-- I think this the most concise and correct definition of what happened yesterday in the European Parliament, during the exchange of views the MEPs had with Dick Marty, the special observer of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In the presidium, next to Marty was Claudio Fava, chairman of the European Parliament ad-hoc committee on the CIA prisons matter, and the two also appeared together at the press conference that followed. First of all they congratulated one another for the conclusions they had reached, "a report of synergies that has made us reach, by different ways, to equivalent outcomes", as Marty said. Fava replied, on behalf of the European Parliament, that this institution "supported almost in its entirety the conclusions of the excellent report Dick Marty had drawn up".
Both accused that, in the course of the investigation activity, they had to face a real silence wall the European governments had built up on the matter of the CIA prisons and of the illegal extradition of persons charged with terrorist activities; they announced as well that there were European countries that haven't answered so far the questionnaire they had been officially addressed by the two committees. After that, Marty resumed the grand themes of the two reports already released, but insisted on the way the information and evidence that founded the conclusion were collected. He did it in order to answer the harsh criticism that had accused just the fact that almost all that had existed under the label of evidence were but either compilation from the international press, or evocation of clues offered by unknown informers.
Marty explained that the principle of the work done with the help of informers under cover had been accepted by vote in the Human Rights Commission of the PACE, and that hearings, statements of high rank officials directly involved in the American secret programme were possible only this way. Marty added that had informed on that commissioner Franco Frattini, first verbally and then in a written way. He reminded that he also asked Frattini to send the information to all the ministers of Justice of the European countries. Some of the MEPs had contested the procedure, saying that in the and, there would inevitable be just a list of presumptive guilty persons. However Marty kept on having his own position arguing that it was the only realist method to come into the possession of the high rank personalities testimonies. Thus, the investigation might have considerably accelerated its pace after President George W. Bush had publicly admitted that such CIA prisons had existed, though he hadn't specified their location. Marty also said that he was in contact with persons from the CIA leadership, "which had had serious conflicts with the military system Rumsfeld had run at the time", thus indicating one of the possible sources of confidential information he had access to.
Marty continued his attack on the NATO theme, institution accused that, after the 9/11 attack and invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Organization Treaty, had drawn up a framework document defining the terms of a collaboration with the CIA, a text based on which bilateral agreements would have been signed by the Americans and some of the European states. Answering to another question, Marty added that, even though NATO made public a part of the 8 points agreement, it was crystal clear that there was another part as well, an ultra-confidential one, describing in detail the operational aspects. Among these aspects, he made a precise reference to the fact that all the signatory governments had agreed upon the US party principle, i.e. a complete immunity granted to their own agents and thus creating a kind of a "judicial apartheid". According to Marty, this would be perfectly coherent with the Americans' action after September 11, when they had sent to all their partners that the anti-terrorist war needed a complete transgression of the existing judicial systems and their replacement by exceptional measures.
As a scenario, everything can be claimed as in a thriller. However, what about the evidence ? As they are still in an area of circumstantial or of presumptive, both Marty and Fava said in one voice that, if that is how things are, then, who is to blame ? It's the European institutional state, they say, as it practically confers no power of investigation to the European Parliament bodies. That is why, Marty goes on, point 19 of the resolution adopted in Strasbourg expressly provides the creation of a true inquiry system, efficacious from the operational standpoint at European level, able to benefit of extended powers in the course of its investigations, to ask for documents, etc. Moreover, Fava accused in unusually harsh terms the lack of political will and of action the European Commission and the Council of Ministers had shown. (...) Even though both Marty and Fava tried to say that the mentioning of Romania and Poland did not turn them into targets, it was obvious that the MPs of the two countries would react, especially that among the personalities Marty quoted there was a Pole who was also vice-president of the EP and a Romanian who was vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Unfortunately, Ioan Mircea Pascu's justified protest and coherently argued had no effect, as the explanations received were vague and unconvincingly, the same as the retorts Toberta Anastase and Adina Valean had, during the interpellations.
Marty added: "I bet that no one of those mentioned in my report would dare to come up here, in front of you, and say officially that s/he knew nothing of the CIA prisons and the illegal extradition. That is why Ioan Mircea Pascu's gesture at the end of the press conference seemed quite unusual: he came forward with a handwritten letter that he tried to hand to those in the presidium. They didn't want to take it, and the gesture rouse the protest of Lorenzo Consoli, president of the International Association of the Press Correspondents in Brussels. Despite the confusion that was created, he said that the rules of the press conferences were being violated ... Except that many of his colleagues took the episode as an extra proof in favour of the Romanian MPs statements. Pascu complained that, in spite of his repeated demands, Marty didn't approve his direct hearing before the Committee.
What will happen from now on ? It is sure that the second Fava Report will be finalized in September and a decision will be made concerning the formula to go on further. The first suggestion is to change the format, that of an ad-hoc committee, in favour the already set up committees. This would suppose, from the very beginning, the extension of the problem and the involving of at least two committees, the Foreign Affairs one and the one for Justice, Home Affairs and Civil Liberties. That is why, in exclusivity for ZIUA, Jean-Marie Cavada, president of the Committee on Justice, Civil Liberties and Home Affairs, and also the one who chaired the yesterday meeting in Brussels said that, "for the time being, it was not about accusing states of having participated, in a way we knew or we didn't know, in the actions perpetrated by the American Administration. (...) Our problem, as Europeans, is to establish a level of truth from the member states that had signed a number of treaties involving, first of all, the observance of human rights. Subsequently, it's over this matter that a true debate must take place in which truth should be brought to light and explained, and the states that harboured such secret actions are able to remain into the EU. We are not prosecutors, we just have to establish a level of truth. Romania is better placed than anyone in the EU to know that long liver lies give birth to suffering and, I would say, a regression of the historical truth that doesn't do good to anyone.(...)" Ioan Mircea Pascu, also in exclusivity for ZIUA, said that, in his opinion, "even this discussion was organized so that the game may go on. There are many people who wish to accuse the United States, the US allies, and this is the best pretext. I believe this was obvious today. (...)"
Cristian Unteanu, Brussels
Ziua Miercuri 18 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
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