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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Thu May 3, 2012, 08:34 AM May 2012

Europe takes hard look at nations that allowed U.S. interrogations

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-waterboarding-20120501,0,1270630.story

Mistakes were made, but on balance waterboarding of terrorism suspects made the world safer.

That is the conclusion of Jose Rodriguez, a key CIA architect of the harsh measures used to elicit intelligence from prisoners snatched from the streets of foreign countries and flown to a globe-spanning network of secret prisons for interrogation.

But in Europe, where leaders of developing democracies like Poland, Lithuania and Romania allowed the CIA to conduct counter-terrorism activities the Council of Europe defines as torture, Rodriguez's position is unlikely to dampen the quest for accountability for those who welcomed U.S. agents. East Europeans are sensitive to the use of torture and other harsh techniques because of their experience under totalitarian regimes, which arrested and abused opponents at will.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said his country won't be silent about human rights abusers in its midst, "even if they do so with the world's greatest superpower." Judicial authorities recently charged the former head of intelligence, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, with exceeding his authority in allowing the CIA to set up a secret prison in the remote northern village of Stare Kiejkuty.

European parliamentarians investigating alleged complicity in torture on the continent last week lashed out at Lithuania for shutting down an investigation into claims the former Soviet republic hosted two secret CIA detention facilities after Sept. 11.

Romanian officials haven't even looked into allegations of collaborating in torture, said French lawmaker Helene Flautre, head of a fact-finding mission preparing for a session this summer on Eastern European members' alleged exposure of terrorism suspects to illegal treatment.
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Europe takes hard look at nations that allowed U.S. interrogations (Original Post) xchrom May 2012 OP
I hope somebody keeps this crime a priority, even if it won't be us. K&R n/t Egalitarian Thug May 2012 #1
So untidy! gratuitous May 2012 #2

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
2. So untidy!
Thu May 3, 2012, 09:08 AM
May 2012

Don't those silly Yurpeans know that we've swept all this unpleasantness under the rug? Now is NOT the time for investigations and stuff, it's time for folks to write books, pick up royalty checks, and go on the teevee to impress everyone with their acumen and expertise. They're such sensitive little flowers over there, just because of their experience under totalitarian regimes, which arrested and abused opponents at will. The U.S. is exceptional and different. So when we employ the practices of the gulag, it's because we love freedom so gosh darn much.

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