BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy and other EU nations knew about secret CIA flights over Europe and the abduction of terror suspects by U.S. agents, according to a report approved by a special committee of the European Parliament on Tuesday.The report, the conclusion of a yearlong investigation into CIA activities in Europe, also accused EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other high-ranking officials of failing to fully cooperate with the probe. It also called for unspecified sanctions against member states found to have violated EU human rights principles.
| Sanctions that can't be enforced. |
The report, drafted by Italian Socialist Giovanni Fava, was backed by Socialists and Liberals; center-right deputies rejected it as ideological, biased and inaccurate. It was also criticized by some of the 13 EU nations implicated, including Germany and Ireland. "Instead of highlighting ways in which extraordinary rendition could be prevented in the future, the report indulges in political point-scoring," said Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern.
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It also obtained information from Eurocontrol, the EU's air safety agency, according to which more than 1,200 undeclared CIA flights entered European airspace since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"We have uncovered serious breaches of human rights. We recognize the need to combat terrorism but this can only be done using legal methods," said Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, a Socialist member of the committee.
But members of the European People's Party, the largest political grouping in the European Parliament, argued that much of the report was based on hearsay. "The report is full of phrases like 'we believe' or 'we think' - that's unacceptable. It did not come up with anything we would not have known, but it did manage to split the assembly according to who's pro-American and who's anti-American," said Italian conservative Jas Gawronski.
| And split exactly as expected. |