 

June 7th, 2007 - Secret detentions and illegal transfers involving Council of Europe member states

Report by the Committee on Legal Affairs & Human Rights, Council of Europe

 

January 30th, 2007 - Report on the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners by the CIA

Final Report by the Temporary Committee of the European Parliament

 

“[…] Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners […]

 

“L. whereas the Temporary Committee has obtained, from a confidential source, records of the informal transatlantic meeting of European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, of 7 December 2005, confirming that Member States had knowledge of the programme of extraordinary rendition, while all official interlocutors of the Temporary Committee provided inaccurate information on this matter,

 

“M. whereas the Temporary Committee has obtained, from a confidential source, records of meetings of the Council’s Working Party on Public International Law (COJUR) and Transatlantic Relations Working Party (COTRA) with senior representatives of the US Department of State during the first half of 2006 (notably on 8 February and 3 May 2006), while it was provided by the Council Presidency only with a summarised version of these documents; whereas the documents sent by the Council to Parliament concerning those meetings in answer to Parliament's specific request, were incomplete summaries of the proceedings with essential parts missing, […]

 

“25. Is outraged by the proposal which was to have been made by the then Council Presidency to set-up a joint ‘framework’ with the US on standards for the rendition of terrorism suspects, as confirmed by those who took part in the meeting of the Council’s Working Party on Public International Law (COJUR) and the Transatlantic Relations Working Party (COTRA) with senior representatives of the US Department of State held in Brussels on 3 May 2006; […]

 

“42. Stresses that at least 1 245 flights operated by the CIA flew into European airspace or stopped over at European airports between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005, to which should be added an unspecified number of military flights for the same purpose; recalls that, on one hand, there may have been more CIA flights than those confirmed by the investigations carried out by the Temporary Committee, while, on the other hand, not all those flights have been used for extraordinary rendition; […]”

 

December 14th, 2006 - “Dear Mr. President, …”

Letter by Javier Solana, Secretary General, Council of the European Union

 

December 5th, 2006 - Report on the Legislators’ Dialogue 62nd EP/US Congress Meeting

Report by the Delegation for Relations with the US of the European Parliament

 

“[…] With regard to international terrorism, the European side underlined that the EU and US were the biggest allies in this fight, but its root causes should be tackled. Furthermore, a difficult balance had to be struck in maintinging human rights (including right to privacy) whilst fighting against terrorism. The EU and the US should avoid embarking on collision courses in this area. With regard to specific issues, the CIA rendition flights, Passenger name records (PNR) and exchange of SWIFT data were mentioned.

 

“The Administration had admitted to CIA rendition flights, but there had been no substantial discussion in Congress: for the EP, the legality of abducting people was out of the question, and it had instituted a special temporary committee on this subject. It was hoped that the new majority in Congress would be helpful in clearing up this issue.

 

“On privacy, it was remarked that US legislation protected privacy of US citizens only; Congress and the EP ‘should sit down together’ to discuss common data protection

 

“The US side indicated that, of course, there could not be a discussion ‘on the legality of torture’, but there was no doubt that terrorists who want to harm Western civilisation and societies are very active, as Europeans have seen when the London and Madrid bombings occurred. There are States which support terrorism (such as Iran), and the EU should make suggestions on the best way to stop terrorists as well as transfers of nuclear material and of money used for financing their activities. Would the EU support sanctions against Iran, and take the leadership on this issue? In any case, terrorism would accompany us for a long time.

 

“According to some views on the American side, in the next Congress there would be ‘more accountability’ in this whole area. […]”

 

November 27th, 2006 - Exchange of views with Mr Petritsch, former High Representative

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

“[…] Mr Petritsch opened with a brief remark concerning the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the time of the events regarding the so called Algerian Six (January 2002). […]

 

