29. Juni 06    Deutlich mehr Landungen von mutmasslichen CIA-Flugzeugen, NZZ Online
29.Juni 06    Wir Servilen, Weltwoche, Peter Bodenmann, Kommentar
27. June 06    Council of Europe backs CIA flights report, NZZ Online
25 June 06    "Europe must defend its values", nzz.ch  interview, Swiss senator Dick Marty, Armando Mombelli
19 June 06    American torturers, unwitting students of Camus & Solzhenitsyn, Needlenose, Swopa
17 June 06    Pentagon Study Describes Abuse by Units in Iraq, NYT, ERIC SCHMITT
17 June 06    Bad Advice Blamed For Banned Tactics, Washington Post, Josh White
17 June 06    Torturers love loopholes, Needlenose, Swopa
8.Juni 06    Martys Verdienst, Der Bund, PATRICK FEUZ, Kommentar
8.Juni 06    «Sklavischer Gehorsam», Der Bund
8.Juni 06    «Alle waren auf dem Laufenden», Der Bund, RUDOLF  BALMER
8.Juni 06    «Globaler CIA-Gulag», Der Bund, Jürg Müller
7 June 06    "Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states", Council of Europe, Dick Marty, AS/Jur (2006) 16

    Dick Martys Abschlussbericht über US-Geheimgefängnisse in Europa enthält scharfe Vorwürfe, aber keine Beweise. Die Präsenz der internationalen Medien nutzend, spitzte der FDP-Ständerat und Sonderermittler des Europarats gestern in Paris den Inhalt seines Berichts zusätzlich zu: Er spricht von der «aktiven» Beteiligung mehrerer europäischer Länder an ungesetzlichen CIA-Aktivitäten und vom «sklavischen Gehorsam» der Schweiz gegenüber den USA. Je lauter jemand ruft, desto grösser ist seine Ohnmacht. Marty stand von Anfang an auf verlorenem Posten: Jene Regierungen, die in ihren Ländern Geheimgefängnisse duldeten, wollen keine Beweise für das liefern, was sie immer verbergen wollten.
    Offiziell predigen Europas Regierungen: Der Kampf gegen die Terroristen wird nur gelingen, wenn er gleichzeitig ein Kampf für das Recht ist - und nicht selber Menschenrechte verletzt. Gleichzeitig wollen es sich Europas Regierungen wirtschaftlich mit den USA nicht verderben. Gerade die Schweiz als Zwerg hat keine Lust, den Riesen zu stark zu ärgern und Tritte gegen die Schweizer Wirtschaft zu riskieren. Dieser Zwiespalt hat auch die Haltung des Bundesrats in der Frage der offiziellen US-Überflüge geprägt: Auf einer echten Kontrolle mochte er nicht beharren. Aber immerhin setzte der Bundesrat ein Zeichen des Unbehagens, indem er den USA die Zusage abrang, unsere Souveränität zu respektieren.
    Auch sonst ist die Schweiz nicht ganz so «sklavisch», wie Marty glauben macht. Der Bundesrat hat durchgesetzt, einen alten Geheimvertrag mit den USA über die Anti-Terror-Zusammenarbeit durch ein neues Abkommen zu ersetzen, das vors Parlament muss. Die Schweiz war zum Ärger der USA seinerzeit treibende Kraft hinter dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof zur Ahndung von Menschenrechtsverletzungen. Dann spielte sie eine wichtige Rolle im Ringen um den neuen Uno-Menschenrechtsrat.
    Aber Dick Martys Job ist es nicht, für Realpolitik und pragmatische Veränderungsschritte zu werben. Seine Rolle ist es, mit Paukenschlägen dafür zu sorgen, dass die Realpolitik nicht allzu viele Konzessionen macht.
 

14 europäische Regierungen haben laut dem Bericht von Europarats-Ermittler Dick Marty in der CIA-Affare mit dem US-Geheimdienst zusam-mengearbeitet. Die Schweiz ist nicht daninter- wird aber trotzdem heftig kritisiert.

