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posted January 24, 2006 at 11:00 a.m.

Report alleges 'outsourcing of torture' by US

Council of Europe report says European governments knew rendition was happening, despite claims to the contrary.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

Despite claims to the contrary, European governments probably knew that the US was flying prisoners across their territory for "interrogation and torture" in other countries, a report claims Tuesday. The interim report from the 46-nation Council of Europe confirms the rendition of more than 100 prisoners through Europe, but it also found "no firm evidence" of a network of secret prisons in Europe. The Council of Europe is guardian of the Human Rights Convention, to which all 25 European nations are signatories.

Swiss member of Parliament Dick Marty headed the Council's investigation into the rendition allegations, which were first raised in November in an article in The Washington Post.

In Mr. Marty's interim report, he says, "It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware of the 'rendition' of more than a hundred persons affecting Europe." He says there is "a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture", adding: "It has been proved – and in fact never denied – that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported ... in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered ... torture."

Bloomberg News reports that Marty also says that the Bush administration seems to "start from the principle that the principles of the rule of law and human rights are incompatible with efficient action against terrorism." The Financial Times reports that Marty considers these actions by the US both illegal and counterproductive in the battle against terrorism.

The US position on the issue is that rendition, or extralegal abduction, is compatible with international law and that it has never transported people to countries where they would be at risk of torture. Rob Watson of the BBC told NPR in a radio interview Tuesday that part of the problem is a disagreement between the US and Europeans over the way to fight terrorism. Many Europeans see it as a fight against crime in which rules and laws must be followed. The US sees it as a new kind of battle against terrorism under which none of the old rules apply.


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According to The Guardian, Marty says at this stage he has found no " formal, irrefutable evidence" into allegations by Human Rights Watch that Poland and Romania are or were running secret detention facilities for the US. But he did say that "there are many indications from various sources which must be considered reliable, justifying the continuation of ... investigative work."

The Associated Press reports that Marty focused on three cases in particular: an Egyptian cleric who was kidnapped in Italy by CIA agents, and taken to Egypt, where he was tortured; a German who turned out not to be a terrorist but was captured in Macedonia and taken to Afghanistan, where he says he was tortured; and six Bosnians who were abducted by US agents in that country and taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite a Bosnian judgment ordering their release.

EUobserver reports that Marty's findings did not come as a surprise to European governments, since he had hinted at his findings in the past few weeks.

Earlier this month he accused European leaders of "shocking" passivity, arguing they knew about the illegal detainment and transportation of prisoners in their countries, and that they had known for at least two to three years. "There are countries that have collaborated actively, and there are others who have tolerated. Others have simply looked the other way," he had said.
Marty also indicated that it is unfair to single out member states as possible sites for secret prison camps, as governments all across Europe had been "willingly silent" about the facilities.

Critics of the report say that Marty, who relied primarily on media reports, along with some information provided by governments, didn't add anything to what was already known about the secret rendition program.

The Swiss news website Swissinfo.com reports that several other organizations have begun investigations into the allegations of rendition flights and secret prisons run on European soil. Separate investigations are also under way in Switzerland after a Sunday newspaper in that country published in early January a leaked confidential fax sent by Egypt's Foreign Ministry to the Egyptian Embassy in London. The fax, intercepted by Swiss intelligence in November, allegedly confirms the existence of the prisons in Europe.

The International Herald Tribune reported last week that Egyptian authorities deny that the fax was a "secret," and that it was nothing more than an ordinary press summary of news events. "We don't do any exceptional procedures," [Fatma Al Zahra Atman, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Cairo] said in a phone interview with the IHT. "We just sent this by fax. Anybody could intercept it. Nothing is secret."

Still, Egypt complained to the Swiss government last week over the leak of the "official document," according to the website of the Swiss newspaper Neue Z��rcher Zeitung. The Swiss government expressed regret over the incident, but did not officially apologize.