Les enfants de John McCain en Europe

L’acceptation par l’administration GW Bush de l’amendement McCain contre la torture devrait fortement renforcer la position de ceux qui, en Europe, veulent que toute la lumière soit faite sur les vols, transits et autres activités de la CIA en Europe. La satisfaction évidemment unanime des membres de l’OTAN des explications de Rice ne suffit plus : cette sorte de bouffonnerie devient insuffisante à partir du moment où l’administration GW s’est trouvée contrainte d’appuyer une nouvelle loi (l’amendement McCain) qui affirme l’opposition aux pratiques de torture. L’affaire va être encore plus alimentée par l’intention d’un groupe bipartisan de sénateurs US d’obtenir des explications de l’administration sur les activités de la CIA hors des USA : un brûlot qu’il sera difficile de contrôler dans les conditions actuelles, après l’adoption de l’amendement McCain, et qui va alimenter directement la polémique européenne.

Pour l’instant, la bataille se poursuit principalement sur deux fronts en Europe.

• D’abord, au niveau du Conseil de l’Europe, où la situation le 14 décembre était la suivante, selon des sources internes : « An investigator looking into claims of secret CIA prisons in Europe said Tuesday [13 December] that people were apparently abducted and transferred between countries illegally. “Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards,” Swiss senator Dick Marty said in a written report to a Council of Europe committee in Paris. He added that “information gathered to date reinforced the credibility of the allegations concerning the transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any judicial involvement, in European countries.” He also said that the United States has never formally denied such allegations. He said he “deplores the fact that no information or explanations” were provided by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who faced repeated questions about the CIA prison allegations on her recent visit to Europe. Dick Marty, added that European states faced accusations of a serious breach of their human rights obligations if they had cooperated with the underground network. “While it was still too early to assert that there had been any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions, the seriousness of the allegations and the consistency of the information gathered to date justified the continuation of an in-depth inquiry,” he said. “If the allegations proved correct the member states would stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe.” »

• Le deuxième front est le Royaume-Uni, où une enquête parlementaire est déjà en route, sur un bon rythme. En même temps qu’il rendait compte de la capitulation de l’administration face à McCain, le Guardian annonçait hier à ce propos:

« MPs from across the political spectrum in Britain yesterday stepped up pressure on the government to provide information on its role in CIA ‘torture flights’. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative chairman of the all-party group on extraordinary rendition, said the issue, would not go away. At a Commons press conference, with Labour MP Lynne Jones, Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris and Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, Mr Tyrie said: “There is a real risk that the government may find themselves complicit by inaction. Turning a blind eye becomes something more than negligence and may be shown to be unlawful.”

» In a letter to Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, he demanded to know whether the government had asked the US administration how many CIA flights transporting detainees had passed through British airspace and whether it had sought permission for them. He also asked Mr Straw whether he had checked flight records of the Ministry of Defence, air traffic control, and the records of private companies such as BAA, Infratil, and TBI Group, which run Glasgow, Prestwick and Luton airports. Mr Straw has said only that Foreign Office and Home Office records had been searched. The Home Office has already said it destroys records of transit flights. The MoD says its records could be supplied only at “disproportionate cost”. »

Publié le 16 décembre 2005 à 10H08