Haftbefehl nicht umgesetzt
Laut Marty verstärkt ein weiteres Vorkommnis den Eindruck «sklavischen Gehorsams» der Schweizer Behörden gegenüber den USA. So sei ein international gesuchter US-Konsul in Genf lediglich überwacht, aber nicht verhaftet worden.
Härtere Vorwürfe als gegen die Schweiz erhebt der Sonderermittler gegen 14 andere Staaten: «Es ist jetzt klar, dass die Behörden in mehreren europäischenLändern aktiv mit der CIA bei unrechtmässigen Aktivitäten zusammengearbeitet haben.» Laut Marty sind dies Deutschland, Schweden, Bosnien, Grossbritannien, Italien, Mazedonien und die Türkei. Andere Länder hätten Rechtsverstösse ignoriert - «oder wollten es nicht wissen». Bei Rumänien und Polen habe sich «erhärtet», dass es dort Geheimgefängnisse gab. «Beweise im klassischen Sinn des Begriffs» seien noch nicht verfügbar, es gebe aber «eine Reihe von schlüssigen Elementen, die darauf hinweisen, dass solche Haftzentren in Europa tatsächlich existiert haben».
Der Europarat wird Ende Juni den Bericht beraten, ein Nachfolge-Ausschuss soll die Ermittlungen fortsetzen. «Ich erwarte jetzt Aufklärung von den betroffenen Regierungen», sagte Marty, der deren schlechte Kooperation bei seinen Ermittlungen kritisierte. (sda)

14 europäische Staaten haben Gefangenentransporte der CIA zumindest stillschweigend geduldet. Zu diesem Schluss kommt der Sonderermittler des Europarates, Dick Marty, in seinem Schlussbericht. Harte Kritik übt er an der Rolle der Schweiz.

Alle wollten ein Interview mit ihm: Der Tessiner Ständerat Dick Marty bei seinem gestrigen Auftritt in Paris

    Der Tessiner Ständerat Dick Marty war gestern am Sitz der Parlamentarischen Versammlung des Europarats in Paris ein gefragter Mann. Reporter und Fernsehteams aus fast allen 46 Mitgliedstaaten wollten möglichst ein Exklusivinterview und wollten wissen, inwiefern denn ihr Land in die geheimen Verschleppungen, Inhaftierungen und Transporte von Terrorverdächtigen verwickelt sei. Marty verwies sie geduldig auf seinen Bericht, den er an der Pressekonferenz verteilen liess.
    Darin kommen die europäischen Regierungen und ihre Behörden nicht gut weg. 14 eu-ropäische Länder haben - in unterschiedlich gravierenderweise - mit den USA kollaboriert. Zwar fehlten die Beweise im juristischen Sinn, räumte Marty ein. Aber trotz «lächerlich geringen Mitteln» sei er bei seinen Recherchen über die Verbindungen zwischen den Verschleppungen von Verdächtigen und den geheimen Transporten samt Zwischenlandungen auf ein wahres «Spinnengewebe» von Indizien gestossen. Martys Bericht stützt sich vor allem auf Unterlagen der Flugüberwachungsbehörde Eurocontrol und Berichte der Betroffenen über ihre Entführung.

Schweigende Mitwisser
    Im Bericht werden zehn Fälle detailliert dargestellt. Demnach hat die CIA in Polen und Rumänien geheime Gefängnisse unterhalten. In Italien, Schweden, Bosnien und Mazedonien wurden Verdächtige für die US-Dienste «willkürlich» festgenommen. Grossbritannien, Deutschland, Griechenland, Spanien und Portugal tolerierten Zwischenlandungen bei Geheimflügen. Andere Staaten lieferten Informationen - oder waren schweigende Mitwisser. «Sämüiche Nachrichtendienste waren auf dem Laufenden», behauptete Marty. «Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass sie so ineffizient sind und nicht das wussten, was wir mit unseren bescheidenen Mitteln in Erfahrungbrachten.»
    Zur Rolle der Schweiz äusserte sich der Sonderermittler besonders kritisch. Obwohl verdächtige Flüge den Schweizer Luftraum durchquert hätten, habe der Bundesrat den USA im Februar die weitere Benützung des Luftraums gestattet, schreibt Marty. Man habe sich dabei auf bloss mündliche, wenig glaubwürdige Zusagen verlassen, dass die Souveränität der Schweiz respektiert werde.
    Ein weiteres Vorkommnis, über das erst kürzlich berichtet wurde, verstärkt laut Marty den Eindruck «sklavischen Gehorsams» der Schweizer Behörden gegenüber den USA. Gemäss gut informierten Kreisen sei ein international gesuchter US-Konsul in Genf lediglich überwacht, nicht aber verhaftet worden. Es handelt sich um den CIA-Mann Robert Lady, der von den italienischen Behörden wegen der Verschleppung des Mailänder Imams Abu Omar gesucht wird. Laut Medienberichten hielt sich Lady gemeinsam mit zwei weiteren CIA-Leuten Ende 2005 auch zweimal in Zürich auf. Über die Auswertung des 67-seitigen Berichts wird die Vollversammlung des Europarates am 27. Juni debattieren.

