Rice says US does not condone torture, wins German support

[dutchdemocrat]

Rice says US does not condone torture, wins German support

BERLIN (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted here that the United States did not condone torture, as she won the support of Germany at the start of a tour beset by questions over secret CIA prisons.

In the first stop of the four-nation European tour, Rice said Tuesday that she and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had discussed "reports" that the CIA was using European airspace to fly terror suspects to secret prisons for interrogation.

Rice refused to be drawn on the existence of the prisons but reiterated her earlier comments that the United States did not revert to torture.

"The United States does not condone torture. It is against US law to be involved in torture or to conspire to commit torture and it is also against the US's international obligations," she told a press conference.

Rice said however that intelligence was "the absolute key" to saving lives in the fight against terror.

"This is a war in which intelligence is the absolute key to success," she said, as it was essential "to get to perpetrators of such crimes before they commit them."

SNIP

http://au.news.yahoo.com/051206/19/x3rm.html

Terrorism is nothing new in Europe BTW... it's been around since the sixties but has pretty much been snuffed out.

ETA, CCC, Action Directe, Brigate Rosse, ETA, IRA, The Bel­gian Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC), the French Direct Action (Action Directe), the Italian Red Brigades and First Line (Prima Linea), The Red Army Fraction (RAF), Baader-Meinhof-Group... etc. etc.

[Deja Q]

1. Does torture include emotional torture?

Even more chilling, does it include the effects of bankruptcy laws changing at a time when more and more companies offshore and offpeople?

Amongst other things?

Obviously not.

I know too many people feeling tortured over the increase of gas and food prices, struggling with credit cards (nobody saw the events of 2004 coming and it's just business, banks need the flow of credit to remain rich...)

[flordehinojos]

9. how muddying up of her...but that is what she likes to do, muddy up to

hide behind the mud.

[ismnotwasm]

2. She's full of shit

And she doesn't care who knows it.

[Peace Patriot]

3. And Merkel bought this bloody tripe that Condi Rice is peddling around?

The article is disheartening.

"Merkel said Germany and the United States had to work together as 'close partners and friends'. // She added that she welcomed Rice's strong words Monday on the fight against terrorism in which she urged European critics of Washington's policy on terror suspects to fall into line."

They should "fall into line"? How about a "Zeig heil!" while you're at it, Chancellor?

I wonder what Germany has received in trade for its soul.

--------------

And I'm still asking, about these anonymous prisoners in the deep, dark, screaming, dungeons of the Bush Cartel, in Romania: WHO ARE THEY? I mean, who are they REALLY?

[dutchdemocrat]

6. I find the article rather biased

There's others out there to the contrary.

The headline is misleading and very subjective.

[tocqueville]

4. U.S., Germany differ on CIA abduction case

By Saul Hudson and Mark Trevelyan
2 hours, 40 minutes ago

BERLIN (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a rare concession to critics of U.S. policy, conceded on Tuesday that Washington may make mistakes in its war against terrorism and promised to put them right if they happened.

But her efforts to present a united front with European allies suffered a setback when U.S. officials took issue with comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sensitive case of a German national who says he was abducted by the CIA.

Merkel told a joint news conference with Rice in Berlin that the United States had acknowledged it made a mistake in the case of Khaled el-Masri, who says he was flown to Afghanistan by U.S. agents and jailed for five months last year before being freed.

Masri is suing the CIA for wrongful imprisonment but was refused entry to the United States on Saturday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051206/pl_nm/europe_rice_dc

[54anickel]

7. Quite a different take than the OP. Were these reporters in the same

room?

[tocqueville]

5. The European intelligence is crucial to the USA

I bet that 90% of the RELIABLE intelligence comes from Europe due to experience, infiltration and classic police work. Since torture isn't used the results are far more accurate.

Read about Alliance Base here :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201361.html

[matt819]

8. Which part of lying sack of shit does anyone not understand? (nt)

[6000eliot]

10. The way I heard it,

there was a veiled threat against the European leaders. She said they all knew about the secret prisons, which I thought meant that if they make any noise the US intends to drag them into this.

[JohnyCanuck]

13. Rice threatens to reveal European complicty (from wsws.org)

Rice defends illegal “renditions,” threatens to reveal European complicity
By Chris Marsden
6 December 2005

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has responded to Europe’s appeals for information regarding Washington’s illegal practice of rendition by making clear that the practice will continue. In an attempt to turn the tables on European critics, she has implied that should Europe continue to make such demands, Washington will expose the complicity of the European governments, which allowed their airports to be used by CIA planes transporting prisoners to third countries and secret CIA-run prisons.

<snip>

There is little wonder that Europe’s governments want to formally distance themselves from their US ally, and at the same time fear the possibility of the US exposing their own complicity. Public anger over renditions is growing.

In Britain, for example, the human rights group Liberty is to table an amendment to the Civil Aviation Bill that would oblige the Home Secretary to force any aircraft travelling through UK airspace suspected of extraordinary rendition to land and be searched by police and customs. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), acting on behalf of an unnamed man who was allegedly flown to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan and tortured, is threatening to sue the CIA for breaching US and international law. The ACLU is also threatening to name corporations that own or operate the aircraft used to transport detainees.

<snip>

Germany is where CIA flights are known to have landed most frequently—on at least 437 occasions. It is not credible that so many flights could have occurred without the knowledge of the government. Such suspicions are highlighted in a report in the December 4 Washington Post alleging that Germany kept silent when one of its citizens was captured, rendered and wrongfully detained by the CIA. The CIA later admitted that the man had been innocent of any crime.

http://wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/rice-d06.shtml

[Synnical]

11. Der Spiegel has an entirely different view

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388652,00.html

December 5, 2005

THE CIA IN EUROPE

Berlin's Silence for Washington

By Matthias Gebauer in Berlin

Gerhard Schröder's government had detailed information on how the CIA operated in Europe -- and said nothing. The lower echelons of the administration even co-operated actively. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is likely to expect the same silent complicity from the new chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Schröder's time is over now. But questions about Germany's involvement in the methods of CIA agents operating in Europe are catching up with him as well as with the other political pensioners -- former foreign minister Joschka Fischer and especially former interior minister Otto Schily. Research by the Washington Post, SPIEGEL and other media show that neither the previous government nor the new administration under Angela Merkel should have been surprised about the reports in recent weeks about secret prisoner transports, secret prisons and CIA kidnappings.

It is also becoming ever clearer that the Schröder government was informed in detail and at an early stage about the policy of so-called "extraordinary renditions" and "black sites" across Europe. Cabinet ministers in Berlin clearly didn't just know the dirty details about Bush's unrestricted war on terror by reading the newspapers.

Much more at link above

[stumblnrose]

14. It's hard to get transparent here

There's a lot of convenient press coming out of Europe for Rice's visit to the effect that the leaders of European nations know all about the rendition scam and that Knowledge=Complicity. They are getting a taste of the Bush doctrine over there, lie through your teeth so convincingly that no one questions your core insanity. I am watching the Euro press closely for signs of life.

[Synnical]

16. Yeah, it's all verbiage

I'm beyond frustrated.

[DemonFighterLives]

12. I wish I could say,"what a fine representative"

but I can't do that.
Instead she is a lying shill for the torturing administration.
:freak:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Bullshit.