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MEPs approve damning CIA report
The European parliament has approved a damning report on secret CIA flights which condemns member states that turned a blind eye to the operations.

The UK, Germany and Italy were among 14 states which allowed the US to forcibly remove terror suspects, MEPs said.

The EU parliament voted to accept a resolution condemning member states who accepted or ignored the practice.

The EU report said the US had operated 1,200 flights, flying suspects on to states where they could face torture.

The report was adopted by a large majority, with 382 MEPs voting in favour, 256 against and 74 abstaining.

We must be vigilant that what has been happening in the past five years may never happen again
Giovanni Fava
Italian Socialist MEP and report author

The final version denounces the lack of co-operation of many EU member states and it condemns the actions of secret services and governments who accepted and concealed renditions.

It is unlikely, the report says, that European governments were unaware of rendition activities on their territory, something the British government, among others, has denied.

"This is a report that doesn't allow anyone to look the other way. We must be vigilant that what has been happening in the past five years may never happen again," said Italian Socialist Giovanni Fava, who drafted the document.

The parliament also called for an "independent inquiry" to be considered.

Revealing facts

Although the report has no force in EU law, Mr Fava said during the parliamentary debate that the related investigation, over a year, had uncovered much new evidence.

Germany's Europe minister Guenther Gloser - whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency - admitted that his own country had begun investigating some of the points raised in the report, but said a more "reticent" form of words would have been appropriate.

But centre-right MEPs - the largest group in parliament - say it is motivated by anti-Americanism and that the investigation has duplicated enquiries by the human rights body, the Council of Europe.

Poland is one of the countries most strongly criticised, although the final report has dropped any mention of secret detention sites there, says the BBC's Alix Kroeger in Strasbourg.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said the commission would act on the truth, even if it were uncomfortable or unpalatable. But he called for a relaunching of the Euro-Atlantic relationship and said Europe must continue to work with its US partners.

During the course of their investigation, delegations of MEPs travelled to countries including Romania, Poland, the UK, the US and Germany to investigate claims of European involvement in so-called extraordinary renditions.

The report defines extraordinary renditions as instances where "an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention and torture".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6360817.stm

Published: 2007/02/14 13:45:33 GMT

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