Romania's effort
lax on CIA jails, EU says
Reuters, The Associated
Press
Published: October 19, 2006
BUCHAREST: Romania has made only
"superficial" efforts to investigate reports that CIA planes used its territory
to transfer terrorism suspects across Europe, the European parliamentary
commission investigating the flights said Thursday.
A team of EU
investigators checking Romania's progress in uncovering evidence of secret
U.S.-led operations or detention facilities ended their first fact-finding
mission to Bucharest on Thursday.
"The way the authorities conducted the
investigations on the alleged CIA flights in Romania seems superficial," Claudio
Fava, the rapporteur of the commission, told a news conference.
"We are
talking about planes that had landed not with the aim to refuel," he said. "I
believe that more research by the Romanian Parliament committee is
needed."
Human Rights Watch has singled out Romania and Poland as
possible locations of clandestine CIA jails, but both countries have repeatedly
denied involvement.
Norica Nicolai, a Romanian senator heading the
country's parliamentary committee investigating the allegations, on Tuesday
repeated Bucharest's assertion that Romania had not been host to a secret CIA
detention center. But she said she could not rule out that the U.S. intelligence
agency might have transported detainees on planes that landed in Romania on
refueling stopovers.
Fava said EU investigators were still uncertain
whether a Black Sea air base in Romania, used by the U.S. Army as a hub to send
equipment and troops into Iraq during the 2003 invasion, had been used by the
CIA for the so-called renditions.
"What we can say about the Kogalniceanu
base is that we could not find any new elements that would confirm or deny the
possibility that this base has hosted prisoners under the authority of the
United States," Fava said.
"We continue to have doubts. We cannot rule
out the possibility the CIA could have organized the transit of detainees
through that airport, without the knowledge of Romanian
authorities."
Ioan Talpes, the former head of Romania's Foreign
Intelligence Service and later an adviser to the former president Ion Iliescu,
told the European Parliament lawmakers that the Romanian authorities were
forbidden access to military parts of the Kogalniceanu airport under a 2002-03
agreement with the United States. Human Rights Watch identified the airport as
one possible site where the CIA had set up secret prisons.
Fava said
Talpes had told the committee that the Romanian authorities could not "exclude
the transfer and detention of prisoners."
Major Cristian Popovici, a
public relations officer at the airport, denied Romanian involvement.
"As
far as the base commander is concerned, there was no transfer of prisoners by
American armed forces in the base," Popovici said. "Romanian soldiers were not
asked to help or support any such operation, and even if we had, we could not
have done so because we don't have the right conditions."
Lawmakers from
the European Parliament did not visit the airport or talk to the
commander.
Last month, President George W. Bush acknowledged for the
first time that terrorism suspects had been held in CIA-run prisons overseas,
but he did not specify where.
Copyright © 2006 the International Herald
Tribune
----------------------------
Vali
An
aristocratic title is not enough to ensure a noble behaviour. A person's
greatness comes from acknowledging the mistakes and agreeing to correct
them.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will
know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro ***
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