CIA report is uncompromising in assigning guilt to member states

12.04.29pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 26th Apr 2006

The EU Committee investigating the use of rendition by the CIA within the EU has today released its first draft report into the affair. Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford, Vice-Chair of the Committee has welcomed the report's preliminary findings. Baroness Ludford commented:

"There is now no doubt that the CIA has been responsible for the abduction and illegal detention of alleged terrorists on EU soil. It is also now clear that EU governments have either passively turned a blind eye, or actively collaborated with the CIA.

"There must be an end to ducking and weaving. European citizens are owed a clear explanation of what their governments have got up to in turning a blind eye or actively colluding with the worst aspects of the Bush administration's war on terror."

"Despite the mafia-style "pact of silence" to deny any knowledge or involvement of governments or state agents in rendition cases, the committee must increase the pressure for the truth to come out."