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Confirmation of CIA Prisons Leaves Europeans Mistrustful
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Rene van der Linden, president of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental watchdog agency, said in a statement that "kidnapping people and torturing them in secret -- however tempting the short-term gain may appear to be -- is what criminals do, not democratic governments."
"In the long term, such practices create more terrorists and undermine the values we are fighting for," he said. "Europe will have no part in such a degrading system." His group conducted an investigation of the CIA prison system.
Other European critics found fault with U.S. plans for military tribunals to try prisoners.
These panels are "really not in line with international law," said Liz Lynne, a British member of the European Parliament. Bush wants to try suspects without allowing them full access to the evidence against them, she said.
"The U.S.A. would be very quick to condemn any other country that tried people without letting them see the evidence," Lynne said.
If Bush "announced that he was closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp and bringing the people there to trial according to international law, or releasing them if there is no evidence, then he would repair his credibility," Lynne said. "If he doesn't do that, then I think he's whistling in the wind."
Correspondent Kevin Sullivan in London contributed to this report.
