“EU Hypocrisy on CIA Secret Prisons”

The allegations concerning CIA flights transporting prisoners to secret jails in Europe have seriously harmed the defending status of the human rights and democracy so ostentatiously proclaimed by the EU. Condoleeza Rice refused to comment about it but specified that the extraordinary actions taken had saved European lives, stressing the fact that the US is against torture.
According to Der Spiegel, the German government learned of 437 CIA flights over its airspace, but Berlin wants no quarrels with the US. On its side, The Guardian counted up 210 flights to the UK. On November 2, 2005, the Washington Post revealed the existence of CIA secret jails in former communist bloc countries – jails that recognize no rights and where prisoners are put into isolated cells. The location of such illegal jails is known only by some authorities. According to the Post, the interrogation methods used in those jails breaches the UN conventions and the US military rule. The American Civil Liberties Union decided to bring the CIA to court. Amnesty International said that Guantanamo is part of a wide prison network. CICR said that the methods used in Guantanamo verge on torture. Human Right Watch said that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the practice of religious humiliations is something common. At this point, there are European Parliamentarians such as Sarah Ludorf who demand an explanation.
In the meantime, Porter Goss and Dick Cheney are asking to acquit the CIA of the law that prohibits torture. European leaders may probably know what’s happening in their countries, but they say nothing. How then, under such circumstances, can they enjoy credibility as far as human rights are concerned?