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Illegal CIA practices in Europe - Committee of Inquiry
January 19, 2006 1:00 PM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in BBC Radio 4 - The World at One
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in BBC Radio 4 - The World at One
WATO: Concerns about rendition aren't just being raised in Britain, a number of inquiries are taking place, especially in Eastern European countries where there have been allegations of secret interrogation centres. This morning the European Parliament appointed MEPs to conduct their own investigation. The Liberal Democrat Sarah Ludford has been nominated to be vice-chair of the committee.
SL: The purpose of it is to add value to the other national parliamentary and judicial inquiries that are going on in about 10 or 12 European countries, and to the investigations by our sister organization the Council of Europe. I think we've got to the point where, without saying no smoke without fire, I would say that the amount of smoke is striking, and I think it's up to EU governments now to prove to us that there is indeed no fire. The burden of proof has shifted somewhat.
WATO: What, then, do you make of the memo that's been leaked this morning from within the British government? Does that amount to more smoke?
SL: Yes it certainly does, and I think it shows an apparently deliberate attempt to obscure and to spin and even to cover up, and some of the answers we've had from the UK government, in parliamentary answers, in press conferences by the Prime Minister saying "I don't know anything about this," "I don't know anything about airports," "we can't get the information on who was on flights or only at disproportionate cost." Well, disproportionate to what? Disproportionate to the price of human rights abuses?
WATO: Thank you very much Baroness Ludford. We did ask to speak to the Foreign Office but they declined to take part.
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