European Union: Report on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners
The European Parliament has voted to endorse and publish a report strongly condemning the use of European facilities for the alleged kidnapping, torture, and illegal imprisonment allegedly carried out and facilitiated in EU states by alleged US persons. The resolution was passed on or about Feb 14, 2007 by a majority of 382 to 256 with 74 abstentions.
This news was ‘covered’ by the BBC, Financial Times, Radio Free Europe, Islamic Republic News Agency, Irish Times and others. However most (or all, seemingly) news accounts did not include the name of the report or a link to it. And it seems not to be easily searchable from the various EU institution sites or general search sites. Some legislative history and parliamentary questions were accessible by searching at europa.eu on on ‘rendition’.
Following are the header and conclusions from the full report.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
2004 – 2009
Session document
FINAL
A6-9999/2007
26.1.2007
REPORT
on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners
(2006/2200(INI))Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European
countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners
Rapporteur: Giovanni Claudio Fava
[…]
Final conclusions
225. Stresses, in view of the powers it was provided with and of the time which it had at its
disposal, and the secret nature of the investigated actions, that the Temporary
Committee was not put in a position fully to investigate all the cases of abuses and
violations falling within its remit and that its conclusions are therefore not exhaustive;
226. Recalls the principles and values on which the European Union is based, as provided in
Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, and calls on the EU institutions to meet their
responsibilities in relation to Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union and all other
relevant provisions of the Treaties, and to take all appropriate measures in the light of
the conclusions of the work of the Temporary Committee, the facts revealed in the
course of the Temporary Committee’s investigation and any other facts that may emerge
in the future; expects the Council to start hearings and commission an independent
investigation without delay, as foreseen in Article 7, and, where necessary, to impose
sanctions on Member States in case of a serious and persistent breaches of Article 6,
including where a violation of human rights has been declared by an international body
but no measure has been taken to redress the violation;
227. Believes that the principle of loyal cooperation enshrined in the Treaties -which requires
Member States and the EU institutions to take measures to ensure the fulfilment of their
obligations under the Treaties, such as the respect of human rights, or resulting from
action taken by the EU institutions, such as ascertaining the truth about alleged CIA
flights and prisons, and to facilitate the achievement of EU tasks and objectives – has
not been respected;
228. Recalls that in light of European Court of Human Rights case law, a signatory State
bears responsibility for the material breach of the provisions of the ECHR, and therefore
also of Article 6 of the Treaty on the European Union, not only if its direct
responsibility can be established beyond reasonable doubt, but also by failing to comply
with its positive obligation to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into
reasonable allegations of such violations;
229. Notes the reports by reputable media operators that extraordinary rendition, illegal
detention, and systematic torture involving many people is continuing, and considering
the declaration by the current US Government that the use of extraordinary rendition
and secret places of detention will be continued; therefore calls for an EU-US counterterrorism
summit to seek an end to such inhumane and illegal practices, and to insist
that cooperation with regard to counter-terrorism is consistent with international human
rights and anti-torture treaty obligations;
230. Instructs its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, where necessary in
cooperation with the Committee on Foreign Affairs, notably its Sub-Committee on
Human Rights, to follow up politically the proceedings of the Temporary Committee
and to monitor the developments, and in particular, in the event that no appropriate
action has been taken by the Council and/or the Commission, to determine whether
there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the principles and values on which the
European Union is based, and to recommend to it any resolution, taking as a basis
Articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty on European Union, which may prove necessary in this
context;
231. Calls on its Secretary-General to publish, at least in compliance with Regulation
1049/2001, all the documents received, produced and examined, as well as the records
of the proceedings of the Temporary Committee on the Internet as well as in any other
appropriate manner and calls on the Secretary-General to ensure that the developments
in fields falling within the remit of the Temporary Committee after its disbandment are
monitored;
232. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the
governments and parliaments of the Member States, of the candidate Member States
and the associated countries, and to the Council of Europe, NATO, the United Nations
and the Government and two Houses of Congress of the United States, and to request
them to keep Parliament informed of any development that may take place in the fields
falling in the remit of the Temporary Committee.
