EU report accuses member nations of colluding with CIA detentions

STRASBOURG, France -- A yearlong European parliamentary investigation into CIA flights transporting terror suspects to secret prisons has yielded a report singling out Britain, Germany and other European heavyweights as colluding with the U.S. secret detention program in an apparent breach of human rights standards.

The 76-page report approved Wednesday gives no direct proof that the intelligence agency ran secret prisons in Europe -- an allegation that prompted the inquiry -- but accuses some governments of complicity in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program. Britain, Italy, Germany, Poland and Romania were named as either colluding with the United States in human rights abuses or not cooperating with the inquiry committee.

The report also implicated nine other EU countries.

The inquiry caused an internal rift within the 785-seat parliament, pitting the center-right against the center-left down the party lines and leading to accusations of anti-Americanism against some of the most vocal left-wing members of the committee.

Socialist and Liberal lawmakers argued that the report uncovered a string of abductions by U.S. agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and proved insufficient parliamentary oversight of European security services.

But conservatives warned it accuses governments of colluding with the CIA without sufficient proof.

"The report strongly implies that countries in Europe have been massively involved in extraordinary rendition activities and illegal detention. That is ... not a faithful interpretation of fact," said Jas Gawronski, an Italian conservative from the European People's Party which voted largely against the report.

In all, the parliamentarians dealt with 19 kidnappings of terror suspects either from European soil or with participation of an EU government. They heard dozens of hours of testimony from the victims of extraordinary renditions, their lawyers or representatives, got testimony from senior EU officials and flight data from the EU air traffic agency. The report offers circumstantial evidence indicating terror suspects were on some of the secret CIA flights.

In September, President Bush acknowledged that terrorism suspects have been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but did not say where. Britain's government later said it had known "in general terms" about a secret CIA prison network.