Despite a Mountain of Evidence US Rejects Claims of CIA Tortue Flights

Brussels, Belgium - A U.S. official on Thursday dismissed as “absurd” allegations of a large number of CIA flights carrying terrorist suspects over Europe.

John Bellinger, a legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also said allegations of illegal CIA activities in Europe were hurting intelligence cooperation between the United States and European governments.

The European Parliament and the continent’s leading human- rights body are investigating reports that the CIA operated secret detention centers and flights in Europe.

EU lawmakers said last week that data from the EU’s air traffic agency show there have been more than 1,000 clandestine CIA flights over Europe since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bellinger, who was meeting EU and NATO officials, did not deny that there have been CIA flights over Europe or ones with stopovers, but he dismissed implications that all had detainees on board. He said the flights may have carried intelligence experts, counterterrorist officials or forensic evidence.

“There have been very few cases of renditions,” he told reporters, using the term for turning suspects over to other countries. “. . . The suggestion that there has been a large number of flights is simply an absurd allegation.”

Asked whether the renditions were continuing, Bellinger said: “The last allegation of rendition was something like three years ago.”

“This furor over renditions, and the furor over the flights alone, and the suggestion that flights alone are somehow improper . . . already is undermining intelligence cooperation,” Bellinger said. “Next time, the U.S. may be reluctant to bring people to Europe or exchange information,” he added.

A European Parliament delegation is traveling to Washington next week to meet U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried and other officials.

The allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al- Qaida suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe were first reported last year. Human Rights Watch identified Romania and Poland as possible sites of the detention centers, but both countries denied involvement.

The EU parliament launched an inquiry into the reports in January.

Associated Press