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Najaf Update: February 9, 2007
According to the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, there is a claim by an Iraqi parliamentarian that as many as 1,500 people may have been killed in last week’s fighting near An-Najaf. The nature of the groups engaged there and their leadership remains a matter of uncertainty.
by Nermeen Al-Mufti
Al-AhramAccording to independent parliamentarian Mohammad Al-Deini, Iranian agents are trying to distract attention from killings in Najaf. According to Al-Deini, the Iraqi army, backed by US forces, shelled an Arab tribal convoy as it was proceeding to Najaf to participate in Imam Al-Husein celebrations. Most of the victims were from Al-Hawatemah tribe, a Shia clan known to oppose Iranian intervention in Iraq. Al-Deini believes that the hidden imam story was a cover-up for a far more gruesome affair. Up to 1,500 people may have been killed in Najaf, he added.
News agencies have conducted interviews with eyewitnesses from Al-Hawatemah tribe. The eyewitnesses confirmed that their clan is Shia-Arab. Clashes, eyewitnesses said, began when the car transporting the clan’s chief and his wife approached a checkpoint ahead of Najaf on the festival of Ashura. The chief was about to explain to the soldiers manning the checkpoints that the authorities had approved their trip, but before he had the chance to make his point shots were fired. The chief, identified as Sheikh Saad Al-Nayif, his wife and his driver were killed. The rest of the clan, who were armed with machineguns for protection, had no option but to return the fire, the eyewitnesses said.
A source from Jund Al-Samaa said that the group was a peaceful one and took no part in the fighting. But an official source claimed that Jund Al-Samaa was an “ungodly” group and with a leader who managed to convince poor and uneducated young men that he was the hidden imam. The leader had given the young men his book, Qadi Al-Samaa (The Judge of Heavens), in which he claims that one of the signs of the appearance of the hidden imam was the killing of top religious scholars. Reporters in south Iraq cited members of impoverished families as confirming that their sons were members of Jund Al-Samaa and had gone to Zarka before the clashes broke out.
Jund Al-Samaa (wikipedia)
See also: Keyword ‘Najaf’ on scanlyze
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Najaf Update: February 7, 2007
Still more sceptical reporting on the Najaf Incident. Conn Hallinan of Foreign Policy In Focus sees the way the story is being positioned as part of the run-up to a possible US attack on Iran.
Foreign Policy In Focus
Conn Hallinan | February 7, 2007
Times Unrepentant
Despite the IPS, Independent, and Arab media reports, The New York Times continues to report that the battle was with a “renegade militia.” More than a week after the incident, a Times editorial chastised the Iraqi Army for allowing “hundreds of armed zealots” to set up “a fortified encampment, complete with tunnels, trenches, blockades, 40 heavy machine guns and at least two antiaircraft weapons.” The editorial went on to suggest that “a successful attack on top clerics and pilgrims in Najaf would have been disastrous.”
The details on the camp, the weapons, and the charge that Najaf was the target are straight from Iraqi government sources.
The way the U.S. media has reported the “battle” of Zarqa is a virtual replay of the kind of reporting that characterized the run-up to the Iraq War. The media seems to be taking a chillingly similar tack in its reporting about “Iranian interference” in Iraq. For instance, a recent story in The New York Times reports that Iran may have been involved in the recent kidnapping and murder of five Americans. But the story presents nothing but a series of unnamed sources and speculations.
The Bush administration allegations that Iran has set up insurgent training camps and built anti-personnel bombs that have killed and maimed U.S. soldiers have been routinely reported on all the major networks and daily newspapers with virtually no dissenting voices or questions raised concerning the motives of sources.
Such reporting paves the road to war. Will its next victim be Iran?
Chris Floyd underlines the role of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) in shaping the “official story” now making the rounds in The New York Times and other US publications.
Ersatz Apocalypto: Slaughter and Spin in the Battle for Najaf
Atlantic Free Press
Wednesday, 07 February 2007
by Chris FloydSCIRI members, buttressed by the Najaf provincial government, which they control, said that more than 1,000 terrorists were killed in the battle, and that some 200 “brainwashed women and children” were detained and “removed to another place,” presumably for deprogramming. SCIRI officials differed on the number of terrorists captured in the battle; one said 50, another said 16, yet another said “hundreds” were detained. It was SCIRI that advanced the notion that the attack aimed to kill the clerics, not capture them. Various SCIRI officials said the cult’s leader was a) the aforesaid unnamed Lebanese national; b) Dhiaa’ Abdul Zahra Kadhim, as in the Sadrist account; c) a renegade Sadrist named Ahmed Kadhim Al-Gar’awi Al-Basri ; d) another renegade Sadrist named Ahmed Hassan al-Yamani; e) a self-proclaimed messiah named Ali bin Ali bin Abi Talib.
