COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON ALLEGATIONS OF SECRET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 008462

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PINR FR EUN
SUBJECT: COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON ALLEGATIONS OF SECRET
DETENTION CENTERS AND RENDITIONS

REF: A. STATE 221655


B. PARIS 8313

C. STATE 219905

D. STATE 220071

E. PARIS 7785

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso
ns 1.4 (b) and (d).



1. (C) Summary: Council of Europe Secretary General Davis
warned the Ambassador December 12, citing NATO
"unresponsiveness" to repeated written queries, that he
intended soon "to go public" with respect to the alleged use
of KFOR-run detention centers in Kosovo for secret CIA secret
prisons (this despite the fact that French NATO officers
present at the scene have categorically rejected the
allegations). On renditions, Davis took a more discreet
approach, saying that this was an issue the CoE's
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE),not its SYG, was addressing;
he added that in fact this was a matter between the COE and
individual member states rather than between the COE and the
U.S. PACE President Rene van der Linden and investigator
Dick Marty have taken a confrontational approach in advance
of a January 23-27 plenary session, publicly stirring the pot
in member states by provocatively accusing the U.S. of
withholding information. End summary.

Kosovo:Access to Alleged secret detention center
-------------- --------------


2. (C) During a December 12 meeting with the Ambassador,
Council of Europe (COE) Secretary General Terry Davis
complained of what he described as continued NATO
unresponsiveness to COE requests for access to KFOR-run
detention centers in Kosovo. He claimed he had sent seven
separate letters to NATO SYG de Hoop Sheffer, none of which
had elicited a satisfactory response. Davis described Kosovo
as a "black hole" for the COE Committee on the Prevention of
Torture, notwithstanding the fact that the COE charter gives
the organization the right to visit any detention place in
member states. Given NATO's obsructionism, Davis told the
Ambassador -- "as a courtesy," he said -- that he would have
no/no choice but to "go public" over the issue in early 2006.


3. (C) Davis concluded that others, but not he, had begun to
"connect the dots" and were speculating that Kosovo might be
a site for secret CIA prisons free from international
scrutiny. We note that on November 26, Le Monde carried an
article in which the COE's Human Rights Commissioner, Alvaro
Gil-Robles, is reported as claiming that a September 2002
visit to Camp Bondsteel had given him the impression that it
may have served as a detainee camp. This story was rebutted
the following day in Le Figaro and Le Monde by the French
general who was in charge of KFOR at the time, who stated
that all interrogations of suspects at Bondsteel had been
conducted in the presence of NATO -- that is to say, French
-- officers.

Renditions
--------------


4. (C) On the renditions issue more broadly, Davis noted that
PACE President van der Linden and investigator Marty, rather
than he, were addressing the matter for the COE. He assured
the Ambassador that he personally viewed the question as one
between the COE and its member states, not between the CoE
and the U.S. Davis noted that the COE had asked European
member state governments, in light of allegations of secret
prisons, whether they were in any way involved.


5. (C) Van der Linden and Dick Marty, for their part,
continue to seek to keep the issue alive. Marty declared to
the press December 13 that he found the allegations of U.S.
renditions credible, even if he allowed that it was still too
early "to assert that there had been any involvement or
complicity of (CoE) member states in illegal actions.". He
publicly chastised the U.S. for failing to provide any
"information or explanations," putting aside any mention of
the Secretary's December 5 statement on the controversy (ref
c),which was provided to Marty under a cover letter from
Ambassador Stapleton on December 7.

Comment
--------------


6. (C) For any number of reasons, including some that may
have more to do with institutional rivalries rather than the
issue at hand, van der Linden and Marty appear to have
decided to take a much more confrontational, public approach
than Davis on the renditions issue. The result is that,
whatever their motivations, the renditions issue appears
likely to stay on the front burner. The PACE Committee on
Legal Affairs and Human Rights announced December 13 that it
will ask the PACE to schedule debate on the issue at the
January 23-27 plenary session. End Comment.

Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm

Stapleton