  Bereits seit zwei Jahren beschäftigen die Aktivitäten der CIA in Europa die Öffentlichkeit. Lange vor den Ermittlungen Dick Martys (siehe Haupttext) hat der amerikanische Geschichtsprofessor Alfred W. McCoy, einer der profiliertesten Kenner der Geschichte der CIA, wichtige Hinweise auf die Existenz eines «globalen CIA-Gulags» geliefert.
    McCoy schreibt in seinem bereits 2004 in den USA publizierten Buch «Foltern und foltern lassen», dass US-Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld zusammen mit der CIA und verbündeten Geheimdiensten Ende 2001 ein streng geheimes Programm zur Verfolgung der Al-Kaida-Führung auf die Beine gestellt habe. Washington habe mit verschiedenen Ländern äusserst diskret Abkommen über CIA-Verhörzentren abgeschlossen. Daraus sei ein «ganzes Netz geheimer CIA-Gefängnisse» entstanden. Dieser Gulag sei «eng verflochten mit Geheimpolizeigefängnissen» vor allem in Asien und
 dem Nahen Osten. Gemäss Schätzungen hätten sich im Juni 2004 rund 3000 Terrorverdächtige in CIA-Zentren und in Gefängnissen verbündeter Staaten befunden.

CIA-eigene Fluggesellschaft
    Da die CIA «für die Verkehrs Verbindungen in ihrem globalen Gulag» nicht auf Flugzeuge der Luftwaffe angewiesen sein wollte, habe der Geheimdienst eine eigene Charterfluggesellschaft mit mindestens fünf Maschinen gegründet. Zudem habe der damalige CIA-Direktor George Tenet von Rumsfeld verlangt, eine spezielle Kategorie von «Geisterhäftlingen» einzuführen, um sie dem Zugriff des IKRK zu entziehen; diesen Häftlingen seien ganz einfach die von den Genfer Konventionen vorgeschriebenen Registriernummern verweigert worden.
    McCoy zitiert einen ehemaligen CIA-Mitarbeiter, der die rasche Ausweitung des Überstellungsprogramms nach den Terroranschlägen von 2001 als «eine Scheusslichkeit» bezeichnete. «Die CIA konnte nun, nachdem sie jahrzehntelang verbündete Geheimdienste in Verhörtechniken ausgebildet hatte, ihre Gefangenen in einer geheimen Synergie den Polizeikräften anderer Länder übergeben und darauf vertrauen, dass deren extreme Methoden ein Maximum an Informationen aus den Verdächtigen herausholen würden.»
    McCoys Bilanz ist düster: «Jedem, der Folter für ein Problem der Vergangenheit hält, das von rein historischem Interesse ist, sei versichert, dass in eben diesem Augenblick Dutzende Gefangene des globalen CIA-Gulags in irgendeinem finsteren Winkel der Welt seelisch vernichtender Folter ausgesetzt werden.»

[i] ALFRED W. MCCOY. Foltern und foltern lassen. 50 Jahre Folterforschung und -praxis von CIA und US-Militär. Verlag Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2005.

A secretive military Special Operations group in Iraq used several unauthorized interrogation tactics on detainees in early 2004 after it erroneously received an outdated policy from commanders in Baghdad, according to a high-level military investigative report released yesterday at the Pentagon.

