Strasbourg, 18/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - During the session of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg on 17 November, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the pan-European organisation, René van der Linden, called on all member governments and the European Commission to “fully cooperate” with the rapporteur recently designated by the Assembly to investigate into allegations on secret CIA detention centres (EUROPE 9067). “This question goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe's human rights mandate”, he stressed.
After Germany and Spain had decided to open judiciary investigations into matters involving American secret services on their territories (EUROPE 9068), other countries noted that CIA “prison planes” had stopped over on their territory. The Norwegian government announced on Wednesday that a meeting would be held with the US ambassador to determine the circumstances of the landing, in Oslo, on 20 July this year, of a plane which, according to local media, was used by the CIA to transport Islamic prisoners. In Sweden, at least two CIA planes touched down in 2005 and 2002, according to the TT press agency, and one of these aircraft is reported to have gone to the American base in Guantanamo several times. In Rabat, Le Journal Hebdomadaire affirmed on 12 November, citing a Moroccan former DST agent, that aircraft chartered by the CIA had made at least ten journeys to Morocco between December 2002 and February 2005. Ireland and Denmark also protested against the presumed presence of CIA prison planes on their territory.