STRASBOURG: European secret services colluded in the detention and secret transfer of terrorist suspects in or across the continent, the author of a key report on the CIA rendition flights said Tuesday. Dick Marty, a Swiss parliamentarian who compiled the report for the Council of Europe rights watchdog, said there was no doubt of collaboration. It has been proved that agents from national intelligence services colluded in the handing over and the transportation of persons suspected of terrorism, he told members of the pan-European body s parliamentary assembly. Questioned at a news conference afterward, Marty singled out Bosnia, whose government admitted during the inquiry that it had delivered six suspects of Algerian origin into U.S. hands on January 18, 2002. He also pointed to Italian complicity in the Feb. 17, 2003 abduction of the former imam of a mosque in Milan, Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, who was flown to Egypt where he alleged he was tortured. That case is now the subject of a legal inquiry, with Italian prosecutors hoping to put 22 alleged CIA operatives on trial in their absence before the end of the year. Marty said that if secret services participated in a CIA detention on their soil, U.S. authorities were justified in claiming that they had never violated national sovereignty. Rights groups said European nations which helped the CIA renditions should be ashamed, and urged them to follow a 12-point list of recommendations to halt and prevent such practices. Marty s report, issued on June 7 and presented Tuesday to the Council of Europe, said 14 European states colluded in or tolerated the secret transfer of terrorist suspects by the United States. It named Bosnia-Herzegovina, Britain, Italy, Macedonia, Germany, Sweden and Turkey as responsible, at varying degrees … for violations of the rights of specific persons. Seven other countries could be held responsible for collusion, active or passive, the report added: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The United States has already criticized the Council of Europe report as a list of unproven allegations. Marty said the Council of Europe s assembly was likely to pass a resolution calling for effective measures to combat the threat of terrorism but which also respected human rights. We must have a judicial world order with our friends and allies the United States, but it must be based on values led, in particular, by the Council of Europe, he said. Marty s report won the backing of human rights groups which urged countries involved to stop helping with renditions and to persuade the United States to halt the practice. European governments should be ashamed of their participation in illegal detentions and must end their involvement at once, said Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch. In a statement, the four groups called for independent public inquiries to investigate government involvement in renditions and secret transfers. Their recommendations include new legislation to beef up existing laws on human rights; changing aviation policy so that aircraft cannot carry prisoners through a state without authorization and a pledge not to return suspects to countries where they may face torture even if there are diplomatic assurances that they would not be mistreated. Franco Frattini, vice president of the European Commission, said a European parliament commission was still working on its own inquiry into the flights. He admitted there was little that could be done on a European basis about individual countries secret services. Nevertheless, we must clarify in stricter detail what should be allowed or not, he added. The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union, was set up after World War II to promote democracy and human rights. It has 46 member states. AFP
European secret services colluded in CIA terror transfers: report
