GENEVA — European lawmakers on Thursday demanded to know the exact location of the secret prisons U.S. President George W. Bush revealed the CIA operated overseas to interrogate terror suspects in what critics elsewhere in the world said was a system tacitly approving torture.
The Swiss senator who led a Council of Europe investigation called the admission by Bush of the existence of the secret detention centers “just one piece of the truth.”
The international Red Cross welcomed the transfer of high-level terror suspects to the U.S. military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said it planned to check on them “very soon,” but reiterated its desire to visit all detainees in the U.S. war on terror wherever they may be held.
Critics said Bush’s acknowledgment of the program and justification of tough interrogation measures vindicated the worst fears that Washington had gone too far in the pursuit of terror suspects.
Bush seemed to be trying to justify “impunity legislation” that would allow the CIA to continue to operate the centers and use “alternative techniques” of interrogation, said Robert Freer, of Amnesty International. He noted Bush didn’t rule out cruel, degrading and inhuman prisoner treatment even if he proclaimed, “The United States does not torture.”
The president said the CIA’s “procedures were designed to be safe, to comply with our laws, our Constitution and our treaty obligations. The Department of Justice reviewed the authorized methods extensively, and determined them to be lawful.”
Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said there remained the possibility of the CIA using practices which are deemed as torture under international law, such as mock drownings.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who pulled his country’s troops from Iraq after he came to office in 2004, said, “The fight against terrorism can only be done through democracy and respect for the law. It is not compatible with the existence of secret prisons.”
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met with Zapatero in Madrid on Thursday, was more reserved, but said, “I cannot believe that there can be a trade between the effective fight against terrorism and protection of civil liberties. If as individuals we are asked to give up our freedom, our liberties, our human rights, as protection against terrorism, do we in the end have protection?”
In Europe, lawmakers demanded to know the exact location of the secret prisons Bush revealed.
Dick Marty, the Swiss senator who heads the Council of Europe’s investigation into whether European governments collaborated in the secret prison program, said, “There is more, much more to be revealed.”
“I have always been certain that these prisons existed, so I am not surprised,” Marty told The Associated Press.
Marty said earlier this year that 14 European nations — spanning from Dublin to Berlin to Bucharest — colluded with U.S. intelligence in a “spider’s web” of human rights abuses to help the CIA spirit terror suspects to illegal detention facilities. His claims triggered a wave of angry denials, including from the United States.
Marty said he thought the timing of Bush’s admission was politically motivated. “It probably has to do with the fact that the elections are coming up in the United States,” he said referring to the U.S. midterm congressional elections scheduled in November.
Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, said the revelation by Bush would “bring a new interest and momentum” to the work of the parliament’s separate investigation.
“It has refused to be silenced by the blanket denials from governments and authorities that they were complicit in allowing illegal practices on their territory,” Watson said. “If they were not aware, the matter is even more serious.”
Bush got strong support from Australia, a staunch supporter of his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and long detentions without trial of terrorist suspects, but much of the global response was critical of Bush’s “limited disclosures” to justify the secret prisons.
But Muslim politicians and activists decried Bush’s secret prison program and the types of interrogation techniques used on detainees.
Asma Jehangir, a senior member of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission, demanded Washington end the program immediately and apologize for ever bringing it into existence.
“They have to admit that what they did was wrong,” said Jehangir, who heads a U.N. panel that recently issued a scathing report about the detention of suspects at Guantanamo. “They cannot justify it in the name of terrorism and frightening people.”
She noted that Bush had said in his speech that militants were trained to resist interrogation. “It doesn’t mean that you can lower the threshold and start torturing them,” she said.
Bush said that interrogation techniques used were tough, but did not constitute torture. He also said the secret prison program would continue because it is “one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists.”
Desra Percaya, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Indonesia, home to more Muslims than any other country, said, “The way we see it, there has to be a respect for human rights and international law even in the context of fighting terrorism,” and that Washington had violated both.
Moazzam Begg, a 38-year-old British citizen who had been held captive in Afghanistan and Guantanamo before being freed in January, said he spoke with several detainees during his captivity who described being held in secret prisons.
He said they used transport time, smells and sounds to guess where they had been. Most said they were either held in Egypt or Indonesia and he cited at least two detainees who described being tortured in secret detention.
“Guards who I spoke to — some of the same ones who threatened to send me to Egypt to one of these centers — said that the detainees who were sent to secret prisons usually broke within hours or days,” Begg said. “I can’t imagine that any of them will get fair representation in Guantanamo.”
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Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.
