EXTRAORDINARY BS

ANOTHER CYCLE OF CYNICISM rolls through Europe.  Contrary to what Condoleezza Rice says evidence mounts that there are black site prisons in Europe, that there has been use of European facilities and air space in support of CIA extraordinary rendition.  Speigel has a country by country rundown of facts Rice can't run away from.  The United States is adopting a policy of attacking the attackers on the black site prisons.  The suggestion is either the Europeans have benefited, that lives have been saved, or more darkly that the Europeans have been involved, either passively or actively.

GIVE AND TAKE is the game in Germany. Rice met with  German Chancellor Angela Merkel to play a game of mutual damage control.  Rice gave up on Khaled Masri, Merkel gave cover for the official line.

"The American administration is not denying" it erred in the case of al-Masri, Merkel said through a translator.
Merkel welcomed that admission and added that she is grateful for Rice's assurances that the United States conducts anti-terror operations legally and without the use of torture.

GOOD GERMANS in government see nothing.  Official statements of agreement now cover lies.  This is a huge political football in Germany.

Werner Hoyer, a member of the German Parliament's foreign policy committee, said Rice's statement would put European governments on the defensive to explain what they knew about joint counterterrorism operations in Europe.
"She's trying to throw the ball back into the European field, especially the German field," Hoyer, a member of the opposition Free Democratic Party, said in an interview. "She's saying that fighting terrorism is not just an American problem but a German problem. This practice of renditions is perhaps in keeping with U.S. law, but there are indications that perhaps it is not compatible with German law." 

IF THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT has looked the other way on torture, many Germans do not look at it so kindly.  The unkind treatment of ghost detainees may kick back on German officials in the future

THE ITALIANS BEG to differ.  The Abu Omar kidnapping has been a kick in the face for Berlusconi.  For the Italians rendition has been a case of extraordinary BS.  Before the cameras, Condoleezza Rices says we work with allies in the fight against terror, but the Italians know otherwise.  In the case of Abu Omar previously reported here, the CIA actively worked against Italian interests and disinformed the our allies when the they inquired of Omar’s whereabouts after the CIA um kidnapped him.

"The kidnapping of Abu Omar was not only a serious crime against Italian sovereignty and human rights, but it also seriously damaged counterterrorism efforts in Italy and Europe," said Armando Spataro, the lead prosecutor in Milan. "In fact, if Abu Omar had not been kidnapped, he would now be in prison, subject to a regular trial, and we would have probably identified his other accomplices."

THE WHITE HOUSE PLAYS a shell game.  The worst of the lot of prisoners in black site prison in Eastern Europe have been moved to North Africa

RENDITION GOES ON THE ROAD Part of the CIA plan to limit host nations liability is to move ghost detainees from black site to black site.  But the immorality is not moderated if it is shared.  The stain just spreads.

A regular CIA gulag appears to have been created in recent years, with many prisoners kept in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and various central Asian nations, places where the CIA was given access to the prisoners at all times. Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, also claims to have seen a suspicious-looking prison camp at Camp Bondsteel, an American base in Kosovo.
But the highest-ranking al-Qaida members are apparently kept moving with a small group of CIA interrogation experts, like an invisible caravan, from one of the so-called black sites to another. Outrage over claims that some of these secret prisons may be located at former military bases in Eastern Europe triggered the Council of Europe's investigation.  

THE HERETIK NOTES when Condoleeezza Rice says Europeans have been complicit in certain similar activities, she almost certainly is talking about Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. Speigel has an interview with Alvaro Gil Robles, Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Americans have emphatically denied any responsibility for the prison camp in Kosovo. They say it was not a CIA establishment, but one belonging to the Nato KFOR troops. Is that true?

Robles: Absolutely. And the then KFOR boss, General Marcel Valentin, helped me as much as he could during my visits. There was no attempt to hide anything or hush anything up. Everyone knew what was going on in Camp Bondsteel.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Europeans, the German authorities too? They knew of the conditions there?

Robles: Yes, certainly. It was known that people were being held prisoner there, in those completely unsatisfactory conditions: without sufficient tangible evidence against them, without the guarantees that come with the rule of law. None of it was secret.

IF EUROPEAN HANDS ARE DIRTY in Kosovo does not make the United States clean on black sites and torture.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING 
Hilzoy calls it: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. The Heretik has previously noted Rice's um misstatements.  Condi treats the Euros like children.

PSST CONDI Secret U.S. transfers of terrorist suspects are open to challenge under several statutes of international law, despite Washington's most robust defense yet of their legality, human rights lawyers said on Monday.
 

ABOUT KHALED AL MASRI ACLU sues CIA on Khaled Masri. Al Masri's Story.  ACLU Extraordinary Rendition Fact Sheet.

WHITE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE April 28,2005
Q Mr. President, under the law, how would you justify the practice of renditioning, where U.S. agents who brought terror suspects abroad, taking them to a third country for interrogation? And would you stand for it if foreign agents did that to an American here?
THE PRESIDENT: That's a hypothetical, Mark. We operate within the law and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people.
But let me say something: the United States government has an obligation to protect the American people. It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way. And we will do so within the law, and we will do so in honoring our commitment not to torture people. And we expect the countries where we send somebody to, not to torture, as well. But you bet, when we find somebody who might do harm to the American people, we will detain them and ask others from their country of origin to detain them. It makes sense. The American people expect us to do that. We -- we still at war.
One of my -- I've said this before to you, I'm going to say it again, one of my concerns after September the 11th is the farther away we got from September the 11th, the more relaxed we would all become and assume that there wasn't an enemy out there ready to hit us. And I just can't let the American people -- I'm not going to let them down by assuming that the enemy is not going to hit us again. We're going to do everything we can to protect us. And we've got guidelines. We've got law. But you bet, Mark, we're going to find people before they harm us.

Comments

[blogenfreude]

wonder how quickly the european sites will be swept and cleaned ... there will probably be no evidence left.

[Kvatch]

Condi is going to go hoarse saying, "Trust us, and no I can't discuss this further." But it won't placate the Europeans. If the Franco Fratinni intends to make good on his threat to suspend EU voting rights, the firestorm is going to get a lot hotter.

[The Heretik]

Kvatch, most Americans have no idea how hot a button this is in Europe. StateSpeak is an old form of communication where you say the opposite of what is true and people just nod their heads. The people in these black sites are the new desaparecidos, the disappeared.

[comandante agi]

Princess Condoleezza has boldly proclaimed that torture will set you free! Condi speak, you listen!

[janinsanfran]

Do they have democracies over there?

[fallenmonk]

In my world it is called "chicken dancing". It's when you know you are totally fucked and the only hope left is to dazzle them with the footwork. Brazen shit that is so over the top that the opposition is left speechless.