Carlos Coelho
The aim of our visit to Washington was first and foremost to enter into a dialogue with our American friends in order to shed more light on the alleged practices of illegal detention
Claudio Fava
We come back from Washington with the feeling there is much more to be done, our works need to continue
Dan Fried (US assistant Secretary of State)
The United States is at war against terrorism. We are attempting to keep our people safe. We know we are dealing with things in an imperfect fashion but sometimes we need to choose between security needs and human rights issues
John Bellinger (Conselheiro do Departamento de Estado)
There is nothing illegal in sending CIA flights to Europe in the context of our cooperation on intelligence matters. But we cannot enter into the business of confirming or denying all individual allegations. (...) Every member of the press and NGOs has been digging and digging - but they were not able to find more than two or three cases, and all allegations mentioned date from two or three years ago. When a country receives such an unexpected terrorist attack as 9/11, it takes a certain time to organise the right response
Carlos Coelho
Nous regrettons que pas plus de parlementaires ou de membres de cette administration ou de la précédente, que nous avions demandés à rencontrer n'aient accepté notre invitation
Claudio Fava
We think that the detailed confirmation we have of pressure being exerted by the White House on journalists not to name certain European countries is an extremely important point for our work. (...) But we are going to go back to Europe with valuable information, and we do consider that even a 'no comment' can be construed as providing valuable information.
Carlos Coelho
It is very difficult to find common ground if, for instance, regarding the facts, the European sides state this is a form of torture and the American side say it is not
John Bellinger
We reiterated, as we have in the past, that as much as we would like to be able to deny the many allegations out there that are simply incorrect, that we have regretfully concluded that we simply cannot comment on specific allegations
John Bellinger (advogado do U.S. State Department)
The suggestion that intelligence flights are somehow engaged in illegal activity really undermines the cooperation between the United States and Europe. (...) There is no evidence for the suggestion or implication that however many flights there have been that they have all got detainees on them or that an intelligence flight is engaged in some sort of improper activity.
Manfred Nowak (Relator das N.U sobre a tortura)
Secret detentions centres are illegal and one of the gravest violations of human rights, including the right to fair trail and human rights international law. (...) we have the knowledge of around 28 people who have been detained by the United States but we ignore where they are
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (Secretário-Geral da NATO)
Je n'ai aucune information sur des vols présumés de la CIA ou des présumés transferts (de prisonniers). Cela n'a pas été discuté à l'OTAN et je ne vois pas le besoin d'en discuter
Javier Solana - Alto Representante da UE para a PESC
Não tenho informações que me permitam pronunciar-me acerca da veracidade das acusações, ou atribuições para as pedir porque os Estados-Membros as podem recusar. (...) Os Tratados são o que são. Lamento, mas não tenho poderes para investigar o caso nos Estados-Membros
Alvaro Gil Robles (ex-Comissário para os Direitos Humanos)
We need to say this publicly: there are situations where human rights have been violated by certain members of the Council of Europe – Chechnya is just one example. We also have what we call 'black holes' in European countries like Moldova and Georgia, where human rights do not apply
Josep Borrell
Estoy seguro de que la comisión habrá hecho todo lo posible para aclarar algo que a los europeos nos debe importar mucho: hasta qué punto respetamos y hacemos respetar en nuestra casa esos derechos humanos que decimos defender y defendemos en todo el mundo (...) se han podido producir connivencias o colaboraciones fuera del marco legal entre gobiernos europeos o agencias europeas y los servicios de inteligencia norteamericanos
Claudio Fava
No one among the national security authorities - save for a few exceptions - has ever cared to verify what was the real aim of those flights, who were in their crew and passengers, or rather prisoners
Claudio Fava
After 9/11, within the framework of the fight against terrorism, the violation of human and fundamental rights was not isolated or an excessive measure confined to a short period of time, but rather a widespread regular practice in which the majority of European countries were involved
Claudio Fava
Plus d'un millier de vols secrets de la CIA ont transité depuis 2001 dans les aéroports et cieux européens, sans que les Etats européens ne demandent aucune information. (...) Les pays européens ont fait preuve d'une "inertie coupable" face aux opérations de la CIA sur leur territoire (...) Il est invraisemblable que certains gouvernements européens n'avaient pas connaissance des activités de restitution extraordinaire qui avaient lieu sur leur territoire, dans leur espace aérien, ou dans leurs aéroports
Craig Murray, antigo Embaixador UK no Uzbekistão
Selon l'accord d'échange d'informations entre les Etats-Unis et le Royaume-Uni, ces deux pays ont pour pratique d'utiliser des aveux obtenus sous la torture dans les pays tiers
Craig Murray
Les services allemands collaborent très bien avec les services ouzbeks. Il est certain qu'ils ont utilisé des informations obtenues sous la torture par les services ouzbeks. (...) Les Etats-Unis et la Grande Bretagne ont pris la décision politique d'accepter des renseignements extorqués sous la torture, ce qui est la précondition à des restitutions extraordinaires. Sans acceptation préalable de la torture à l'étranger, ces restitutions ne pourraient jamais être réalisées
Gijs de Vries
Je n'ai aucune information permettant de confirmer ces soupçons. (...) Ces allégations n'ont pas encore fait l'objet de preuves formelles et définitives (...) Les Etats membres se sont réservés, dans les traités européens, le droit exclusif d'évaluer le fonctionnement de leurs services de renseignements. Le Conseil de l'Union européenne n'a aucun pouvoir en cette matière