CIA 'emptied secret jails' before Rice Europe trip

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Wed, 7 Dec 2005 10:28:50 -0800 (PST)

CIA 'emptied secret jails' before Rice Europe trip

 

 

 

 

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CIA 'emptied secret jails' before Rice Europe trip

By Alec Russell in Washington and Kate Connolly in Berlin

(Filed: 07/12/2005)

 

The CIA last month emptied two secret prisons in Eastern Europe of

terrorist suspects in a frantic effort to defuse the " rendition "

controversy ahead of Condoleezza Rice's visit to Europe, sources in

the agency have claimed.

 

Eleven leading al-Qa'eda suspects were transferred to a new CIA

facility in North Africa, current and former officers told ABC television.

 

The allegation emerged as Miss Rice, the US secretary of state, had an

awkward meeting with Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor.

 

It had been billed as the start of a new era of relations but instead

it was dominated by the transatlantic row over the CIA's activities in

Europe, and one case in which the CIA allegedly mistook a German

citizen for a terrorist suspect and abducted him.

 

The Bush administration has refused to confirm or deny that the CIA

runs " black sites " in Eastern Europe to hold terrorist suspects

outside the reach of US law. The allegations were made in the

Washington Post last month.

 

The controversy intensified with the release of more detailed

allegations on ABC News yesterday. It claimed that 11 top terrorist

suspects were held on a former Soviet air base in Eastern Europe until

some time last month.

 

Several of them were later held at a second base, CIA officials told

the network. They were all moved to North Africa after the Post's report.

 

Ten of the detainees were subjected to the harshest interrogation

techniques allowed, the network alleged.

 

Miss Rice sought to mollify critics in Germany, the first stop of her

four-day tour, yesterday when she admitted America had made " mistakes "

in its fight against terrorism. The Bush administration would, she

said, do everything it could to rectify them.

 

A large part of her talks with Mrs Merkel concentrated on the case of

the German national, Khaled el Masri. He was allegedly flown by the

CIA from the Balkans to Afghanistan, held for five months and released

because he was the wrong man.

 

" I am happy to say that we spoke about the individual case, which the

US administration has accepted as a mistake, " Mrs Merkel said.

 

US officials later however bridled at Mrs Merkel's comments. They said

Miss Rice had informed Germany about Mr Masri's detention and release.

" We are not quite sure what was in her head, " one senior US official

said, referring to the German chancellor.

 

The official added that Mrs Merkel might have drawn her conclusion

from media reports rather than from communication with the US government.

 

The row was the worst possible conclusion to a meeting that both

countries had hoped would usher in a friendlier period of relations

following the appalling relationship between Gerhard Schröder, Mrs

Merkel's predecessor, and President George W Bush.

 

Mrs Merkel stressed that while agreeing on the need to fight terrorism

she did not support any illegal methods.

 

kate.connolly

editorial

 

 

 

 

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