EU Wants Details On CIA Prisons

Investigator Seeks Satellite Images Of Sites In Romania And Poland

(CBS/AP)  Britain has agreed to write to the United States on behalf of the European Union requesting clarification of reports of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, a diplomat said Tuesday.

Britain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, was asked by several nations including Finland and the Netherlands to write the letter during a EU foreign ministers meeting Monday, the European diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The parliamentary assembly of the 46-member Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog, is investigating allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al Qaeda suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, the head of that European investigation said Tuesday that he is investigating 31 suspect planes that landed in Europe in recent years, and is trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Swiss senator Dick Marty said the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog on whose behalf he was investigating, had a "moral obligation" to look into claims the CIA set up secret prisons on the continent to interrogate al Qaeda suspects.

He said that despite lack of proof, there were "many hints, such as suspicious moving patterns of aircraft, that have to be investigated."

Given the limited powers of the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, Marty's chances of uncovering explosive state secrets seemed unclear.

But the potential impact ranges from major embarrassment for the United States to turmoil in countries that might have participated, even unwittingly. Countries found housing secret detention centers could also be suspended or expelled from the 46-member Council of Europe.

The claims were first reported in The Washington Post on Nov. 2. A day later, Human Rights Watch said it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.

According to the Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.

Several other European nations are also looking into reports that secret CIA flights touched down in their territory while carrying prisoners.

The allegations triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted the continent's top human rights organization and the international Red Cross to say they would look into the issue. Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's human rights principles.