EU threatens sanctions for states operating secret CIA camps

Forbes
Nov. 28, 2005

BERLIN (AFX) - EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has warned that any European Union nation found to have allowed secret CIA prison camps to operate on their soil could have their EU voting rights suspended.

'Should the accusations be accurate, I would be forced to draw serious consequences,' Frattini told a security conference in the German capital.

He said the operation of such camps on EU soil would violate the bloc's rules governing freedom and human rights.

The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly had already announced a probe into reports of the US Central Intelligence Agency operating clandestine prisons in some European countries.

Meanwhile the US was coming under mounting pressure to explain reports of secret stopovers at European airports by CIA planes allegedly carrying terror suspects to covert prison camps.

New German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected to raise the issue of the flights when he meets US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington tomorrow.

A number of European countries have opened inquiries into alleged CIA plane landings, including Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.