CIA Secret Prisons: Where's the Evidence?

Yeah, WaPo. Imagine them actually responsibly reporting this story. I've been listening to this for two days now. "CIA has outsourced torture to eastern Europe." That's the limit of the report. Take a look at the Boston Globe "article" on the topic. They trumpet the Swiss investigator's report. But seem to miss a little point that is rather important.

A European human rights investigator on Tuesday accused the United States of "unacceptable and appalling" tactics in the fight against terrorism but said he was unable to independently confirm reports of secret prisons run by the CIA in Eastern Europe.

In an interim report presented to the Council of Europe, the continent's official human rights watchdog group, Dick Marty, a Swiss parliamentarian, also accused European governments of either collaborating or looking the other way as U.S. intelligence officers abducted or secretly detained terrorism suspects on European soil.

So why all the screaming? This is a report of noise and no substance.

"We can say that there is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," he wrote in his report, the product of a two-month investigation. "Europe must clearly and unambiguously declare that it refuses outright to tolerate such doings in its territory, or anywhere else."

Marty has only limited powers to compel individuals and governments to cooperate. His report offered no fresh evidence to support his allegations, and he relied primarily on media reports and previously documented cases to draw his conclusions. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack dismissed the findings as the "same old reports wrapped up in some new rhetoric."

So what has Marty proven? Well, firstly, that he is pretty much a propaganda shill, and secondly that he's never going to be able to provide a non-biased report should he actually find some form of evidence.

Marty said he could not find any "formal, irrefutable evidence" of CIA detention centers in Eastern Europe. He said he had recently obtained satellite data and flight logs from European agencies that could offer clues, however, and cited other "reliable" sources that justified his ongoing investigation.

"I know it will be a long and difficult path," he said in a telephone interview from Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France, when asked if he expected to find concrete answers. "But as far as the truth is concerned, I am fundamentally optimistic."

So with no formal or irrefutable evidence, what does he have? What should prompt him to cry damnation against the US? Well, he needs more time, of course.

But I really need to quote the BoGlo article on this:

Marty released an interim assessment in Strasbourg, France, yesterday that said he needed more time to determine whether secret CIA prisons had ever existed in Europe, as the Washington Post reported in November. But he said there was reason to continue the probe. Marty said he needed time to analyze flight logs of private planes used by the CIA in Europe and satellite imagery of airbases in Romania and other locations that were allegedly used as secret prisons, which he just received on Monday.

He also cited the need to find out more about allegations published this month by Switzerland's SonntagsBlick newspaper, that detention centers had existed in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Ukraine, as well as Romania and Poland.

Note the complete lack of mention the part about no evidence. The closest they come is this quote.

Denis MacShane, a British member of Parliament and former minister for Europe, told reporters Marty's assessment ''has more holes than a Swiss cheese," according to Reuters.

Fair reporting of the facts, I'm sure.

And no BoGlo article is complete without a comment by Comrade Markey:

''It's embarrassing that the Council of Europe is investigating practices of the United States, of the CIA," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, who has asked the House International Relations Committee to set up a probe into the alleged secret prisoner transfers. ''The United States should be leading the effort to investigate violations of human rights, not being dragged by Europe to acknowledge the outsourcing of torture, which has been the US policy."

That's right, need another commission. Well, he should go right ahead, not like there is anything useful that he can do in any case.

Yesterday, Marty urged his European colleagues to ''go beyond" simply determining whether the CIA -- or its allies -- had broken European laws. He said they must decide whether Europe should partner with the US war on terror at all. ''The current US administration obviously considers that the traditional instruments of the democratic state governed by the rule of law -- justice, constitutional guarantees of a fair trial, respect for human dignity -- are inappropriate for facing up to the terrorist threat," he wrote. ''Is Europe prepared to accept such an approach?"

I suppose I must say the partnership so far has been pretty lacking from one partner. And that's not the US. I suppose in the end Marty would prefer that we all sit down and negotiate the problem away.