EU parliament to back CIA secret prisons investigation
The European Parliament will vote today to formally approve the creation of a committee of inquiry into allegations of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.
The committee would consist of 46 members, to be announced tomorrow, from all political groups in the assembly, with the conservative European People’s Party, the biggest grouping, supplying 17 deputies and the Socialists 13 members.
This would be the EU body’s first investigation into the alleged CIA prisons, though several EU countries have launched their own probes, as has the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights watchdog.
Allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al Qaida suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe first became public in early November.
Human Rights Watch has said it has circumstantial evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.
Both countries have denied any involvement, as have all others that have been mentioned in news reports.
