Quite unacknowledged by the public, the Council of Europe has published its report on the CIA flights, kidnappings, secret detention centers and abductions of suspects to torturing countries two weeks ago.
The member States were asked to answer questions on how they protect their citizens from actions of foreign secret services, and their measures to uphold the civil liberties guaranteed by the Convention on Human Rights. As various countries, most important Italy and Turkey, did not fully comply with the inquiry, today the Council sent follow-up letters to 37 of 46 member states.
The responses by the European governments reveal not only a shocking nonchalance towards the crimes committed by the CIA on European territory but also a stunning lack of will to protect the European citizens and the civil liberties in the future.
CIA's criminal kidnappings
The kidnapping of Abu Omar on the streets of Milan by CIA agents is the best-documented case of criminal "rendition". He was subsequently transported via the American military airbases in Aviano (Italy) and Ramstein (Germany) to Egypt where he was tortured.
Khaled al Masri, a German citizen, was kidnapped due to a name mistake in Macedonia and detained in Kabul for 5 months; and 6 Bosnian citizens were kidnapped in Bosnia and transported to Guantanamo by CIA agents. The footnote: none of the mentioned "suspects" were ever indicted nor was the slightest evidence found.
The Council report states quite clear that "the information about existing controls over the activities of secret services reveals a lack of democratic oversight". Only a few European secret services are under parlamentary scrutiny, and almost no country (except Hungary) has at least a legal framework for controlling foreign agencies, not to mention effective control in practice.
CIA flights
The same lack of theoretical and practical control mechanisms is true for the use of European air space for "extraordinary rendition" by the CIA. "Extraordinary rendition", the transport of suspects to third countries where they are tortured for information subsequently handed over to the CIA again, is of course illegal in every European country. International agreements on air traffic, domestic laws and technical standards would all allow a more effective control. But, currently, there are no practical safeguards to prevent the US from similar activity in the future.
EU governments' complicity
The fact that many countries chose not to answer the Council's questions fully raises questions on the willingness of some European governments to protect the European laws and its citizens from criminal activity by the US.
Especially the case of al Masri, where the German interior minister Schilly was fully informed about the kidnapping is only the most outrageous case of European governments' complicity with the criminal torture system upheld by the United States.
The fact that the Abu Omar-kidnapping obviously interferred with an Italian surveillance of the suspect is a cynical metaphor of how US-style "counter-terrorism" obstructs and ultimately endangers serious security efforts in Europe, let alone our liberties and our freedom.
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