Inquiry Ties European Nations to C.I.A. Prisons

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 7, 2006

Filed at 11:17 a.m. ET
PARIS (AP) -- Fourteen European nations colluded with U.S. intelligence in a ''spider's web'' of secret flights and detention centers that violated international human rights law, the head of an investigation into alleged CIA clandestine prisons said Wednesday.

Swiss senator Dick Marty said the nations aided the movement of 17 detainees who said they had been abducted by U.S. agents and secretly transferred to detention centers around the world.

Some said they were transferred to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and others to alleged secret facilities in countries including Poland, Romania, Egypt and Jordan. Some said they were mistreated or tortured.

Clandestine prisons and secret flights via or from Europe to countries where suspects could face torture would breach the continent's human rights treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe has no power to punish countries for breaching the treaty other than terminating their membership in the organization. Based on irrefutable evidence, the European Union might be able to suspend the voting rights of a country found to have breached the convention. - New York Times
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Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Bosnia, Macedonia, Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Romania and Poland are the countries that have yet to admit their guilt. Sweden and Bosnia have already admitted some involvement.

How many of us remember when the US spoke of the Soviet Union's secret prisons and what a terrible violation of human rights they were? Unfortunately, there are some who will be proud that the US has secret prisons.

Secret prisons, warrantless wiretappings, detentions w/o charges, etc. - All this makes one wonder why bush bothers to ask for an amendment to the Constitution to ban on same-sex marriages? Why doesn't he just declare them illegal? After all, the Constitution is "just a piece of paper."

quote:

Secret prisons, warrantless wiretappings, detentions w/o charges, etc. - All this makes one wonder why bush bothers to ask for an amendment to the Constitution to ban on same-sex marriages? Why doesn't he just declare them illegal? After all, the Constitution is "just a piece of paper."

My sentiments, exactly. He just smirks and does what he wants to anyway.

Not sure if colluded is the right word to use here. Maybe 'forced' would be more exact. When the US says jump, do you really think that its 'friends' have any option but to ask 'How high?'