LONDON, Sept. 6 -- President Bush's decision to transfer 14 suspected terrorists to a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from secret CIA detention centers was greeted Wednesday with skepticism among human rights advocates and some lawmakers in Europe.
"By his admission that the CIA has indeed practiced illegal kidnapping and detention, Bush exposes not only his own previous lies," said Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament and vice chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into the CIA's clandestine prison program in Europe. "He also exposes to ridicule those arrogant government leaders in Europe who dismissed as unfounded our fears about 'extraordinary rendition,' " the international transfer of suspects without judicial recourse.
(snip)
In an interview, Ludford said her commission concluded in an interim report in July that it was "highly implausible" that European leaders didn't know about or permit CIA secret jails and activity in their countries. She said there had been, at U.S. request, a "pact of silence" among European leaders to deny the existence of the program.
"Bush has now left the Europeans high and dry," Ludford said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, she said, "can be as loyal as he likes to George Bush, but George Bush, when it suits him, will turn around and pull the rug out from under his feet."
more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/06/AR2006090602050.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
