The CIA has run more than 1,000 flights within the European Union since 2001, often transporting terror suspects for questioning overseas, MEPs have said.
The MEPs began a probe after claims the US flew suspects to secret prisons in countries that regularly use torture.
The US admits some terror suspects were flown overseas for interrogation, but denies sending them for torture.
Report author Claudio Fava said many EU states had ignored the hundreds of CIA flights that had used their airports.
Mr Fava, an Italian socialist MEP, singled out Sweden, Italy and Bosnia, which is not an EU member, for particular criticism.
A string of former detainees have come forward with stories alleging kidnap and transport by the US for interrogation in third countries - so-called "extraordinary rendition".
Some have provided detailed accounts of alleged torture carried out in secret prisons outside EU or US jurisdiction.
'Hearsay'
Earlier this year the European human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, made similar allegations, but these were dismissed by the US as hearsay.
quote:
The CIA has... clearly been responsible for kidnapping and illegally detaining alleged terrorists
Claudio Fava
Italian MEP
Unveiling his report, Mr Fava said European governments and intelligence agencies should have verified the purpose of the CIA flights.
"We just have to think about the use of the airspace and airports by [the] CIA: more than 1,000 flights run by the US secret services, often used directly for extraordinary renditions," he said.
He suggested that flight plans and airport logs meant it was hard to believe that many of the stopovers were simple refuelling missions.
"The CIA has, on several occasions, clearly been responsible for kidnapping and illegally detaining alleged terrorists on the territory of [EU] member states, as well as for extraordinary renditions," said Mr Fava.
He made specific reference to several alleged abductions, including the snatch in Milan of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in 2003.
Italian authorities were highly likely to have known the details of Abu Omar's case, Mr Fava said.
Investigators used data from Eurocontrol, the EU's air safety agency, to examine records of thousands of flights.
'Strange routes'
Mr Fava described many of the flights as "quite suspect".
Among those highlighted was the flight transferring Khalid al-Masri, a Kuwaiti-born German national, who was seized in Macedonia and transported to Afghanistan in 2004.
That plane flew from Algeria to Majorca, Spain, then to Skopje, Macedonia, and onto Kabul via Baghdad, all within 48 hours.
"They are rather strange routes for flights to take. It is hard to imagine... those stopovers were simply for providing fuel," said Mr Fava.
Mr Masri has previously given details of his transfer to the European Parliament. He alleges he was seized in Macedonia, interrogated in Kabul and released into Albania.
New investigations
Mr Fava's committee spent more than three months interviewing top EU officials, magistrates, human rights activists and people who said they were abducted by the CIA.
Despite knowing that allowing rendition and possibly torture would breach a raft of European human rights treaties, Mr Fava said EU diplomats did nothing.
He singled out Italy, Sweden and Bosnia as governments he expected knew more than they made public about the flights.
Mr Fava's committee did not report on secret prisons, but he said members planned to visit countries such as Romania and Poland for further investigations later this year.
The CIA declined to comment on Mr Fava's findings.
Governments and rights groups have deplored the deaths
The US state department has distanced itself from comments by a top official that the three suicides by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were "a good PR move".
Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary.
"I would not say that it was a PR stunt," said spokesman Sean McCormack.
Meanwhile, a US lawyer has said that one of three who killed themselves was due to be freed but did not know it.
Mark Denbeaux, who represents some of the foreign detainees at the US camp in Cuba, said the man was among 141 prisoners due for release.
He said the prisoner was not told because US officials had not decided which country he would be sent to.
'Serious concerns'
On Sunday Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Ms Graffy told the BBC's Newshour programme the three men did not value their lives, nor the lives of those around them.
Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation.
When asked about the comments, the state department spokesman said the US had serious concerns whenever someone took their own life.
Mr McCormack would not comment on whether Ms Graffy had been rebuked for her remarks.
Camp commander Rear Adm Harry Harris has also taken a tough line on the suicides, saying it was an "act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".
'Despair'
The Pentagon named the prisoner who had been recommended for transfer as 30-year-old Saudi Arabian Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi.
He was a member of a banned Saudi militant group, the defence department said.
The other two men who died on Saturday morning were named as Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 28, from Yemen, and Yassar Talal al-Zahrani, 21, another Saudi Arabian.
