CIA report: governments complicit in systematic torture

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Tuesday January 23, 2007 16:20 by David Lundy

After one year's activity, the CIA investigation committee today approved the final report on its work by 28 votes to 17 with 3 abstentions. The report comes up for a vote in plenary on February 14th.

Speaking after the vote* on the final report of the European Parliament's temporary committee investigating the illegal activities of the CIA, Italian MEP and GUE/NGL committee coordinator, Giusto Catania, said the vote had produced a report with significant conclusions: "it is at least now clear that, in the name of the war on terror, regular violations of human rights took place with the complicity of EU governments." However, Catania pointed to deficiencies in the report such as its assertion of the non-existence of secret prisons in Poland when "all the information collected by the committee would suggest the opposite."

"'The next battle will take place in plenary, where will shall try to instate amendments that assert the truth and stress the accountability of European governments, the Council and also certain members of the European Commission, including President Barroso who was Portuguese Prime Minister when CIA torture flight stopovers in his country were frequent" Catania concluded.

Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (GUE/NGL Germany) underlined the importance of the fact that the report demands full compensation for the victims of extraordinary rendition as well as its call for sanctions under article 7 of the Treaty on European Union against Member States who have contravened fundamental rights. "There must be justice for the victims of systematic and severe violations of human rights."

Spanish GUE/NGL MEP Willy Meyer Pleite welcomed the report of the committee as a major contribution to the revelation of the truth about this scandal. "All of the governments involved feigned innocence and ignorance but the committee has shown that they bear fundamental responsibility for the violence and suffering that has occurred".

Jens Holm (GUE/NGL Sweden) cautioned that it was impossible for the general public, especially immigrants, to feel totally secure while the so-called "war on terror" continues. He highlighted the case of two Egyptian citizens, Mohammed Alzery and Ahmed Agiza, who were kidnapped in Sweden in December 2001 and secretly deported to Egypt by the CIA.