EU to investigate CIA 'secret jails' allegation

The European Union (EU) said on Thursday it will investigate allegations the CIA set up secret jails in Eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate terror suspects. Meanwhile, the Red Cross has demanded access to any prisoners.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization, said it has evidence, based on flight logs, that indicate the CIA transported suspects captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. But the two countries denied the allegations.

Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles. At work may be a complex web of global politics, in which eastern European countries face choices between the views of the European Union and their interest in close ties with the United States.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed strong interest in the claims, first reported on Wednesday in the Washington Post, that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives in East Europe.

Red Cross chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said the agency asked Washington about the allegations and requested access to the prisons if they exist. The Red Cross, which has exclusive rights to visit terror suspects detained at a US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has long been concerned about reports US officials were hiding detainees from ICRC delegates.

Europe's top human rights organization, the Council of Europe, said it, too, would investigate.

Notari said the Red Cross was "concerned about the fate of an unknown number of persons detained as part of what is called the 'global war on terror' and held in undisclosed places of detention."

In implicating Poland and Romania, Human Rights Watch examined flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with organization. He said the group matched the flight patterns with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the United States.

"The indications are that prisoners in Afghanistan are being (taken) to facilities in Europe and other countries in the world," said Garlasco, a former civilian intelligence officer with the Defence Intelligence Agency.

Human Rights Watch also obtained the tail numbers of dozens of CIA aircraft to match them with the flight logs, Garlasco said.

Washington had an agreement with Romania to use its air space during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the US military has used Kogalniceanu Air Base.

But the Romanian Defence Ministry issued a statement saying it was "not aware that such a detention centre ... existed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base," and invited journalists to come see for themselves.

"I repeat: We do not have CIA bases in Romania," said Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu. In Poland, an aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said authorities there had "no information" of such facilities. Other European countries also issued denials.

Boglar Laszlo, a spokesman for Hungary's prime minister, said an official report would be drawn up following consultations with air transportation officials and others "so we can bring this matter to a close."

EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told reporters that the European Commission, the EU's executive office, would launch an informal probe, requesting answers from all 25 member governments and EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States has not received any request from the EU for co-operation with an investigation into the reported secret prisons.

"If we do receive a request, we will take a look at it," McCormack said.

Such an investigation could create tensions between Washington and EU governments, many of which have been outspoken critics of how the United States has been handling terrorist suspects at Guantanamo. EU heavyweights France and Germany led international opposition to the US decision to invade Iraq.

According to the Washington Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.

Source: China Daily