A SCIRI member of the Najaf governing council also claimed that “the leader of this group had links with the former regime elements since 1993. Some of the gunmen brought their families with them in order to make it easier to enter the city,” Associated Press reports. An Iraqi army officer, sectarian affiliation unknown, added that Lebanese, Egyptians and Sudanese were taken prisoner in the battle – though none of these foreign fighters have yet been produced. And just for good measure, Najaf’s SCIRI governor, As’ad Abu Gilel, said the attackers were Sunni insurgents, planning to attack Shiite pilgrims on their way to mark the festival of Ashura in Najaf.
U.S. military officials originally picked various items from this dizzying smorgasbord of spin in cobbling together their own version of the battle, although in general they hewed more closely to the SCIRI line. But that’s not surprising, given the fact that this violent, extremist Shiite faction, whose death-dealing militia is deeply embedded in the Iraqi security forces, is currently in high favor with the Bush White House.
However, by mid-week, the Pentagon suddenly reversed course and came out with a whole new account, one cited by Bush himself, as the Washington Post reported. Now the battle was depicted as an exemplary pre-emptive strike by an “aggressive” and “impressive” Iraqi military, acting on good intelligence that the cult intended to storm Najaf and kill the leading clerics because they refused to recognize the claim of the cult’s leader (now known as Samer Abu Kamar, by the way) to be the Mahdi.
Nidhal Laithi of Azzaman says that members of the Iraq Parliament have called for a special tribunal similar to that which prosecuted former Iraqi President Saddam al-Tikriti to investigate the Najaf Incident. The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliment, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, condemned what he called a “massacre”.
The Najaf ‘massacre’ divides country
By Nidhal LaithiAzzaman, February 6, 2007
Some members of parliament in a session on Monday requested the formation of a tribunal to look into the bloody incident.
Some legislators urged the parliament to form a tribunal like the one which sentenced former leader Saddam Hussein and two of his senior aides to death for the killing of 148 people from Dujail.
The government has said it mobilized troops to quell what it called a rebellion north of Najaf and asked U.S. military assistance to defeat the rebels.
But parliamentary speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, said that he received letters from tribal leaders in the south refuting the government version of events.
Mashhadani called the battle ‘a massacre’, accusing the government of hiding the truth of what exactly happened in Najaf.
BBS gives casualty totals according to the Iraqi government:
Bloody Najaf Battle Could Mark Turning Point
BBS
Sunday, February 04 2007 @ 01:18 PM EST
IRAQ: Southern Iraq in danger of slipping into chaos
Ambiguity still surrounds events of the battle that pitted Iraqi and US forces on one side against a previously unknown Shi’ite messianic cult called ‘Jund al-Samaa’, or ‘Soldiers of Heaven’, on the other.
The clashes, which erupted on 28 January in Najaf palm groves, left 263 militants dead, 210 wounded and 392 others arrested [emphasis mine–HH], Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said.
At least 11 Iraqi troops were killed along with two US soldiers, whose helicopter was shot down during the battle. Some 30 Iraqi troops were wounded.
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (wikipedia)
See also: Keyword ‘Najaf’ on scanlyze
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Update: Najaf and around Iraq
A few more points of interest on the ongoing victorious US liberation campaign in Iraq.
Air Force Times has more on the Najaf Incident.
Despite the “fog of war” obscuring exactly who were the combatants and non-combatants at Najaf, the US apparently used substantial air assets in a 5 square mile area:
F-16, A-10 power rained down in Najaf fight
Juan Cole has more Iraq news at Bay Indymedia:
1,000 Killed in Iraq in Past Week; Parliamentarians call for Expulsion of Arabs, Iranians
And there is more excellent, detailed coverage from Mohammed al Dulaimy at the McClatchy Newspapers:
Roundup of violence in Iraq – 4 February 2007.
See also: Keyword ‘Najaf’ on scanlyze
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Najaf: What happened to the children?
What happened to the ‘terrorist children’ captured in the Glorious Battle of Najaf? I suggest you contact your elected representatives and the responsible agencies and ask as I am. I am looking forward to a call-back from Senator Levin’s office next week.
Apparently a substantial number of those ‘hundreds’ injured, captured or killed in the day-long slaughter by US and Iraqi forces may have been non-combatants, women and children.
