Rice: US May Stop Torturing POW's in
Europe
Bloomberg
Europeans Say Rice Cleared Concerns Over U.S. Detainee Policy
December 8, 2005
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- European officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice answered their concerns on U.S. detainee policy, which have dominated her
trip to Europe this week.
Rice "cleared the air" on the issue, NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop
Scheffer told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels today.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said NATO allies "received
assurances" from Rice that the U.S. fully conforms to its international
agreements and has "full respect for sovereignty" of other nations. He welcomed
the "U.S. adherence to international rules," particularly the UN Convention
Against Torture.
"The U.S., they are our friends," Douste-Blazy said at a news conference
focused on the detainee issue. "I repeat, they are our friends."
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, who earlier this week, called Rice's
comments about reported secret CIA flights and detention facilities in Europe
"unsatisfactory," told reporters today he was convinced, after hearing Rice's
explanation, that if the prisons existed, the U.S. did not violate
international law there.
Rice wraps up a five-day European trip tomorrow. She has been hounded from
the start by questions on U.S. treatment of terrorism detainees following news
reports of CIA flights through Europe carrying suspected terrorists to secret
prisons in Europe or to countries where they might be tortured.
The prisons were documented by the Washington Post Nov 2. Some are located
in Eastern Europe and are part of a program started almost four years ago and
known by only a handful of U.S. officials, the paper reported.
Violators Will be `Punished'
The U.S. has acknowledged the flights, though not the existence of the
prisons, and Rice has insisted the U.S. won't permit or condone torture at home
or abroad.
Rice said she could not guarantee abuses would not occur in the future. If
they do, people would be punished, she told reporters. "That is the only
promise we can make," she said.
NATO foreign ministers were gathered in Brussels to discuss a range of
issues, including the expansion of NATO's forces in Afghanistan. They met over
dinner last night, then agreed formally today that the International Security
Assistance Force would expand early next year into Afghanistan's south in the
volatile area around Kandahar where reconstruction teams are working.
`An Opportunity'
It was the controversy over U.S. detainee policy that dominated their dinner
last night, U.S. and NATO officials said.
Rice said she raised the matter at the start of the two-hour meal since she
knew it was on peoples' minds.
"What this gave me an opportunity to do was to address this in a transparent
way, from the point of view of what American policy really is, how we intend to
live up to our international obligations and U.S. law," Rice said.
In Kiev yesterday, Rice, commenting on the United Nations Convention Against
Torture, said the treaty "prohibits of course cruel and inhumane and degrading
treatment" and that ban extends "to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether
they are in the United States or outside of the United States."
She appeared to be changing the administration's view of its obligations
under the treaty. Officials have argued that the prohibition only applies to
detainees held in the U.S., not those held abroad.
Rice, who was thrashed in press commentaries after her initial statement on
the matter before leaving Washington Dec. 5, seemed yesterday to be trying to
put an end to criticism and clarify the U.S. stance.
Wiggle Room?
Legal experts and human rights groups said they're still not sure Rice's
statement didn't leave room for cruel treatment of detainees by U.S.
personnel.
"Secretary Rice did not respond to specific allegations that detainees have
been held illegally in CIA detention facilities in Europe," Human Rights Watch
said in a statement yesterday. "She also failed to address rising concerns
about specific U.S. interrogation techniques and torture practices such as
waterboarding, which clearly violate the policy announced today."
David Luban, a professor at Georgetown University Law School, and a visiting
professor at Stanford University, said he at first viewed Rice's statement as a
policy shift and now believes she may be playing a semantic game.
"There is something absurd about the secretary of state making a statement
so cryptic that journalists, lawyers, and, I suppose, diplomats are spending
the day picking through the linguistic entrails to find the hidden message," he
said via e- mail last night.
"There is always wiggle room in defining vague terms like 'cruel' and
'degrading,"' Luban said.
When asked today if any loopholes exist in the U.S. ban, Rice repeated her
previous statements.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Janine Zacharia in Brussels with Rice at jzacharia@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 8, 2005 11:11 EST
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