Fourteen European states colluded with the CIA's secret and unlawful programme of "extraordinary rendition," reports Sahar El-Bahr "It has now been demonstrated incontestably, by numerous well-documented and convergent facts, that secret detention and unlawful inter-state transfers involving European countries have taken place," reads a report of the Council of EuropeEurope's premier human rights watchdogreleased recently. The CIA's programme of "extraordinary rendition" is an unlawful practice in which numerous terrorist suspects have been illegally detained and secretly transported to third countries where many have been interrogated and allegedly have suffered additional violations of protected rights, including torture and enforced disappearance. The Washington Post broke the story last November that the US Central Intelligence Agency had been running detention centres in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Thailand. It is also said that more than 100 people had been sent to centres known as "black sites" following the 11 September 2001 attacks. The Council of Europe's report is the result of a seven-month inquiry. The report, due to be debated at the council's 27 June assembly, faults European governments for failing to cooperate with Dick Marty, rapporteur for the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Council, in his attempts to establish the truth about alleged CIA rendition flights. Marty drew on air traffic logs, satellite photos and accounts of prisoners who say they were abducted. The final Council of Europe report accuses 14 European states of colluding with the secret transfer of terrorism suspects by the CIA. Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Britain, Italy, Macedonia, Germany and Turkey are held "responsible, at varying degrees for violations of the rights of specific persons". Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while the UK, Portugal, Ireland and Greece were "stop-off points", the report points out. "It is now clearalthough we are still far from establishing the whole truththat authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know," Marty indicates. Marty maintains that the report identifies a "spider's web" of landing points around the world used by US authorities for unlawful rendition. "The United States actually created this reprehensible network. But we also believe to have established that it is only through the intentional or grossly negligent collusion of European partners that this 'spider's web' was able to spread also over Europe," the report states. The report makes particular mention of an Egyptian cleric allegedly abducted by the CIA in Italy, and of a German of Lebanese descent abducted in Macedonia in a case of mistaken identity. It also details six Bosnians of Algerian origin who were handed over to US authorities and are now in detention at Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, Britain is accused of handing the CIA information about its citizens or residents, who then are alleged to have faced rendition and torture under interrogation. The harshest words of criticism, however, are reserved for Poland and Romania. The report states that there is "now a preponderance of indications that secret detention centres were operated near aircraft landing points". Poland and Romania have rejected the allegation. In Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz dismissed the charge as "libellous", while Romania rejected it as "pure speculation". In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that the report "added absolutely nothing new whatever to the information we have". Britain maintains there is no evidence to suggest CIA aircraft carrying terror suspects landed on its soil. As for Spain, Jose Antonio Alonso, Spanish defense minister, stressed that his government had "never had any evidence that any kind of illegality was committed" concerning terror suspect rendition. The wording of the Council of Europe report suggests otherwise: "The body of information gathered makes it unlikely that European states were completely unaware of what was happening in some of their airports, in their airspace or at American bases located in their territory. Insofar as they did not know, they did not want to know. It is inconceivable that certain operations conducted by American services could have taken place without the active participation, or at least the collusion, of national intelligence services." According to Amnesty International, many European governments adopted a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach when it came to US requests to use territory or airspace. Amnesty affirms that without Europe's help some men would not now be held without charge or trial, in abusive conditions, in Egypt, Syria and at Guantanamo. In short, Europe has been the US's partner in crime. The impact of rendition on both the victims and their families has been devastating. Amnesty highlights the Swedish case of Ahmed Agiza and Mohamed El-Zari. Agiza and El-Zari, both Egyptian nationals, were detained in Sweden on 18 December 2001 and flown to Egypt. Swedish authorities had rejected the men's asylum applications and decided to expel them immediately. Swedish authorities obtained "diplomatic assurances" from Egypt that the men would be afforded a fair trial, would not be tortured, subject to other ill treatment or face the death penalty. Such assurances were worthless. In Egypt, the two men were held incommunicado and allegedly tortured. As for a fair trial, in April 2004, following a retrial before a military court, Ahmed Agiza was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment. Agiza's sentence was later reduced to 15 years and he remains in prison in Egypt. El-Zari was released in October 2003 without ever having been charged. Amnesty condemns the Swedish government of participating in the unlawful rendition of Agiza and El-Zari and the human rights violations they suffered at the hands of foreign agents in Sweden, on the plane en route to Egypt, and in Egypt. What impact the Council of Europe report will have will be revealed in time. While those it accuses may dismiss it, none can ignore it. The council, set up to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, oversees the European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are legally binding on member states, and comprises several decision-making committees and a 630-member parliamentary assembly. When the report urges that, "member states concerned comply with their positive obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to investigate," it is indication that the council may yet take steps to ensure that they do.
