WASHINGTON December 11, 2005 (Telegraph) - The European Union secretly ALLOWED the United States to use transit facilities on European soil to transport "criminals" in 2003, according to a previously unpublished document. The revelation contradicts repeated EU denials that it knew of "rendition" flights by the CIA.
The EU agreed to give America access to facilities - presumably airports - in confidential talks in Athens during which the war on terror was discussed, the original minutes show. But all references to the agreement were deleted from the record before it was published.
The minutes of the Athens meeting on January 22, 2003, were written by the then Greek presidency of the EU after the talks with a US delegation headed by a justice department official. EU officials confirmed that a full account was circulated to all member governments, and would have been sent to the Home Office.
The document, entitled New Transatlantic Agenda, EU-US meeting on Justice and Home Affairs, details the subjects discussed by the 31 people present. The agenda included the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and extradition agreements.
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Whereas other EU officials have announced themselves newly satisfied with their old decisions, France has consistently played dumb, only allowing that she has " acknowledges" or "taken note" of American assurances on the torture of innocents in the cocktail lounges and coffee bars of Europa's airports. Please report any real or imagined sightings (e.g., if you have a vivid dream or a frightful hallucination) of American torture here. And these folk will also be interested.
Euros love to sign agreements. There are always well-catered big fancy agreement-signing parties. But shortly after the last Vienna sausage has been scarfed and the salted peanut bowl emptied into a pocket of the rented tux, the agreement is forgotten.
pavefrance.co,
The EU agreed to give America access to facilities - presumably airports - in confidential talks in Athens during which the war on terror was discussed, the original minutes show. But all references to the agreement were deleted from the record before it was published.
The minutes of the Athens meeting on January 22, 2003, were written by the then Greek presidency of the EU after the talks with a US delegation headed by a justice department official. EU officials confirmed that a full account was circulated to all member governments, and would have been sent to the Home Office.
The document, entitled New Transatlantic Agenda, EU-US meeting on Justice and Home Affairs, details the subjects discussed by the 31 people present. The agenda included the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and extradition agreements.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Whereas other EU officials have announced themselves newly satisfied with their old decisions, France has consistently played dumb, only allowing that she has " acknowledges" or "taken note" of American assurances on the torture of innocents in the cocktail lounges and coffee bars of Europa's airports. Please report any real or imagined sightings (e.g., if you have a vivid dream or a frightful hallucination) of American torture here. And these folk will also be interested.
Euros love to sign agreements. There are always well-catered big fancy agreement-signing parties. But shortly after the last Vienna sausage has been scarfed and the salted peanut bowl emptied into a pocket of the rented tux, the agreement is forgotten.
pavefrance.co,