Europe "fails to act" on CIA rendition lessons | Europa |
Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:55pm GMT
By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - European states have failed to tighten controls on foreign security agents since being caught up in scandals over secret CIA prisoner transfers, the head of the continent's top human rights watchdog said on Thursday.
Terry Davis, Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, said their inaction over the past two years reflected U.S. pressure and an absence of political will.
By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - European states have failed to tighten controls on foreign security agents since being caught up in scandals over secret CIA prisoner transfers, the head of the continent's top human rights watchdog said on Thursday.
Terry Davis, Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, said their inaction over the past two years reflected U.S. pressure and an absence of political will.
"I think we can safely assume the government of the United States of America is putting a lot of pressure on their allies in Europe to prevent any discussion of this matter," Davis told Reuters in an interview in London.
In 2006, the former MP called Europe a "happy hunting ground for foreign security services" after evidence emerged that the Central Intelligence Agency had abducted terrorist suspects in European states and secretly transferred them across international borders.
He urged member states at the time to improve supervision of foreign intelligence agents, to stop them abusing diplomatic immunity, and to improve monitoring of their airports and airspace to prevent secret transfers, known as renditions.
Two years later, Davis said no country had implemented his recommendations and the potential for human rights abuses remained.
The issue highlights the Council's lack of legal powers, despite its moral authority.
A member of its parliamentary assembly, Swiss senator Dick Marty, concluded in a report that European states had colluded in a "spider's web" of secret CIA detentions and transfers, and Poland and Romania had hosted secret prisons for the agency.
Both countries denied it, and the United States and some European governments accused Marty of failing to back his allegations with hard evidence.
Davis expressed concern about several aspects of British counter-terrorism policy including the proposed extension from 28 to 42 days of the period that police can hold suspects before charging them.
Even allowing for differences between legal systems in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, "the fact remains that detaining someone for a long time without charge is in effect a 'sentence' on someone who may never be charged with any crime", he told a security conference in London.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who once worked for Davis as a research assistant, told the conference the measures would only be used for "a temporary period in exceptional circumstances".
Davis also criticised the British government's planned introduction of national identity cards, the deportation of foreign terrorist suspects and the bar on using intelligence wiretaps as evidence in court, an issue that the government is currently reviewing.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
In 2006, the former MP called Europe a "happy hunting ground for foreign security services" after evidence emerged that the Central Intelligence Agency had abducted terrorist suspects in European states and secretly transferred them across international borders.
He urged member states at the time to improve supervision of foreign intelligence agents, to stop them abusing diplomatic immunity, and to improve monitoring of their airports and airspace to prevent secret transfers, known as renditions.
Two years later, Davis said no country had implemented his recommendations and the potential for human rights abuses remained.
The issue highlights the Council's lack of legal powers, despite its moral authority.
A member of its parliamentary assembly, Swiss senator Dick Marty, concluded in a report that European states had colluded in a "spider's web" of secret CIA detentions and transfers, and Poland and Romania had hosted secret prisons for the agency.
Both countries denied it, and the United States and some European governments accused Marty of failing to back his allegations with hard evidence.
Davis expressed concern about several aspects of British counter-terrorism policy including the proposed extension from 28 to 42 days of the period that police can hold suspects before charging them.
Even allowing for differences between legal systems in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, "the fact remains that detaining someone for a long time without charge is in effect a 'sentence' on someone who may never be charged with any crime", he told a security conference in London.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who once worked for Davis as a research assistant, told the conference the measures would only be used for "a temporary period in exceptional circumstances".
Davis also criticised the British government's planned introduction of national identity cards, the deportation of foreign terrorist suspects and the bar on using intelligence wiretaps as evidence in court, an issue that the government is currently reviewing.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
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