Parliament's strong voice against own governments in CIA scandal

The draft resolution of the Council of Europe (CoE) on the CIA scandal has been published last week and will be voted upon by the Parliamentary Assembly in two weeks time. The final report of special rapporteur Dick Marty from Switzerland is courageous and strong.

"Spider's Web of Detentions"
The CoE draft resolution opens a view into one of the darkest stories of EU collaboration with the US illegal policies. The US, the resolution states, supported a "spider's web of detentions" that has "entrapped hundreds of persons (...) in some cases when they were merely suspected of sympathising with a presumed terrorist organisation."

European collaboration proved
The resolution proves beyond doubt the collaboration or tolerance of various EU countries in the illegal activities of the CIA. Did Marty's first report only spoke cautiously of the lack of control mechanisms by the states, the new report lays bare the extent of collaboration of various EU countries.

The Start, not the End of real investigations
The CoE investigation suffers from lack of collaboration by national governments and high EU representatives, as the resolution states. The same is true for the parliamentary commission by the European Parliament (EP). It's head, Spanish MEP Carlos Coelho, has criticized today the head of the Spanish intelligence service CNI, Alberto Saiz, who has not yet appeared before the commission despite invitation. (El Pais, 6/12/06) The Commission also tries to block the investigations.

As the conservative Financial Times wrote: "They amount to a moral capitulation by liberal societies and a surrender of the rule of law in the face of jihadi totalitarianism. If we behave like this, what exactly are we defending?"

The Spanish supreme court (Audiencia Nacional) today allowed a case on CIA torture flights via Palma de Mallorca to be opened. (El Pais, 6/12/06) Various cases on CIA kidnapping are under judicial investigation, eg. in Italy and Germany.

Globalizing the fight
An American court heard today by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) against the CIA to disclose "documents authorizing it to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects overseas." (NYTimes, 6/12/06) Through this case, the ACLU wants to prove that the CIA does in fact have a principal policy of extraditing suspects illegally to torturing third countries.

What values are we fighting for?
The collaboration with the CIA torture system risks to destroy our most important values. The fight to restore the faith in the righteousness of our system and our values has just started.

In this sense, the role of the conservative (EPP) members of parliament who tried to block a report by the EP is simply outrageous. (EUObserver, 6/12/06) What's their agenda? That we shouldn't care if a foreign country kidnaps our citizens? Lies to our authorities? Tortures people? Risks our security and endangers our values? It's a good sign that despite the resistance of the EPP, the Commission and various EU countries the EP will continue the investigation for at least 6 months.