LONDON, June 11: Renewed charges that Poland and Romania hosted secret prisons of the United States Central Intelligence Agency are not supported by hard proof and the European Union has little appetite to probe deeper, diplomats and parliamentarians say.
About 19 months after the allegations first surfaced, European investigator Dick Marty said last week that it was now ‘proven’ that both countries housed senior terrorist suspects at secret sites where the CIA subjected them to aggressive interrogation amounting to torture.For Mr Marty, the ‘proof’ lay in interviews with more than 30 US and European intelligence sources, some of whom he quoted verbatim in his 72-page report for the Council of Europe.
But the price of getting them to talk -- a promise of anonymity -- was high: it allowed the Polish and Romanian governments to repeat their denials and attack his credibility.
“It’s not enough for me. We have to see proofs... Without the names, it’s a problem for us,” said Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, a member of a European Parliament committee which has also investigated secret prisons.
“He doesn’t really present any proof in the report itself, he merely claims he has it. I can’t say how reliable or unreliable his sources may have been,” said European diplomat.
European Union Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said in November 2005 that if reports of secret CIA prisons in Europe were true, states would face serious consequences, including the possible suspension of their EU voting rights.
But despite comments from a commission spokesman last week that Poland and Romania should hold urgent, independent investigations, there was no enthusiasm among member states for ‘digging up dirt’ on the pair, the diplomat said.
“You don’t go around asking unpleasant questions to partners like that,” he said.
Such probing could rebound awkwardly against countries such as Italy and Germany, which have been criticised for hiding behind state secrecy to obstruct investigations of CIA operations.
“Any state that gets its voting rights blocked would probably find a dozen ways of so undermining the council that it’s not fun for anybody else,” the diplomat said. Attempts to isolate Austria after a far-rightist party joined the government in 2000 “failed miserably after six months,” the diplomat noted.
Kreissl-Doerfler, a Social Democrat politician from Germany, said Marty’s report could prompt the European Parliament to reopen its own investigation.
But he criticised Marty for keeping his findings to himself and failing to share his alleged proof with the parliament committee before it finalised its report in February.
“The problem is, Marty never worked very well together with the European Parliament,” Kreissl-Doerfler told Reuters. “If he had this proof, why didn’t he give it to us? We have more force than the Council (of Europe).”
What Marty and many commentators agree on is that the allegations are not going away. Marty wrote that some of his sources might be willing to testify publicly in future if circumstances changed.
German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the best chance of getting at the truth might lie in efforts by the Democrat-led US Congress to probe aspects of the way the war on terrorism had been waged. President George W. Bush has acknowledged secret CIA prisons existed, but has not disclosed where.
“If those responsible in the CIA are really held accountable, Poland and Romania may be still be threatened with compromising revelations,” the paper said in a commentary. “The same applies to Germany or Italy. Then Marty’s suppositions could yet be followed by genuine proofs.”—Reuters