US Dismisses EU Report on Secret CIA Prisons
07 June 2006
The United States is dismissing a new report by a Swiss human rights investigator that alleges 14 European countries cooperated with the CIA on secret transfers and imprisonment of terror suspects.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that the report is lacking in facts, and is only a rehash of allegations and suspicions.
The lengthy report commissioned by the Council of Europe and published Wednesday says Poland and Romania may have allowed the CIA to operate secret prisons on their territory. Investigator Dick Marty's report also says Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, Italy, Macedonia, Germany and Turkey could be charged with violating individuals' rights through secret prisoner transfers called "renditions."
Marty contends that Poland, Romania, Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal and Greece could also be held responsible for illegal activities.
However, Marty acknowledges he has no "formal evidence" to prove his claims. In the report, he describes what he calls a "global spider's web" set up to target, apprehend and detain terrorist suspects.
Poland and Romania both denied the allegations when they first surfaced. Today, Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz dismissed the report as libelous.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair also dismissed the report. He said it is nothing new. He did say the U.S. had made four rendition requests of Britain in 1998, but that he had kept parliament fully informed on their details.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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