“Several members wanted to know what action Mr Petritsch had taken with regard to the Algerian Six, and if he had or could have done anything to prevent their handing over to the US. Mr Petritsch replied that the matter of the Algerian Six was a matter between the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the US administration, and that the international community was de facto and formally excluded from the event. The matter clearly being a bilateral one between the US and Bosnia-Herzegovina, he had not received any official or informal information about it from the US before the handing over. What had happened could not have been foreseen. According to the information he had received, there had been no active participation from the International Police Task Force (ITPF) in the handing over. Once the men were in Guantánamo Bay, his office had worked for a clarification of the matter from the US, and asked the US administration to correct the situation. The efforts of his office had however not been successful. […]

 

“Mr Petritsch explained that the question of naturalised Mujahedin members who had fought on the Bosnian side during the war, had been a matter of interest even before 9/11, but became a huge issue after that date. At the time of the handing over of the six men, there was an enormous pressure to deal with terrorism. The US enjoyed great sympathy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, since they had stopped the war. Europeans on the other hand were seen as doing very little. The massacre of Srebrenica had also affected opinion on the political stance of Europe. While it might not have been explicit, it was clear to every one involved that the US wanted to see action with regard to terrorism-related issues. It was very clear that the government had to deliver and international actors had to be extremely cautious about what they said and did. […]”

 

November 21st, 2008 - Document 15404/06 (Partially Accessible to the Public)

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

November 16th, 2006 - Exchange of views with Mr Davis, Secretary General of the EC

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

October 24th, 2006 - “Dear Josep, …”

Letter by Geoff Hoon, Minister for Europe, U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office

 

October 11th, 2006 - Exchange of views on the outcome of the mission of a delegation to Berlin

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

July 6th, 2006 - Exchange of views with Mr Marty, President of the EC Committee on Legal Affairs

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

“[…] Mr Marty presented the conclusions of his report, which was based inter alia on official information provided by national and international air traffic control authorities and information from sources inside the US intelligence services. According to Mr Marty, there had been numerous violations of human rights in the fight against terrorism. These violations had been made possible through active or passive cooperation on the part of governments, either deliberately or through negligence. A majority of the Council of Europe Member States' governments had been passive in relation to CIA activities connected with renditions on their territories. According to Mr Marty, it was indisputable that individuals had been seized on the basis of mere suspicion and taken to places where torture was commonly practiced. There had been no judicial scrutiny or supervision regarding the foundation of those suspicions. He considered that while some information was still missing, existing knowledge of events was enough to draw the conclusions that he had drawn in his report.

 

“With regard to the question of interception of bank transfer data from the SWIFT system by the US secret services, Mr Marty said that many European governments were aware of it and that it had taken place without any legal basis or judicial supervision. While banking transactions could give very important information about criminal activities, procedures for monitoring the transactions existed, and these procedures must be observed. […]”

 

June 12th, 2006 - Report on the transport and illegal detention of prisoners by the CIA

Interim draft report by the Temporary Committee of the European Parliament

 

June 7th, 2006 - Alleged Secret Detentions and Unlawful Inter-State Transfers

Report by Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe/Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

 

May 3rd, 2006 - Document COREU CFSP/SEC/1126/06, Classified Restreint UE

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

April 30th, 2006 - Exchange of views with Mr. Oleskey

Report by the Council of the European Union

 

April 21st, 2006 - Report on the Legislators’ Dialogue 61st EP/US Congress Meeting

Report by the Delegation for Relations with the US of the European Parliament

 

“[…] The following discussion dealt with integration policies, terrorism and international Human Rights issues. For the US Delegation, it was important to realize that integration policies took place in a ‘smaller world’, where world-wide instant communication magnified reactions and ‘jumping to conclusions’. Also, there were ‘in-built bias’ affecting perceptions and assumptions: this was true, in particular, for issues like immigration, or renditions. […]

 

“With regard to terrorism, the key concept was that, although terrorists constituted a ‘stateless faction’, they availed themselves of a ‘concrete network’ which should be destroyed by means of a ‘war on terror’. Terrorists were not simple criminals, and while torture was unacceptable, mass murders had to be prevented. The European press had often misrepresented conditions in Guantanamo; also, the concept itself of ‘renditions’ was ‘amorphous’, and no concrete information was available on this subject.

 

“For the European side, the creation of the EU Human Rights Agency was a good symbol of the crucial value represented by Human Rights in the EU