By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 7, 2006

LONDON, Sept. 6 -- President Bush's decision to transfer 14 suspected terrorists to a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from secret CIA detention centers was greeted Wednesday with skepticism among human rights advocates and some lawmakers in Europe.

"By his admission that the CIA has indeed practiced illegal kidnapping and detention, Bush exposes not only his own previous lies," said Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament and vice chairman of a parliamentary inquiry into the CIA's clandestine prison program in Europe. "He also exposes to ridicule those arrogant government leaders in Europe who dismissed as unfounded our fears about 'extraordinary rendition,' " the international transfer of suspects without judicial recourse.

Disclosure by The Washington Post last year that the CIA operated secret prisons in East European countries generated widespread outrage here. No European leader has acknowledged hosting any of the facilities. The Post withheld the names of European countries where the prisons were located at the request of U.S. officials.

A European investigator concluded in June that there were "serious indications" that Poland and Romania had hosted prisons. Officials in those countries strongly denied the assertion.

The investigator, from Europe's human rights watchdog agency, the Council of Europe, also concluded that at least seven other European nations -- Sweden, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Germany, Bosnia and Macedonia --"could be held responsible for violations of the rights of specific individuals" who were handed over to the CIA or captured by U.S. operatives in those countries. None has acknowledged such activities.

In an interview, Ludford said her commission concluded in an interim report in July that it was "highly implausible" that European leaders didn't know about or permit CIA secret jails and activity in their countries. She said there had been, at U.S. request, a "pact of silence" among European leaders to deny the existence of the program.

"Bush has now left the Europeans high and dry," Ludford said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, she said, "can be as loyal as he likes to George Bush, but George Bush, when it suits him, will turn around and pull the rug out from under his feet."

Liz Lynne, another European Parliament member, on Wednesday called for an official European Union protest of Bush's proposal to try suspected terrorists before what she called illegal military tribunals at Guantanamo, Britain's Press Association reported.

"George Bush is steamrollering his way over even his own judicial system. It is essential that the E.U. steps up its efforts to put an end to this terrible abuse of human rights," Lynne said, the news service reported.

European officials and rights activists have also said European governments have allowed the CIA to use their airspace and airports to carry suspects to and from the secret jails. A European Parliament investigation in April concluded that the CIA had operated more than 1,000 flights through European airspace since 2001, but it was unclear how many flights carried terrorism suspects. Amnesty International has also accused the British government of allowing several such flights, despite a denial last year from then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

"After years of allegations come shocking admissions of guilt by the U.S. president as to the existence of secret prisons outside the rule of law," Shami Chakrabarti, director of the Britain-based human rights group Liberty, said in a statement Wednesday. "How long until he confesses to secret torture flights and what then will our prime minister say about British complicity?"

In Washington, Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, praised Bush's decision to bring the suspects out of secret prisons as "an important step."

"At the same time, we are appalled that the Bush administration will further undermine its moral leadership by brazenly continuing to hold prisoners in secret sites in violation of international law," he said in a statement, referring to Bush's decision not to permanently shutter the CIA prison program.

Cox, in a telephone interview, said it was "almost impossible to overstate" the damage the secret prison program has done to the United States' "reputation and moral authority" around the world.

"This will not by itself restore our reputation as a country that respects international law," he said, adding that several people held in the secret prisons have later been proved not guilty.

Ludford, the European Parliament member, said she wanted terrorists put in prison but said authorities had "screwed up the possibility of a proper criminal trial."