Ahmed was a mid- to high-level al-Qaeda operative who had participated in a long-term hunger strike from late 2005 to May, and was "non-compliant and hostile" to guards, the Pentagon said.
Zahrani, 21, was a "front-line" Taleban fighter who helped procure weapons for use against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, according to the department.
Lawyers say the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.
The prison camp at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, holds some 460 prisoners, the vast majority without charge.
There have been dozens of suicide attempts since the camp was set up four years ago - but none successful until now.
Criticism of the camp is mounting.
The United Nations rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said European leaders should use a summit with President George W Bush next week to press for the prison's closure.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said procedures at Guantanamo Bay violated the rule of law and undermined the fight against terrorism.
...the three suicides by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were "a good PR move"...
:haha: What an idiot! "good PR move" :stongue: This dude obviously doesn't know jack about Islam. Suicide is a sin, and if recall correctly, kind of like a one way ticket to hell.
St_Andrew
quote:
Originally posted by shaolin_Z
:haha: What an idiot! "good PR move" :stongue: This dude obviously doesn't know jack about Islam. Suicide is a sin, and if recall correctly, kind of like a one way ticket to hell.
Well, suicide bombing would be as well so it is not like it makes a whole lot of a difference ;)
Anyway, the guy who said that must be the biggest ing idiot EVER even to be in the US government. It just proves the US authorities lack of respect for the people at Guatamano bay.
It's good he said it though, cause it just adds to the debate about giving these people the rights that they deserve :)
MisterOpus1
Ahh, can't you just feel the world love?:
quote:
“In an editorial headlined ‘Bad Language’, the right-leaning Times [of London], normally a defender of Britain’s alliance with the United States, said such rhetoric ‘plays once again into the hands of America’s enemies.’”
“France’s Le Monde newspaper condemned Graffy’s comments, saying that they ‘illustrate the gulf which separates American authorities from the rest of the world on this sinister question.’”
“Britain’s Guardian newspaper called Harris’ remarks ‘cold and odious.’ ‘It is entirely in keeping with the clinical illegality of America’s treatment of terror suspects since 2001,’ the left-leaning newspaper said.”
“Britain’s conservative Daily Mail newspaper said the officials had spoken ‘with utter insensitivity to world opinion’ in an editorial headlined: ‘From the high moral ground to the gutter.’”
Short of interrogation for a guilty plea im all for torture.
sasslife
quote:
Originally posted by St_Andrew
It just proves the US authorities lack of respect for the people at Guatamano bay.
It's good he said it though, cause it just adds to the debate about giving these people the rights that they deserve :)
If they are indeed guilty than leave them there.
To give them rights under the geneva convention is stretching the deffinition of "human" a little too far.
shaolin_Z
Fir3start3r
quote:
Originally posted by shaolin_Z
Jesse Macbeth is a fraud and the milblogs have several discrepancies...
quote:
Impersonating A Ranger To Spread Lies
[Bubblehead]
[Update 1514 23 May: Not surprisingly, all the original links in this post are now dead, as the "progressive" websites scramble to cover their butts. Those who've come here from some of the other coverage of this issue (I'm pretty sure this was the first milblog post on MacBeth) can check out the rest of the site for more information -- or, if you'd like, you can head to my home blog and read about submarines.]
Lots of "progressives" will probably be excited today about a new "interview" with an alleged former "Ranger", "Jessie MacBeth", being hyped by the Centre for Research on Globalization. The alleged Ranger accuses American soldiers of all sorts of war crimes. Luckily, the makers of the film didn't know enough about how military uniforms really work, so real soldiers are pointing out the discrepancies to show it's unlikely that this person was really who he claims to be. Examples of the discrepancies noted in the site's comments are in the extended entry.
Continue reading "Impersonating A Ranger To Spread Lies "
1. Special Forces Combat Patch (Wrong)
2. Two "Tabs" sewn above SF patch (Wrong- Only One)
3. No Ranger Tab
4. No Airborne Wings
5. No Unit Crest
6. No Sewn on Rank
7. No One in the Army rolls their sleeves like that.
Bonus: 8. Mustache is out of regulation by extending past the corner of the mouth.
All done!
(there are links within the above quote as well) >>Sounce<<
