CIA report firmly allocates guilt to member states

4.00.00pm GMT Tue 28th Nov 2006

The EU Committee investigating the use of rendition by the CIA within the EU has today released its final draft report into the affair. The report specifically mentions and criticizes UK Minister for Europe Geoff Hoon for his lack of co-operation with the committee's investigation.

Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford, vice-chair of the Committee, commented in response to the report's findings:

"Geoff Hoon's naming and shaming is an indictment of the unhelpful attitude of the British government, which prefers to leave unanswered the burning questions about its alleged complicity in CIA rendition and torture. Westminster must now call the Blair government properly to account."

"If the EU's aspirations to be a 'human rights community' have any meaning whatsoever, there must now be a forceful EU response to this strong evidence that the CIA abducted, illegally imprisoned and transported alleged terrorists in Europe while European governments, including the UK, turned a blind eye or actively colluded."