JURIST - Paper Chase: EU threatens sanctions against any member housing secret US prisons

[JURIST] European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs [official website] Franco Frattini [official profile] said Monday that although the informal EU investigation [JURIST report] into the alleged existence of secret US prisons [JURIST report] in European Union nations has revealed nothing, the EU will sanction any country found to house such facilities. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has issued a statement [text] which alleges that "there is no doubt that secret detention facilities operated by the United States exist," pointing to Poland, an EU member nation, and Romania, an EU candidate, as possible prison locations. As evidence, HRW cites Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] flight logs that they say prove that the US was transporting recently captured al Qaeda members from Afghanistan to Polish and Romanian air fields between 2001 and 2004. EU lawmakers also requested a formal investigation [AP report] into the allegations Monday, though Frattini cautioned that his commission does not have a legal mandate to investigate member nations and is restricted by the EU charter to conducting informal inquiries. The US Department of Justice [official website] is considering an investigation [JURIST report] into whether classified information was leaked from the CIA after US lawmakers requested a congressional inquiry [JURIST report] into a possible leak last week. AP has more.

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