Stratfor provides some interesting additional information regarding the Najaf Incident and raises some pertinent questions:
Geopolitical Diary: Deciphering the An Najaf Battle
January 31, 2007 03 00 GMT…Not only is this perhaps the most bizarre incident in almost four years of incessant violence that has ravaged the country, the government’s version of what allegedly transpired raises more questions than provides answers.
- How could a cult evolve into such a major threat without getting noticed?
- If this was an obscure cult, why were government forces unable to deal with it on their own?
- From where did the group acquire such a large cache of weaponry?
- Given the deep sectarian differences, how can extremist Shia and jihadists both be part of the group?
- Why would a Shiite religious group risk alienation by engaging in the murder of the clerical hierarchy, especially during the holy month of Muharram?
These and other such questions indicate the government is withholding a lot of information. However, Stratfor has received some information that provides insight into the circumstances leading up to the battle.
We are told the al-Hawatim tribe wanted to organize its own Karbala procession during Ashurah but that a rival group with considerable influence prevented it from doing so. A number of tribesmen were killed at a checkpoint operated by this influential group, including a senior tribal sheikh. The tribe then launched a retaliatory attack that led to the battle. The fact that a large number of those arrested are women and children [emphasis mine–HH] lends some credence to the report that the fighting was related to Ashurah ceremonies.
Stratfor apparently only provides this article to subscribers or google searchers, so google on: “Geopolitical Diary: Deciphering the An Najaf Battle”.
Mike Whitney raises some more good points in Palestine Chronicle:
Mike Whitney: Whitewashing the Massacre in Najaf
The US military is now being used as an “enforcer” in tribal and clan-based disputes. This will make it even more difficult for Washington to prove that its honest broker who can reconcile the differences between the between the warring factions.
By Mike Whitney
PalestineChronicle.comSo far, there are 2 things that we can say with certainty about the massacre of 250 Iraqis outside Najaf on Monday. First, we know that there is no solid evidence to support the official version of events. And, second, we know that every media outlet in the United States slavishly provided the government’s version to their readers without fact-checking or providing eyewitness testimony.
This proves that those who argue that mainstream news is “filtered” are sadly mistaken. There is no filter between the military and media; it’s a direct channel. In fact, all of the traditional obstacles have been swept away so the fairy tales which originate at the Pentagon end up on America’s front pages with as little interference as possible.
In the present case, we were told that “hundreds of gunmen from a ‘messianic cult’ (Soldiers of Heaven) planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar”. We are expected to believe that they put their wives and children in the line of fire so they could conceal their real intention to lay siege to the city. (AP)
This is absurd. How many men would willingly drag their families into battle? In truth, these same tribes make the pilgrimage to Najaf every year to express their devotion to Imam Hussein and to celebrate the Shiite holiday of Ashura. There was nothing out of the ordinary in their behavior.
Gulf Times says:
US military still probing cult battle
Published: Saturday, 3 February, 2007, 10:33 AM Doha Time
BAGHDAD: The US military said yesterday it was still investigating who its troops and Iraq’s security forces fought last week in clashes in which hundreds of people were killed.
The Iraqi government’s account of the battle near the holy city of Najaf has generated conspiracy theories among bloggers sceptical of its suggestion that those killed were members of a messianic Muslim cult plotting to kill top Shia clerics.
“We are investigating who we engaged there. We are not going to say anything as there is still an ongoing investigation,” US military spokesman Major Steven Lamb said, adding that this was standard practice after any major engagement.
But a week after the battle amid orchards and houses north of Najaf, mystery shrouds exactly who the fighters were and what triggered the day-long battle in which a US attack helicopter was shot down, killing its two crew.
Hundreds of people arrested in the aftermath, including women and children, are under guard. [emphasis mine–HH] Journalists were not allowed to visit the scene of the fighting until Thursday, four days after the battle, and only then accompanied by soldiers.
According to Middle East Online, almost 300 persons were taken into custody after the Najaf Incident:
Iraqi officials say nearly 2,000 civilians killed in raging sectarian conflict across Iraq in January.
By Hasan Abdul Zahra – NAJAF, Iraq
Iraqi authorities on Friday lifted a curfew imposed on Shiite Islam’s holiest city of Najaf in a bid to thwart attacks a day after 73 people died in twin suicide bombings in nearby Hilla…
On Sunday, Iraqi and US forces fought members of a Shiite sect north of Najaf, killing more than 250 “Soldiers of Heaven,” wounding more than 200 and arresting almost 300 [emphasis mine–HH].
See also: Keyword ‘Najaf’ on scanlyze
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
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