EU to probe CIA secret jails

aljazeera.net: European Union (EU) lawmakers have agreed to create a committee to investigate hotly-disputed claims that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated secret prisons in Europe.

The committee, comprising 46 Euro MPs, will also probe whether European governments were aware of these alleged activities, and if citizens of the EU or of candidate states were involved, including as victims, in Europe or elsewhere.

It will submit "all necessary recommendations" to the EU Parliament and will work "as closely as possible" with other institutions working on the same subject, such as the Council of Europe, a pan-European rights body.

This report will be delivered within four months after it begins work, probably next week.

Washington has come under intense fire in the last few months from reports about hundreds of CIA flights, suspected of carrying undeclared prisoners across European airspace, since the 11 September, 2001 terror attacks.

The co-head of the EU parliament's Green group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said the new committee should not shy away from interviewing any potential witnesses, without discrimination, even, if it were necessary, "the Queen of England". Read more