EU: The Council of Europe yesterday urged action over a report stating several European countries have colluded with the CIA in a "global spider's web" of secret flights of terrorist suspects.
Council investigator Dick Marty called on states to set up "a world legal order, with the United States, but built on sound values, especially those upheld by the Council of Europe. This is not about condemning someone . . . But we want to put an end to this in Europe. And whilst we are determined to combat terrorism, we intend to do so using appropriate means," he said.
Senator Marty's report showed more than 20 mostly European nations had colluded in a web of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of suspects stretching from Asia to Guantánamo Bay.
Ninety-five members of the assembly voted for a text urging an "initiative be launched on an international level, expressly involving the United States . . . to develop a common, truly global strategy to address the terrorist threat. The strategy should conform in all its elements with the fundamental principles of our common heritage in terms of democracy, human rights and respect for the rule of law," it said. Sixteen deputies voted against the text.
European Union justice commissioner Franco Frattini said the management of intelligence services was largely a matter for member states, but noted the EU should assess the ways it could act, such as in its aviation policies.
"This discussion, forming part of a wider examination of the problems raised by noncommercial civil aviation, could focus among other things on the extent to which the definition of 'state aircraft' could be clarified at EU level."
Washington said it acted with the full knowledge of the governments concerned, acknowledged the secret transfer of some terrorist suspects between countries and denied any wrongdoing.
The Strasbourg-based council can "name and shame" countries but cannot launch legal proceedings, the preserve of judicial authorities in member states.
The Council of Europe's secretary general, Terry Davis, has said he would ask the 46-member governments of the body to introduce national safeguards and controls as well as a review of international regulations.
In Geneva, leading human rights groups also called yesterday on European states to halt all involvement in US illegal transfers or secret detentions of terrorist suspects and fully investigate alleged violations. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Association for the Prevention of Torture said it was "unacceptable and unlawful" for European states to participate in what often amounted to international crimes.