EU warns members on secret U.S. camps
By Brian Knowlton International Herald Tribune
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2005
WASHINGTON Amid rising European anger over contentions that the CIA has
flown terror suspects to secret camps in Eastern Europe for interrogation and
possible torture, the European Union's commissioner of justice and home affairs
warned Monday that any EU member found to have permitted the use of such a camp
could lose its voting rights.
It was not immediately clear what weight the warning by the commissioner,
Franco Frattini, might carry. No member's voting rights have ever been
suspended.
But the highly charged issue appeared to have the potential to slow a
warming of U.S.-European relations, and to weigh on trans-Atlantic intelligence
cooperation - one area of joint endeavor that has largely survived the
polarizing debate over the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
It could also add to pressure on East European aspirants like Romania,
which is set to accede to the EU in 2007, to demonstrate that they fully
respect the Union's human rights standards.
Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council in
Washington, acknowledged Monday that a possible effect on U.S.-EU intelligence
cooperation was "a potential impact." But he insisted that the United States
took the matter "very seriously."
The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, when asked about European
complaints that the United States had been slow to provide information on the
alleged camps, said the administration would do its best "to reply in as
forthright a manner as we possibly can."
An early indicator that the issue might affect U.S.-EU relations will
come Tuesday, when the new German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier,
arrives here for a visit designed to underscore the desire of Chancellor Angela
Merkel to end the antagonism that grew out of German opposition to the Iraq war
under her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.
The European Commission and several European governments are
investigating the report of secret camps that appeared in The Washington Post
on Nov. 2. The report sparked anger in the United States, adding to a growing
debate over the war.
A U.S. Senate bill to bar inhumane treatment of prisoners held by U.S.
forces, including the CIA, passed by a 90-to-9 vote, despite White House
objections that it would restrict its ability to protect the country from
terrorists.
The CIA had no comment Monday. But Frattini said in Berlin that if the
reports of secret CIA jails proved true, EU states could face "serious
consequences," including a recommendation of suspension.
Suspension would not come easily, however. It would require first the
unanimous backing of other member states for a finding that basic European
values had been violated, then a further two-thirds vote of EU heads of state
and government to set sanctions, officials in Brussels said.
Still, the controversy may already have affected intelligence
cooperation, said Julianne Smith, deputy director for international security at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington.
"The shining star of trans-Atlantic cooperation, despite all the disputes
over Iraq, has always been the tremendous, very positive and very fruitful
cooperation on terror, law enforcement and intelligence-sharing," Smith said.
"Now this kind of cornerstone of trans-Atlantic cooperation is under attack."
Smith said she spoke last week in Europe with a number of
national-security officials there. Several of them told her, she said, that
"until we get to the bottom of this, we are not going to be able to share as
much with you as we have."
The Post, citing unidentified U.S. and foreign officials, said the CIA
had been hiding and interrogating Al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in
Eastern Europe. The report said the compound was a part of a covert CIA system
set up since 2001 that at times had included sites in Thailand, Afghanistan and
several East European democracies.
The Post said it had been asked not to identify the European countries,
but Human Rights Watch later said it had information suggesting that Poland, a
recent EU member, and Romania had secret prison sites. It said flight records
showed that CIA planes had landed at Szymany Airport in northeastern Poland and
at Mihail Kogalniceanu military airport in southern Romania.
Both countries have denied any involvement. President Aleksander
Kwasniewski of Poland reiterated the denial Monday, and Frattini said the
Romanian interior minister, Vasile Blaga, had done the same.
Other prisoners reportedly have been sent for questioning to intelligence
services in Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and other allied countries.
In addition to the European Commission's investigation, Austria, Denmark,
Iceland, Norway, Spain and Sweden have opened investigations.
The controversy over treatment of prisoners appears to have had a
particularly powerful impact in Europe, becoming "one of the most politically
volatile issues affecting trans-Atlantic relations," said Charles Kupchan,
director of Europe Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Most Europeans
were against the war to begin with, and then adding fuel to the flames has been
Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and now the alleged prison camps in EU countries."
Early this month, President George W. Bush responded to the latest
allegations by saying repeatedly that "we do not torture." He did not address
the question of secret camps.
The visit by Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, had been expected
to underscore a warming of relations. Instead, as he flew from Germany on
Monday, spokesmen for several German parties demanded that he seek full
explanations from the United States about the alleged camps, and specifically
whether CIA flights had stopped over in Germany.
Smith, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted
that Steinmeier would raise the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
but do so fairly discreetly to avoid disturbing the new relationship.
The Council of Europe, the Continent's main watchdog on human rights,
opened an inquiry last week into the transit, detention and interrogation of
suspected terrorists on CIA initiative.
The council's secretary general, Terry Davies, sent a letter to the
body's 46 member states obliging them to answer a series of questions about
potentially illegal detentions since Jan. 1, 2002, and what legal protections
exist against such detentions. Countries have until Feb. 21 to provide a
"comprehensive" reply.
"We're taking these allegations very seriously," said Matjaz Gruden,
Davies's spokesman at the council. "We're talking about actions that, if found
to be true, would go blatantly against the European convention on human
rights."
Frattini's spokesman, Friso Roscam Abbing, on Monday welcomed the various
investigations.
So did a diplomat at the French Foreign Ministry. "If you join the
European Union, you join a value community and if you don't respect the values,
you are subject to sanctions," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, in
keeping with Foreign Ministry rules. "It's a strong signal to future members
that we will make no exception."
Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting from Paris.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page
http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
