Condoleezza Rice's visit to Europe did nothing to dispel the falsehoods, distortions and evasions in which United States policy on torture is now enmeshed, writes Sidney Blumenthal.
9 - 12 - 2005
The metamorphosis of Condoleezza Rice from the chrysalis of the protégé into the butterfly of the state department has not been a natural evolution but has demanded self-discipline.
She has burnished an image of the ultimate loyalist, yet betrayed her mentor, George HW Bush's national-security advisor Brent Scowcroft. She is the team player, yet carefully inserted knives in the back of her predecessor, Colin Powell, climbing up them like a ladder of success. She is the person most trusted on foreign policy by the president, yet was an enabler for vice-president Cheney and the neo-conservatives. Now her public-relations team at the state department depicts her as a restorer of realism, builder of alliances and maker of peace.
On her first trip to Europe in February 2005 she left the sensation of being fresh by listening rather than lecturing. The flirtation of power appeared to have a more seductive effect than arrogance. So the old face became a new face. But on this week's trip the iron butterfly emerged.
Into the whirlwind
Rice arrived as the enforcer of the Bush administration's torture policy. She reminded the queasy Europeans that their intelligence services, one way or another, are involved in the rendition of hundreds of suspected terrorists transported through their airports for harsh interrogation in countries like Jordan and Egypt or secret CIA prisons known as "black sites." With her warnings, Rice recast the western alliance as a partnership in complicity. In her attempt to impose silence, she spread guilt. Everybody is unclean in the dirty war and nobody has any right to complain. "What I would hope that our allies would acknowledge," she said, "is that we are all in this together."
For the European leaders, facing publics hostile to US policy in Iraq and torture, Rice's visit was disquieting. In Italy, prosecutors have issued indictments of twenty-two current and former CIA operatives for their "extraordinary rendition " of an Egyptian suspect; among those indicted is the former Rome CIA station chief, whom an Italian judge has ruled has no immunity from prosecution. Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, asked about renditions, said, "We know absolutely nothing. We have not one single piece of knowledge." If the Italian government knew the facts, it would investigate, he added.
In Britain, the foreign office released a diplomatic disclaimer that it has "no evidence to corroborate media allegations about the use of UK territory in rendition operations." But upset members of the House of Commons have launched a parliamentary inquiry into whether the UK has violated the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Foreign minister Jack Straw sent Rice a letter requesting any "clarification the U.S. can give about these reports in the hope that this will allay parliamentary and public concerns."
When the Washington Post reported on the eve of Rice's trip that CIA prisons holding US detainees exist in Romania, Poland and other eastern European nations, it triggered an explosion. Even though Romania and Poland denied the report, the European Commission and the Council of Europe began investigations. The commission declared that for any member state to harbour a CIA prison would be "extremely serious" and would bring down sanctions upon it.
In Germany, Rice was greeted by the new chancellor, Angela Merkel, eager to repair relations with the Bush administration made awkward by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's opposition to the Iraq war. Rice's visit was supposed to smooth over the conflicts of the past, but instead it surfaced new ones that indicated that the divisions between Germany – and Europe – and the US are rooted in the Bush administration's fundamental policies.
Rice arrived in Berlin on the heels of a Washington Post report about the rendition, to a secret CIA jail in Afghanistan called the Salt Pit, of a German citizen, Khaled el-Masri who was tortured and imprisoned for five months in a case of mistaken identity. After meeting with Rice, Merkel announced that Rice had acknowledged that the US had made a "mistake" in the case. But Rice countered with a statement denying she had said that at all. The reconciliation with Germany was botched; Merkel was embarrassed; and Rice's credibility, at least in the German press, was left in tatters.
Rice had hoped to quell the controversy before she landed. On Monday, as she boarded her plane at Andrews Air Force base in Washington, she delivered a lengthy statement on torture. Her speech was remarkable for its defensive, dense and evasive tone. It was replete with half-truths, outright falsehoods, distortions and subterfuges…
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy/condoleezza_3110.jsp
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