Covert CIA Prisoner Camps in Europe?
Strange tales about irregular and seemingly illogical flight patterns of CIA aircraft in European air space have sparked speculation about the use of secret CIA interrogation camps in several European countries.
I've so far been reluctant to spend much time on this story, as corroboration is much needed in a case like this.
But the story isn't going away and European leaders haven't shied away from it either.
These prisoner camps would fit in with the exercise of "extraordinary rendition", the practice of transferring terrorism suspects to interrogation camps, often in countries where torture is legal.
The EU Justice Commissioner had this to say about it:
Franco Frattini said the consequences would be "extremely serious" if reports of such prisons turned out to be true.
This comes amid an EU investigation into claims the US secret service ran clandestine jails in eastern Europe.
The US has refused to confirm or deny the reports, which surfaced in the US earlier this month.
He said a suspension of voting rights would be justified if any country is found to have breached the bloc's founding principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Of course, all this doesn't prove the existence of the camps or the practice of torturing these "enemy combatants".
But there remain questions to be answered all the same. The pro-war side of the blogosphere is full of optimistic reports on the "War on Terror". Not only is the war "being won" according to these sources, also hundreds, if not thousands of terror suspects have been apprehended in Afghanistan and Iraq. So, where are they all? Are they a figment of right-wing imagination? They would of course deny that. Where then are they held and are they being charged with anything? Is it indeed possible that some if not many are held in secret locations across Europe and the former Soviet Union?
I reserve judgement but it's hardly impossible. Analogies with Guantanamo Bay are impossible to avoid.
Update:
Blair faces allegations of complicity in torture, From The Independent, hat tip to Jultra.
Keywords: CIA, CIA camps, terror, Guantanamo, Europe
posted by Gert @ 3:43 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Have you seen this yet Gert ?
Thanks for pointing that out! I've updated the post.
Post, post, post...
Cheers for the link. Well Blair would be the perfect ally in this, these alleged torture flights from the UK have been happening for a while as I understand it.
Personally I think we need dorroboration on this whole story, but it starting to look real anyway...
The 'pro-war' camp has to be optimistic. It is in their nature to be so in a here-and-now sense as it is exactly such senselessness that led them to support the war in the first place.
The here-and-now sense(psychologically certifiable as a juvenile trait which in the current americanised global milieu has been given an extended lease of life past its 'use by' date) enables them to focus especially on the events that justify war as opposed to the events that led to 9/11.
This egocentric/ethnocentric sense also enhances, amongst others, selective exposure and self-serving analysis that pays attention to some rather than all pertinent information. Thus, their view on the 'gains' in the Iraq war predictably detracts their view from the pandora's box these 'gains' unlocks.
The anti-war camp, on the other hand, is the more obejctive side in this matter by virtue of their taking on board both information before coming to whatever preliminary conclusion they are forwarding.
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