EU govts. have 'collaborated, tolerated or looked away' from CIA crimes

[bigtree]

EU governments complicit in shady CIA activities – investigator

http://217.145.4.56/ind/news.asp?newsitemid=27085

Governments across the European Union have “collaborated, tolerated or looked away” from the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine operations on their countries’ soil for the last two to three years. This is expected to be one of the main findings that will be revealed on Tuesday when a Council of Europe (COE) inquiry presents its interim report on the use of European territory for the practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’.

One of the more unsavoury phrases to have been integrated into everyday English last year, ‘extraordinary rendition’ refers to the US practice of clandestinely transporting terrorism suspects aboard private aircraft owned by CIA shell companies to secret prisons in countries where torture is used as a routine interrogation technique.

Several European governments and human rights organisations alike have expressed outrage at the possibility that European soil and airspace may have been implicated in the practice – either through the use of EU airspace, airports or, more sinisterly, by hosting secret ‘black site’ detention centres where interrogations are carried out beyond the normal conventions of law and human rights.

Speaking to the Swiss television station TRS last week, Mr. Dick Marty, a Council of Europe senator, described European governments’ response, or lack thereof, to the issue as “shocking”, adding that European governments have known about the illegal detention and transport of terrorism suspects by the United States on their territory.

“For two or three years countries knew exactly what was going on. Some countries actively collaborated, some tolerated, while others simply looked away,” Mr Marty said.

full article: http://217.145.4.56/ind/news.asp?newsitemid=27085

[DemExpat]

1. Yes, it certainly looks like this....

and makes me ill knowing that most EU country populations are very much against a lot of the US activity.

DemEx

[bigtree]

2. this is a big deal with some of these governments, from within

not top down concern of course, but agencies within these European governments are hell bent on holding their leaders accountable for the stopovers and the secret torture prisons. Bulgaria has had its admission into the EU held up because of concerns about human rights violations stemming from a secret CIA prison there and the torture alleged within.

Both Romania and neighboring Bulgaria have allowed U.S. forces to use their military facilities on a recurring basis. Both nations allowed U.S. troops to use their facilities as staging areas for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, and this close cooperation led to President Bush calling for their swift admission to NATO, which took place in 2004.
(snip)

http://bucharest.usembassy.gov/Washington_File/100/05-10-24/eur102.htm