The European Union endorsed its report of the CIA's secret rendition flights and condemned member states United Kingdom, Italy and Germany for cooperating with the agency. The report, approved by a large parliamentary majority, said the agency operated 1245 flights some of which took terrorist suspects to countries that practice torture as punishment or as a means of gathering intelligence. The report also said that it was unlikely that the fourteen European governments which cooperated were unaware of the operations as claimed by the United Kingdom. There is a strong possibility that information obtained by torture was passed to cooperating EU governments. The UK was also criticised for its unwillingness to cooperate with the EU investigation.
In one such flight a Canadian citizen of Syrian nationality was abducted by US agents in the US while returning to Canada. He was flown to Syria where he was imprisoned and tortured for a year. After a two year investigation of his claims of innocence, the Canadian government concluded he was telling the truth. The Canadian government issued an official apology for its cooperation in the abduction and awarded him $10 million in compensation.
No comments:
Post a Comment