As a result of the error, interrogators at temporary holding facilities washed down detainees and questioned them in overly air-conditioned rooms, fed them only bread and water when they were uncooperative, and made them kneel for long periods of time as part of an approach using "stress positions." The tactics also included giving detainees minimal amounts of sleep and using loud music and yelling to keep them from sleeping or communicating.

This occurred at the same time similar methods used at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were under intense internal scrutiny.

Army Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica found that members of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula used official guidance that had been developed in September 2003 to create its own set of rules for interrogations, unknowingly including the forbidden tactics.

Pentagon officials released a heavily redacted version of Formica's report yesterday, more than a year and a half after its completion, as part of its response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The final report was issued on Nov. 8, 2004, and Pentagon officials briefed members of Congress last year on its contents.

The September 2003 guidance -- from the office of Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the top U.S. commander in Iraq -- was rescinded and reissued the following month, with fewer tactics allowed. But the September memo has been at the center of the debate about the U.S. interrogation policy in Iraq because its broad approval of controversial methods served as the baseline for interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.

Previous investigations had found that there was widespread confusion over which tactics were allowed during interrogations in Iraq. Formica's report shows that even the nation's elite soldiers were unclear about the rules.

But Formica concluded that the soldiers using the tactics were not responsible for violating policy or the law from February to May 2004 because they believed what they were doing had been approved. That position in many ways echoes what Abu Ghraib defense lawyers have asserted in military courts over the past two years: That soldiers believed they were following commanders' rules when they used such tactics on detainees.

Unlike in the Abu Ghraib cases, however, Formica said the soldiers were not maliciously attempting to humiliate or hurt the detainees but were trying to follow the rules as they understood them.

"I didn't find cruel and malicious criminals that are out there looking for detainees to abuse," Formica said in an interview with reporters at the Pentagon yesterday. He said it was "regrettable" that the soldiers were given the wrong policy.

He found that the Special Ops temporary facilities -- not named in the report -- were so austere that they "did not comport with the spirit of the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions," which were designed to protect detainees.

"These circumstances were created by inadequate policy guidance, not personal failures within CJSOTF-AP," Formica wrote. He added that "a more specific implementing policy may have prevented these circumstances."

Formica's investigation focused on three alleged cases of abuse at temporary holding facilities that the task force and the 5th Special Forces Group operated in Iraq. The allegations included claims from detainees that U.S. soldiers and Iraqi forces beat and sodomized them, and shocked them with electricity, and that their captors killed a detainee. Formica found the claims lacking in credibility, citing a lack of medical evidence and indications that the detainees had ties to the insurgency and motives to lie.

There have been other allegations that indigenous forces have been employed to use harsh tactics, specifically that the CIA and the Special Forces used such people -- code-named "Scorpions" -- who, in one case, have been connected to the beatings of an Iraqi general who later died in U.S. custody. Formica recommended the implementation of policy codifying how U.S. forces should interact with Iraqi security forces.

In a briefing yesterday, defense officials said the Formica report should be viewed as a historical document that has been followed up with corrective actions. The Defense Senior Leadership Oversight Council, which was set up to work on the 492 recommendations from a dozen detainee-abuse investigations, has incorporated eight such recommendations from Formica's report, the officials said.

Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer who has been following the abuse investigations, said the report is troubling because the inquiry failed to investigate dozens of allegations that secretive task forces such as TF-121 and TF-626 seriously abused detainees.

"It signals what we have known for a while, and that is that the Special Operations forces were operating with impunity in Iraq and Afghanistan for a prolonged period of time," Singh said. "What is revealing about these investigations is what they do not say. What is the government afraid of that it so narrowly circumscribed its investigation and then withheld it from the public for years?"

WASHINGTON, June 16 — United States Special Operations troops employed a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq during a four-month period in early 2004, long after approval for their use was rescinded, according to a Pentagon inquiry released Friday.

