...which is not an entirely postitive thing, from a public diplomacy standpoint. This outcome may (seem to) make the issue go away for a while, but it's likely to be only a question of time before suspicions resurface.
"Covert Activity by US Called No Big Secret," by Sebastian Rotella (in Paris) - the Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan 2006
A European senator leading a probe into alleged CIA abductions of suspected terrorists asserted Tuesday that European governments were most likely aware of clandestine U.S. activity on their soil, but he said he had not found proof of secret detention centers in Poland and Romania.
In a report to the Council of Europe, a legislative assembly based in Strasbourg, France, Swiss Sen. Dick Marty presented interim findings of a 2-month-old inquiry that is worsening transatlantic tensions over tough U.S. tactics against terrorism.
"Rendition affecting Europe seems to have concerned more than a hundred persons in recent years," Marty said. "Hundreds of CIA-chartered flights have passed through numerous European countries. It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware."
European anti-terrorism agencies are suspected of assisting or permitting some surreptitious U.S. "extraordinary renditions" of suspects who were later allegedly tortured in Arab countries, Marty and others say. Moreover, critics say the European indignation rings hollow because law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Europe have received information gained during interrogation of Al Qaeda figures held in U.S. custody at secret sites.
Although Marty's inquiry has no judicial powers, it has become a conduit and catalyst of increasing backlash against a shadowy U.S. counter-terrorism campaign. Many Europeans see accounts of renditions and torture, and the legal limbo of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as signs of a war run amok. In more than a dozen countries around Europe, law enforcement authorities and legislatures have opened investigations into suspected CIA abductions, detention facilities and flight stopovers.
"These abductions are criminal acts that are against the laws of all civilized countries," Marty said during a news conference.
In response, U.S. leaders have said they respect the laws and sovereignty of foreign nations, language interpreted by some observers as an indication that European intelligence agencies had given the CIA tacit approval....
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