EU lawmakers on Monday outlined plans to probe allegations the CIA ran secret prisons in the 25-nation bloc, and studied a list of people it might call for questioning which includes the head of the CIA. The European Parliament set up a temporary committee last month to look into media reports alleging the U.S. intelligence service carried out abductions and "rendition" flights carrying prisoners and ran secret detention centres in Europe.
Senior EU lawmaker Claudio Fava said at the committee's second meeting on Monday evening a first step would be to hear members of the human rights organisations and newspapers which had made the allegations. "We have to talk with representatives of the U.S. administration in order to check the operative mode being applied in the fight against terrorism," Fava said.
"But we need to check first and foremost who in the U.S. administration would be ready to cooperate."
Members of the committee had raised high expectations last month by saying they wanted U.S Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell to testify in person. Lawmakers had also suggested officials from European countries linked to the allegations, such as Germany, Poland, Moldova and Britain, should also appear.
POWELL AND RICE
In a draft list of people who could be called, obtained by Reuters, Fava suggests contacting "a representative of the U.S. administration (current or former)" but gives no name. Fava told the committee that news reports suggested Rice might be willing to testify and Powell was "a possibility". The draft list, yet to be agreed by all members of the committee, includes CIA Director Porter Goss and former chief of the bin Laden unit at the CIA Michael Scheuer, whom it calls "architect of the renditions system". The list also includes former U.S. counterterrorism chiefs Richard Clarke and Vincent Cannistraro.
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