The investigation is the last of 12 major inquiries to be made public that focus on allegations of detainee abuse by American personnel in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq, and the first to focus on Special Operations troops, who operate with more latitude than other military units. It detailed harsh treatment that continued at isolated bases even after the abuses first surfaced at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Special Operations interrogators gave some detainees only bread or crackers and water if they did not cooperate, according to the investigation, by Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica of the Army. One prisoner was fed only bread and water for 17 days. Other detainees were locked for as many as seven days in cells so small that they could neither stand nor lie down, while interrogators played loud music that disrupted their sleep.

The inquiry also determined that some detainees were stripped naked, drenched with water and then interrogated in air-conditioned rooms or in cold weather. General Formica said it appeared that members of the Navy Seals had used that technique in the case of one detainee who died after questioning in Mosul in 2004, but he reported that he had no specific allegations that the use of the technique was related to that death.

Despite the findings, General Formica recommended that none of the service members be disciplined, saying what they did was wrong but not deliberate abuse. He faulted "inadequate policy guidance" rather than "personal failure" for the mistreatment, and cited the dangerous environment in which Special Operations forces carried out their missions. He said that, from his observations, none of the detainees seemed to be the worse for wear because of the treatment. "Seventeen days with only bread and water is too long," the general concluded. But he added that the military command's surgeon general had advised him "it would take longer than 17 days to develop a protein or vitamin deficiency from a diet of bread and water."

General Formica's review focused on the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula, which included soldiers from the Army's Fifth and 10th Special Forces Groups. It did not cover the actions in Iraq of more highly classified Special Operations units, including Delta Force and some Navy Seal groups, or other specialized units including Task Force 6-26, a subject of extensive allegations of misconduct that were reported by The New York Times in March. General Formica recommended eight changes, including more training for Special Operations interrogators, minimum standards for detention conditions and new policies regulating the use of indigenous forces who worked with those in Special Operations. Pentagon officials said Friday that all eight had been carried out.

General Formica said that the Special Operations forces mistakenly used 5 of 12 interrogation techniques between February and May 2004 that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then the top commander in Iraq, had withdrawn in October 2003 because military lawyers had found they were too harsh. "It is regrettable," General Formica said in an interview at the Pentagon with three reporters on Friday. "But they were erroneously given the wrong policy."

General Sanchez had approved the harsher techniques, like blaring loud music and using military dogs to frighten Iraqi captives, in September 2003. But confusion over use of the techniques became widespread, even after they were barred a month later except when approved by General Sanchez. Many of the American captors at the Abu Ghraib prison have also said they believed the techniques were authorized, even without General Sanchez's approval.

The report made public on Friday was a heavily redacted copy of the 75-page classified document that General Formica completed 20 months ago. Members of Congress were briefed on it about a year ago. The Pentagon had refused requests since then from The New York Times and other news organizations to provide a declassified version of it. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had promised that declassified versions of all major inquiries would be made public, but this one was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Senior Defense Department officials said General Formica's review was not intended to be a wide-ranging evaluation of Special Operations' detention and interrogation practices. General Formica conducted interviews regarding three separate episodes of alleged detainee abuse involving Special Operations, some of them referred from another Army inquiry by Maj. Gen. George R. Fay. General Formica also reviewed the findings of seven other instances that had been previously investigated.

General Formica said there was no physical or medical evidence to substantiate allegations by several members of an Iraqi family that American interrogators at Abu Ghraib in December 2003 had beaten and slapped them, and then sodomized them with a water bottle. In addition, he said, the family members were known to be insurgent sympathizers. In a second case, General Formica said two Iraqi detainees at a safe house in April 2004 were fed only bread and water for 13 and 17 days, respectively. But he said allegations that a former Iraqi policeman and an Iraqi-born Lebanese interpreter, both working with the Americans, had beaten and kicked them were unsubstantiated.

General Formica found that in the third case at a Special Operations outpost, near Tikrit, in April and May 2004, three detainees were held in cells 4 feet high, 4 feet long and 20 inches wide, except to use the bathroom, to be washed or to be interrogated. He concluded that two days in such confinement "would be reasonable; five to seven days would not." Two of the detainees were held for seven days; one for two days, General Formica concluded.

Of the seven other previously investigated cases, General Formica concluded that allegations in two were unfounded and that one did not involve Special Operations, the report said. In two other cases, investigations were still pending when General Formica completed his report in November 2004. A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, said Friday that those inquiries had been completed, but that he would not comment on their findings.

