JURIST - Paper Chase: Europe delegation says CIA confirmed renditions, but suggested state complicity

[JURIST] Members of a European Parliament [official website] delegation just back from a visit to the US [JURIST report] told reporters in Strasbourg Wednesday that CIA [official website] officials had confirmed to them "that between 30 and 50 people have been transported by extraordinary rendition", but had indicated it was "not possible to organize extraordinary rendition such as this without the active complicity of European governments." Committee rapporteur Giovanni Claudio Fava [official profile] added that what he called a "first hand source" had acknowledged the existence of seven US secret prisons or "black sites" in "countries of Asia, Europe and Africa", all of which had now been closed down due to public pressure except for one "still operating in a North African country."

Overall, however, committee members said that US responses to their queries, made in connection with their own continuing investigation [official website] of alleged renditions, had been "patchy and inconsistent" [JURIST report]. On Tuesday, a UN human rights official said the CIA was generally stonewalling [JURIST report] probes into renditions. EUobserver has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

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