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http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/article_1059827.php/European_Union_tries_to_calm_CIA_row

BRUSSELS, Belgium
The European Union moved to distance itself from claims that the Central Intelligence
Agency set up holding camps for suspected al-Qaida terrorists in Eastern Europe.
However, the strenuous denials by EU officials and politicians in the two countries
alleged to have hosted the gulags - Poland and Rumania -- have done little to quash
media interest in the story nor stem European lawmakers` outrage.
Human Rights Watch claims it is has flight records showing that a CIA-commissioned
Boeing 737 made frequent stops between Afghanistan, Iraq and the two former communist
countries after 2002. The allegations were corroborated by a Washington Post story
Wednesday that revealed details of eight 'black sites' -- as the covert prisons are
referred to in classified White House and CIA documents -- in South Asia, the Middle
East and Eastern Europe.
The European Commission appeared to give credence to the claims when a spokesman said
the EU executive body would investigate the claims and reminded member states of the
human rights obligations.
But on Friday, the commission tried to calm the escalating row between Brussels and
Washington by questioning the claims made by the civil liberties group. Friso Roscam
Abbing, a spokesman for Vice-President Franco Frattini, said the commission needed to
know 'precisely what Human Rights Watch are alleging' as 'flight records alone do not
prove the existence of prisons or anything like that.' Even if such camps were to be
found in Europe, there was 'no thread of evidence prisoners are being tortured
there,' he told reporters.
On Thursday, officials in Poland and Rumania flatly rejected claims that the United
States had set up detention centers for al-Qaida suspects on their territories.
'There are no CIA bases in Romania,' said Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The
country`s Ministry of Defence even offered to show journalists round the Mihail
Kogalniceanu air base, which Human Rights Watch claimed was one of the so-called
black camps. 'The Romanian army has no knowledge that any detention camps of the type
referred to in the international press or mentioned by Human Rights Watch exist or
have ever existed at the air base,' it said in a statement.
EU lawmakers, however, remained unconvinced. Panagiotis Beglitis, a Greek Socialist
member of the European Parliament, Thursday wrote to the commission and the Council
of the European Union -- the EU`s highest decision-making body -- asking: ' Doesn`t
the existence of such prisons in Europe and especially, if confirmed, in
member-states or candidate states, undermine European and international law
principles?'
Claude Moraes, an EU legislator from Britain, said: 'The commission and council
should commit to an investigation of these serious allegations. Both the EU member
state Poland and the candidate country Romania (which is due to join the bloc in
2007) are bound by the European Convention on Human Rights and by U.N. conventions on
the conduct of war and the prohibition of torture.'
Despite the inconclusive evidence, European newspapers declared the United States
guilty of serious human rights violations and gave Washington a stern lecture about
upholding civil liberties.
'The fight against al-Qaida is necessary,' wrote Austria`s Die Presse. 'But how are
the Iraqis supposed to understand what the rule of law means if its defenders do not
care about observing the most basic principles?'
Germany`s Frankfurter Rundschau daily added: 'Europe still has a moral obligation to
remind Washington emphatically that it is not prepared to dissociate itself from its
human rights principles, even with regard to enemies of freedom.'
Whether the serious allegations made by Human Rights Watch and others are true or
not, it seems European public opinion has already reached its verdict and the damage
to the United States` battered image has already been inflicted.

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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