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EP committee says CIA carried out 50 secret renditions

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Brussels, May 18, IRNA
EU-CIA-Rendition flights
Senior sources from the US intelligence community have acknowledged that the CIA has used extraordinary rendition.

This was one of the main conclusions presented at a press conference in Strasbourg on Wednesday by a European Parliament committee investigating allegations of illegal CIA activities in Europe, said a press release issued by the EP.

"Senior sources from the US intelligence community confirmed that between 30 and 50 extraordinary rendition operations have been undertaken in the world since 2001.

We also got a list from Human Rights Watch with the names of 27 presumed terrorists held under US custody in unknown places," said the rapporteur of the committee, Italian MEP Claudio Fava.

The 13-member temporary EP committee visited Washington last week for meetings with US government representatives, congressmen, former CIA members, lawyers and NGO representatives.

Fava said that US State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger -- one of the American representatives to appear before the committee -- "neither confirmed nor denied the existence of extraordinary renditions."
Asked by journalists about the existence of detention centers in Europe, Fava said that "a firsthand source" had confirmed "the existence of seven black sites operated by the CIA in countries of Asia, Europe and Africa."
"The secret centers in Europe were closed down following the public pressure exerted by the media, but there is a black site still operating in a North African country."
The fact that the White House "called the editor of the Washington Post and told him not to name the countries" allegedly involved in the practice of secret detentions, said Mr Fava, was "very strong confirmation of the existence of clandestine prisons." The president of the delegation and committee chair, Portugese MEP Carlos Coelho, said "all our guests suggested or confirmed that the extraordinary renditions program carried out in Europe could only be achieved with the knowledge and support of European national governments."
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