Council of Europe demands CIA flights answers

The United States is coming under increasing pressure from European governments to reply to charges that planes with alleged links to CIA prisoner transports have quietly touched down in their countries.

From Portugal to Iceland, reports of landings by private jets that have allegedly been used for the CIA’s extraordinary renditions programme have added fuel to already burning criticism of the treatment of prisoners in the US-led war on terror.

“This is proof that we are co-operating too intimately with the CIA and the American government in the so-called war on terror,” Sweden’s Left Party leader Lars Ohly said.

“If these allegations turn out to be true, the crucial thing is whether these flights landed in the member states with or without the knowledge and approval of the authorities,” Council of Europe Secretary-General Terry Davis said.

The Council of Europe is a human rights watchdog.