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EU lawmakers step up pressure on governments on CIA secret prisons

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Brussels, Sept 8, IRNA
EU-US-CIA
After Wednesday's acknowledgment by US President George W. Bush on the existence of secret CIA prisons abroad, complicit European government that turned a blind eye to their existence are now under pressure from Members of the European Parliament to expose the truth.

"The truth was bound to come out sooner or later. President Bush's admission will now bring a new interest and momentum to the work of the European Parliament's temporary committee. It has refused to be silenced by the blanket denials from governments and authorities that they were complicit in allowing illegal practices on their territory," said Graham Watson, leader of the Liberals and Democrats in the EP.

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Vice-chair of EP's committee probing CIA secret prisons and rendition, said, "By his admission that the CIA has indeed practised illegal kidnapping and detention, Bush exposes not only his own previous lies. He also exposes to ridicule those government leaders in Europe who dismissed as unfounded our fears about `extraordinary rendition'."

Green MEP Cem Ozdemir said the exact locations of these illegal prisons in Europe must now be uncovered, so that they can be closed down without delay, and the Parliament's inquiry should now divert its attention to ensuring this."
" It seems unlikely that the Bush administration was the only government to conceal the truth. Any EU governments that were aware of these camps must now come clean and cooperate with the ongoing inquiry," he said.

The Socialist Group German MEP Wolfgang Kreissl-D spokesman for the committee said, "It is now urgent that we speak with the Polish and Romanian authorities - and also with governments of other EU member states - about the whole affair."

"The location of these prison camps must be made public. We need to know if there has been any complicity in illegal acts by governments of EU countries or states seeking EU membership." Socialist Group vice-president Jan Marinus Wiersma, said "President Bush says that these camps will continue to exist - something that in our view is totally against international arrangements and conventions."
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