[Mb-civic] CBC News - EU COUNTRIES WARNED OVER ALLEGED SECRET CIA JAILS

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EU COUNTRIES WARNED OVER ALLEGED SECRET CIA JAILS
WebPosted Mon Nov 28 18:08:52 2005

---A European Union official has warned that any member country found to
have hosted a secret CIA prison could have its voting rights suspended.


Franco Frattini, the EU justice and security commissioner, said the
countries would face "serious consequences" if reports prove true that
the U.S. intelligence agency has been running clandestine detention
centres in Europe to interrogate suspects in Washington's war on terror.


Frattini told a news conference in Berlin on Monday that he would
be forced to recommend that the suspension of the EU countries'
voting rights.

The move, which would have to be approved by the EU Council, would be an
unprecedented sanction for the 25-member trading bloc.

Frattini said secret jails would violate the European Convention on Human
Rights and various EU treaties.

Allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency was running a secret
prison system in Eastern Europe to interrogate key al-Qaeda captives were
first reported in the Washington Post on Nov. 2.

 FROM NOV. 2, 2005: CIA running secret prison system: report



The advocacy group Human Rights Watch then said it had evidence the CIA
had flown suspects from Afghanistan to Poland, which is already in the
EU, and Romania, which hopes to join it in 2007.

Both countries have denied the reports.

U.S. asked for more time to respond

The Washington Post said the CIA had been operating the sites in at least
eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies
in Eastern Europe.

The secret detention system was conceived in the first months after the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,
the newspaper said.

Frattini said justice officials from the EU had raised the report with
White House and State Department officials during a visit to Washington a
week earlier.

Washington requested more time in order to respond to the allegations,
Frattini said Monday.

A number of countries as well as rights organizations began
investigations after the reports surfaced.

Copyright (C) 2005 CBC. All rights reserved.