General Formica said in the interview on Friday that he believed that the Special Operations troops thought they were following authorized procedures, and corrected them after he pointed out their error. "I didn't find cruel and malicious criminals that are out there looking for detainees to abuse," he said.

    Swiss senator Dick Marty talks to swissinfo about his report into allegations that the CIA set up secret prisons in eastern Europe to interrogate terror suspects.
    Marty was appointed in November 2005 by the Council of Europe to look into the affair and on June 7 concluded that 14 European nations colluded with United States intelligence in a "spider's web" of human rights abuses. The claims triggered a wave of angry denials and dismissals - with the US State Department calling it "a rehash" - but also accusations that governments are stonewalling attempts to confront Europe's role in the controversy. Marty, a former prosecutor, says he is convinced various governments are attempting to discredit his report, which will be debated by the Council of Europe in a plenary session on Tuesday.

    swissinfo: According to your report, these illegal practices were a matter of course for the United States administration.
    D.M.: In fact the US coined the term "rendition". In practice this means people who are suspected of terrorism can be taken prisoner without this suspicion having any legal basis. Only some of these detention centres are known, such as Guantanamo or Kabul. In most cases prisoners are taken to other centres or delivered to their country of origin, where they are often tortured. Anyone who believes in the rule of law should find it unacceptable that these people have never been granted constitutional rights or a trial.
    The US administration has at any rate taken a clear decision, namely they are at war against terror. As a result the civil penal code does not apply [to them] and neither do the laws of combat, starting with the Geneva Conventions.

    swissinfo: Yet the US, like Europe, sees itself as the great defender of liberty and human rights.
    D.M.: I still consider the US a free and democratic country. But in an international context their attitude is somewhat ambiguous. When it comes to the law, it's one rule for them and another for others. So their measures against terrorism are not applied to their own citizens but only to non:Americans ? and outside American territory at that.
    That is an absolutely unacceptable form of legal apartheid. The Americans have developed an incredibly simple philosophy: anything goes if Americans benefit from it.
    swissinfo: The US continues to maintain that terrorism cannot be defeated by conventional methods. Does that stand up?
    D.M.: Personally I think the methods used by the US in recent years have been not only inefficient but also counterproductive. They are turning the Muslim world against them and thereby creating sympathisers for terrorism. These sympathisers are like oxygen for a fire? the more there are, the more terrorists feel their actions are legitimised.
    European states have also been the target of terrorism but have always dealt with the problem using constitutional methods.

swissinfo: But in your report you criticise European states.
    D.M.: European states have for some time delegated the fight against terror to the US, so when the secret service of a superpower is at work, they look away? even if their own values are violated. This I find very alarming.
    I am accusing the West of never having openly discussed anti:terror strategies. At an international level there isn't a single legal definition of terrorism. It is vital to develop a common strategy including not only repression but also prevention and political intervention.

    swissinfo: You accuse Switzerland of "subservience" towards the US. What concrete accusations are you making?
    D.M.: I was personally shocked at how thoughtlessly Switzerland renewed the annual licence for US planes to fly through Swiss airspace despite already existing indications of possible abuses by the CIA. All it took to satisfy the Swiss authorities was a verbal promise by an official in Washington that Swiss airspace was not being violated.

    swissinfo: Do you think the Council of Europe will approve your report?
    D.M.: Until recently I was very optimistic. But I now know for certain that some countries are going to great lengths to cast doubt on its accuracy and honesty. If the European parliamentarians think defending their country is more important than defending the values of the Council of Europe, then things won't go very well.

The Council of Europe also accused European states of colluding with the CIA in breach of basic human rights, backing the findings of a seven:month investigation by Swiss senator Dick Marty.

"The strategy [to address the terrorist threat] should conform in all its elements with the fundamental principles of our common heritage in terms of democracy, human rights and respect for the rule of law," a resolution voted by the Strasbourg:based watchdog said.

The assembly also decided to continue its inquiry into alleged secret flights and jails.

Marty had called on states to set up "a world legal order, with the US, but built on sound values, especially those upheld by the Council of Europe."

