Hire the Lincoln Group to write positive torture stories for European papers

It's the way the US gets things done over here...

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Rice to take hard line on CIA prisons claim

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, is expected to begin her trip to Europe next week with a forceful rejection of requests for information regarding alleged secret CIA prisons in Europe and clandestine transiting of war-on-terror suspects.

So, not a rejection of the claims, not a denial of the facts, a rejection of the requests for information

Diplomats said that Ms Rice, who arrives in Germany on Monday and meets Chancellor Angela Merkel the next day, is not expected to reveal information - as formally requested by the European Union last week - but to defend the US need to obtain intelligence.

"Her response will be suitably diplomatic, but also forceful," commented one envoy.

The US state department declined to comment on how Ms Rice would respond. While refusing to respond to reports of secret prisons and transport of detainees in Europe, officials insist that US actions are in compliance with US law and international conventions. US law prohibits secret prisons on US territory.

As noted by Fran in an earlier thread, there is no mention of international law here, but there is also this new parsing of words: "US law prohibits secret prisons on US territory" (i.e. but not, presumably, on foreign territories). Is that actually true, in any case? That sounds really strange to me.

Elizabeth Cheney, a senior state department official and daughter of the vice president, told Arab reporters this week that "a new set of rules" was required when dealing with an enemy like al-Qaeda.

European concerns have been exacerbated by the Bush administration's efforts to exempt the CIA from proposed US legislation that would prohibit the "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment of detainees.

We say we don't do torture, but we don't want to be prevented form doing it. But you should believe us that we don't do it.

While EU member states share no desire to have these sensitive issues aired openly, the mounting public attention threatens to undermine what diplomats generally regard as the positive trend in transatlantic relations driven by President George W. Bush in his second term.

Yeah, it's a pain not to be friends with the USA. They had stopped humiliating us, so we could go back to being poodles without it being too obvious, and now this. Bummer... Being a diplomat sucks, sometimes.

Diplomats said there had been intense debate within the Bush administration over how to respond to the request penned last week by Jack Straw, the UK foreign secretary, for the EU presidency. In the end, an uncompromising stance appears to have prevailed.

So - who was in favor of a less uncompromising stance? Washington journalists - here's a potential scoop for you if you do your job right.

The Council of Europe, representing 46 nations, has already opened an official inquiry.

Yep, maybe our only chance now to get to some information. The CoE lost some of its credibility by not being very tough on Russian crimes in Chechnya. Now would be a good opportunity to regain some credibility, even if the price is to appear to have double standards. But who says that the USa should only be held to the standards used for Russia? Go, CoE!

The alleged existence of secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe was reported last month by the Washington Post. It said US officials asked that the countries involved not be named. Poland and Romania denied subsequent claims by Human Rights Watch, based on flight records, that they had provided facilities.

Why on earth is the WaPo still withholding that information?

Our governments are not going to be doing much about this, unless we hold their feet to the fire. They are responsible to us, not to Washington, it's time they remembered this. Let's keep the pressure.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

In describing the locations of the black prisons as being in "eastern Europe" we are subscribing to this attempt to imply that they are in somehow uncivilised or barbaric countries so we should not be so outraged.

The only U.S. politician that has given me a civilized answer to the torture problem is McCain, who sent me a very nice letter last year. It's a pretty sad reflection on Clinton, Lieberman, et. al.

To this end, BushCo doesn't want any help from Europe for the simple reason that if European interests did actually manage to propose some possibly workable strategies that would lead to first a diminution and finally a cessation of war, The Bush gang would look very bad when they nixed such proposals.

By issuing another massive  and all-encompassing Fuck You! to Europe as a whole, they are only further insuring no one from Europe will be actively interfering with the plan to grow the war.

IMHO.

defeat the sound bite

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
Czeslaw Milosz

Allegations that the United States has committed abuses in Europe while waging its "war on terror" will cloud this week's visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but her hosts have little appetite for forcing the issue with Washington.

European officials seem satisfied, for now, that the United States has promised a formal response to press reports the CIA ran secret jails in Eastern Europe and covertly flew terrorist suspects through airports and bases across the continent.

They are loath to pick new quarrels with Washington and risk souring transatlantic ties which are only gradually recovering from a deep rift over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

They may also be nervous about what further investigation could uncover. Some European Union governments face awkward and persistent suggestions that they may have known and approved of secret U.S. operations taking place on their soil....

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