Condoleezza Rice on Monday reacted to public anger over secret CIA prisons by saying that United States intelligence operations had saved European lives and had been conducted in cooperation with European governments. In the Bush administration’s first comprehensive defence of its policy of rendition, the secretary of state admitted that the US had flown terror suspects abroad for interrogation. However, she refused to address reports that the US was holding terror suspects in secret prisons without recourse to the law.
Rice delivered her prepared statement shortly before her departure for Germany and the start of a five-day European tour overshadowed by reports that the CIA had secretly flown al-Qaeda suspects through European airports for interrogation at former Soviet compounds. She took pains on Monday to address concerns about the treatment of detainees, saying repeatedly that the US would not countenance torture. However, she was adamant that rendition was lawful, and was a powerful tool in the war on terror for the US and for its allies. ”Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives,” she said. ”Such renditions are permissible under international law.”
Rice also moved to deflect some of the anger that has been directed against the Bush administration, suggesting that European governments had greater knowledge than they were willing to publicly acknowledge of the controversial practice, noting that US intelligence operations had respected the ”sovereignty of other countries”.
”Some governments choose to cooperate with the United States in intelligence, law enforcement, or military matters. The co-operation is a two-way street. We share intelligence that has helped protect European countries from attack, helping save European lives,” Rice said. The broad thrust of her argument on Monday was that the practice of rendition was a vital tool in the war on terror, and was in line with US and international law. She did not directly address the question of secret prisons, saying that it would compromise intelligence and military operations.
However, she insisted that the US did not transport al-Qaeda suspects ”for the purpose of interrogation using torture”, and ”will not transport anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured”.
The Bush administration has faced increasing criticism since reports first surfaced of a secret network of prisons in Europe, and Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, wrote to Rice last week demanding an explanation. She flew into Berlin on Monday night amid a growing storm within Germany about how much the government knew of CIA activities.
In particular, opposition parties demanded that Germany’s former interior minister Otto Schily explain reports that the US had privately informed him that it had wrongly kidnapped a German national. There seems compelling evidence that Germany’s former government, led by Gerhard Schröder, cooperated with the CIA’s murkier operations. Although several European countries and the EU have launched investigations into the CIA’s renditions programme, it increasingly appears that the CIA may have kept European intelligence agencies in the loop.
Rice is likely to reinforce her unapologetic message when she meets Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Tuesday morning. The government’s spokesperson, Ulrich Wilhelm, said: ”We are hoping that all of the facts will be discussed [by Rice and Merkel].”
Rice’s itinerary includes a stop in Romania, a country identified as a likely site of a secret, US-run detention site. Romania denies it. – Guardian Unlimited Â