Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-14-Speech-3-121"
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"en.20051214.14.3-121"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Alexander says he believes in the benefits of an informed discussion, but the problem is that we do not have much information to draw on. You are wholly satisfied with the answers given by Mrs Condoleezza Rice and perhaps you may want to share with us why she managed to win you over so convincingly. I can understand that you do not want a diplomatic dustup, but what is now your strategy in order to find out the truth? That is something I should like to know.
The United States claims that it does not tolerate torture, but, as somebody has just asked, can bringing people almost to the point of drowning really not be termed torture? Mrs Ludford has mentioned the McCain amendment in this connection. Surely we should not be palmed off with any sort of American word play? No, indeed not.
Terror suspects are sometimes not released for months, and often claim that they have been very badly treated. It may, of course, be the case that they were misinformed, but, be that as it may, that is not even the point. The point is that whether they have been tortured or not, it is illegal to detain people without a judicial trial.
That is, of course, what is happening in Guantanamo Bay, but it would be too crazy for words if people were to be detained without trial in Europe as well. If that is the case, if people are locked up, or transported illegally, on European soil without any judicial trial, then the EU’s very core values are at stake and the question arises of what we intend to do about it. It is our duty to mount an inquiry into those cases.
Although Commissioner Frattini explained to us the detail of the legal procedures, we will find this out in due course. If Europe’s core values are on the line, we must respond. We can at any rate set up a temporary committee, along the lines of the one that worked so well in the case of Echelon. We can always consider at a later stage whether we want to change this into a parliamentary inquiry committee. Some Members are already collecting signatures for this, but we have seen in the Echelon committee that even a temporary committee of this kind triggers a dynamic quest for the truth, with a public debate that gives people the boldness to speak out, so that public opinion gets noticed and politicians are forced to go further than simply affirm that they have every confidence, just to please some US Minister."@en1
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