GENEVA European lawmakers on Thursday demanded to know the exact location of the secret prisons U.S. President George W. Bush revealed the CIA operated overseas to interrogate terror suspects in what critics elsewhere in the world said was a system tacitly approving torture.
The Swiss senator who led a Council of Europe investigation called the admission by Bush of the existence of the secret detention centers “just one piece of the truth.”
The international Red Cross welcomed the transfer of high-level terror suspects to the U.S. military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said it planned to check on them “very soon,” but reiterated its desire to visit all detainees in the U.S. war on terror wherever they may be held.
Critics said Bush’s acknowledgment of the program and justification of tough interrogation measures vindicated the worst fears that Washington had gone too far in the pursuit of terror suspects.
Bush seemed to be trying to justify “impunity legislation” that would allow the CIA to continue to operate the centers and use “alternative techniques” of interrogation, said Robert Freer, of Amnesty International. He noted Bush didn’t rule out cruel, degrading and inhuman prisoner treatment even if he proclaimed, “The United States does not torture.”
The president said the CIA’s “procedures were designed to be safe, to comply with our laws, our Constitution and our treaty obligations. The Department of Justice reviewed the authorized methods extensively, and determined them to be lawful.”
Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said there remained the possibility of the CIA using practices which are deemed as torture under international law, such as mock drownings.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who pulled his country’s troops from Iraq after he came to office in 2004, said, “The fight against terrorism can only be done through democracy and respect for the law. It is not compatible with the existence of secret prisons.”
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met with Zapatero in Madrid on Thursday, was more reserved, but said, “I cannot believe that there can be a trade between the effective fight against terrorism and protection of civil liberties. If as individuals we are asked to give up our freedom, our liberties, our human rights, as protection against terrorism, do we in the end have protection?”
In Europe, lawmakers demanded to know the exact location of the secret prisons Bush revealed.
Dick Marty, the Swiss senator who heads the Council of Europe’s investigation into whether European governments collaborated in the secret prison program, said, “There is more, much more to be revealed.”
“I have always been certain that these prisons existed, so I am not surprised,” Marty told The Associated Press.
Marty said earlier this year that 14 European nations — spanning from Dublin to Berlin to Bucharest — colluded with U.S. intelligence in a “spider’s web” of human rights abuses to help the CIA spirit terror suspects to illegal detention facilities. His claims triggered a wave of angry denials, including from the United States.
Marty said he thought the timing of Bush’s admission was politically motivated. “It probably has to do with the fact that the elections are coming up in the United States,” he said referring to the U.S. midterm congressional elections scheduled in November.
Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, said the revelation by Bush would “bring a new interest and momentum” to the work of the parliament’s separate investigation.
“It has refused to be silenced by the blanket denials from governments and authorities that they were complicit in allowing illegal practices on their territory,” Watson said. “If they were not aware, the matter is even more serious.”
Bush got strong support from Australia, a staunch supporter of his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and long detentions without trial of terrorist suspects, but much of the global response was critical of Bush’s “limited disclosures” to justify the secret prisons.
But Muslim politicians and activists decried Bush’s secret prison program and the types of interrogation techniques used on detainees.
Asma Jehangir, a senior member of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission, demanded Washington end the program immediately and apologize for ever bringing it into existence.
“They have to admit that what they did was wrong,” said Jehangir, who heads a U.N. panel that recently issued a scathing report about the detention of suspects at Guantanamo. “They cannot justify it in the name of terrorism and frightening people.”
She noted that Bush had said in his speech that militants were trained to resist interrogation. “It doesn’t mean that you can lower the threshold and start torturing them,” she said.
Bush said that interrogation techniques used were tough, but did not constitute torture. He also said the secret prison program would continue because it is “one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists.”
Desra Percaya, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Indonesia, home to more Muslims than any other country, said, “The way we see it, there has to be a respect for human rights and international law even in the context of fighting terrorism,” and that Washington had violated both.
Moazzam Begg, a 38-year-old British citizen who had been held captive in Afghanistan and Guantanamo before being freed in January, said he spoke with several detainees during his captivity who described being held in secret prisons.
He said they used transport time, smells and sounds to guess where they had been. Most said they were either held in Egypt or Indonesia and he cited at least two detainees who described being tortured in secret detention.
“Guards who I spoke to — some of the same ones who threatened to send me to Egypt to one of these centers — said that the detainees who were sent to secret prisons usually broke within hours or days,” Begg said. “I can’t imagine that any of them will get fair representation in Guantanamo.”
Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.