Europe pressures U.S. over CIA prisons

The CIA has reportedly established a global network of covert prisons.
THE WASHINGTON POST
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The International Red Cross, the European Union and human rights groups said Thursday that they would press the U.S. and European governments for information about the reported existence of secret prisons in Eastern Europe where the CIA has detained top Al-Qaida captives.
Government officials across Eastern Europe issued denials Thursday that their respective countries hosted the prisons, which some European officials contend would violate local human rights laws. But the revelation, first reported by The Washington Post, captured headlines across the continent and led human-rights organizations to call for official investigations.
The Post reported Wednesday that the CIA has been interrogating some of its most important Al-Qaida prisoners at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. The classified site is part of a global network of covert prisons the CIA established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that has included locations in eight countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand and several democracies in Eastern Europe.
In Brussels, a spokesman for the European Union, Friso Roscam Abbing, said Thursday that the EU would query its 25 member states to find out more about the prisons. Their existence, he said, could violate the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention Against Torture, treaties that all EU nations must follow.
Official inquiry
Later Thursday, senior EU officials appeared to put a damper on any kind of official inquiry. Justice commissioner Franco Frattini said in a statement that for now the EU had no information on the Post's report and it was therefore "not appropriate" for him to comment on it. Noting that the 25 EU countries are bound by human rights and anti-torture conventions, he said he would "encourage member states to look into this matter."