His report published in Paris earlier this month, concluded that 14 European nations colluded with US intelligence to set up secret flights and detention centres in violation of international human rights laws.

Under the CIA policy of rendition, prisoners are moved to third countries for interrogation. But Washington denies they are subjected to torture.

Call for clarification
The European Union justice commissioner, Franco Frattini, who was invited to Council of Europe debate, called for national inquiries to follow up Marty's findings.

He acknowledged it as a fact that such incidents occurred on European territory since the September 11 attacks on the US. However, he said the exact number of so:called renditions was unknown.

He added it was still unclear whether governments were aware of renditions or cooperated and whether or not they were legal.

"What we must do is make sure that national authorities understand that they have not only the power but the duty to carry out judicial investigations," said Frattini.

In his report, Marty provided no direct evidence but said that most European governments did not seem eager to help him establish the facts about renditions.

He relied mostly on flight logs provided by the EU's air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, witness statements gathered from people who said they had been abducted by US intelligence agents, as well as judicial and parliamentary inquiries in various countries.

Marty also accused the Swiss government of having "deliberately ignored allegations" of suspect aircraft transiting through the country's airspace, which were eventually confirmed by Swiss Federal Aviation Office.

He also questioned Switzerland's decision in February to extend permission until the end of the year for overflights by non:commercial US aircraft.

swissinfo with agencies

In der Schweiz sind fast zehn Mal mehr Landungen von mutmasslichen CIA-Flugzeugen registriert worden als bisher bekannt war. Seit 2001 wurden 58 Landungen von Flugzeugen verzeichnet, die für den amerikanischen Geheimdienst CIA im Einsatz gewesen sein sollen.

Bisher waren in der Schweiz erst sechs Landungen von Flugzeugen bekannt, die für die CIA im Einsatz gewesen sein sollen. Diese wurden von drei Flugzeugen ausgeführt. Für diese drei Flugzeuge hat Eurocontrol keine weiteren Landungen in der Schweiz aufgeführt. Im weiteren waren noch 73 Überflüge bekannt; zu den Überflügen liegen laut Kohler keine weiteren Informationen vor. Die Flugbewegungen verdächtiger Flugzeuge hat Eurocontrol auf Anfrage des Tessiner FDP-Ständerats Dick Marty nachgezeichnet.

Dieser hatte im Auftrag des Europarats mögliche CIA-Aktivitäten in Europa unter dem Aspekt von Menschenrechtsverletzungen untersucht.

Die Parlamentarische Versammlung des Europarats hatte sich erst am (gestrigen) Dienstag als Konsequenz aus dem Marty-Bericht für weitere Ermittlungen zu den umstrittenen CIA-Flügen ausgesprochen.

EU-Justizkommissar Franco Frattini bezeichnete es erstmals als «Tatsache», dass der amerikanische Geheimdienst Terrorverdächtige auf europäischem Boden in seine Gewalt gebracht hat. In der Schweiz hat die Bundesanwaltschaft schon im vergangenen Dezember ein Ermittlungsverfahren eingeleitet. Es betrifft den Straftatbestand der verbotenen Handlungen für einen fremden Staat betreffend der Überflüge und richtet sich gegen unbekannt. Dass auch die Landungen in das Verfahren einbezogen werden ist offenbar nicht ausgeschlossen. Selbstverständlich werde die Bundesanwaltschaft (BA) im Kontext mit dem Verfahren jedem Hinweis auf mögliche strafbare Handlungen nachgehen, sagte BA-Sprecher Hansjürg Mark Wiedmer dazu.

Für das Eidgenössische Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA) hat sich durch die Korrektur nach oben grundsätzlich nichts geändert, wie EDA-Sprecher Jean-Philippe Jeannerat auf Anfrage sagte. Es sei davon auszugehen gewesen, dass die Zahl mit der Gesamtdarlegung von Eurocontrol steigen werde. Die Schweiz werde nun mithelfen, die Entscheidung des Europarates, bessere Kontrollmöglichkeiten über die Aktivitäten von Nachrichtendiensten auf europäischem Territorium zu definieren, umzusetzen.