- VIENNA (Xinhuanet) -- The
Council of Europe on Wednesday urged European countries to provide full
information for a probe into alleged secret US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) detention centers and covert flights in Europe as Austria joined
a flurry of investigations into the issue.
-
- The European Council's member states should provide information
to the inquiry before Feb. 21 next year, the Council's Chief Terry Davis
said in a written statement.
-
- The inquiry would look at governments' compliance with
European human rights law and whether officials had been involved in "unacknowledged"
detentions or transport of detainees, including "at the instigation
of any foreign agency", the statement said.
-
- Socialist lawmakers in the European Parliament also urged
the European Commission, the EU's head office, to launch its own inquiry
into the issue.
-
- Austria's Air Force has launched an investigation into
a US flight allegedly carrying terror suspects for the CIA which flew across
its airspace in 2003, the Austrian air force chief said on Wednesday.
-
- Press reports have said the CIA has operated secret detention
facilities in eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Thailand and elsewhere in order
to circumvent US laws protecting detainees, particularly restrictions on
the use of torture.
-
- Planes allegedly operated by the CIA have been spotted
at airports in Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Spain and Sweden as well as Morocco.
-
- These reports whipped up disputes in both the United
States and Europe, and the Council of Europe has carried out investigations
on 31 flights across European airspace, suspicious of flying terror suspects
to secret CIA prisons.
-
- A US transport plane, flying from Frankfurt, Germany
to Azerbaijan was contacted by Austrian fighter jets when the plane crossed
the European country's airspace on Jan. 21, 2003, Austrian Maj. Gen. Erich
Wolf said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
-
- The US plane was later allowed to continue its flight
as the Austrian authorities deemed, at that time, the aircraft, disguised
as a civilian flight, was not abusing its airspace, Wolf also said.
-
- However, Austria's opposition party, the Social Democrats,
has demanded the government investigate into the event to determine whether
it was a CIA plane, with terror suspects on board, that flew through the
neutral nation's airspace.
-
- The aircraft's owner, Tepper Aviation, has insisted the
flight was a civilian one.
-
- Meanwhile, the Austrian foreign ministry refused to comment
on reports that it had lodged a diplomatic protest to Washington on the
overflight of CIA transport aircraft. Enditem
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- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/24/content_3828584.htm
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