From the Council of Europe
Strasbourg, 01.03.2006, ‘Europe appears to be a happy hunting ground for foreign security services’ said Terry Davis at a press conference on the occasion of the publication of his report under Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights. ‘Hardly any country in Europe has any legal provisions to ensure an effective oversight over the activities of foreign agencies on their territory’ he continued.
The analysis of the replies received by the governments of the Council of Europe member states to his letter of 21 November 2005 also revealed that the existing procedures to monitor who and what is transiting through European airports and airspace do not provide adequate safeguards against abuse. Indeed, no Council of Europe member state appears to have established any kind of procedure in order to assess whether civil aircraft are used for purposes which would be incompatible with internationally recognised human rights standards.
The Secretary General also said that the existing rules on state immunity create considerable obstacles for effective law enforcement in relation to the activities of foreign agents. ‘Immunity cannot mean impunity’ he added. ‘Exceptions to state immunity already recognised in the case of torture should be extended to other serious violations of human rights, such as enforced disappearances.’
Terry Davis said that his inquiry will continue in the case of individual countries which provided incomplete or inadequate replies, and he announced that he will make specific proposals for new Council of Europe legal standards to deal with the deficiencies revealed by the report.
The full report and further information is available here
I take it this Terry Davis is a lunatic Labour MP. How weird can you get ? we spent 50 years unable to control Soviet agents deep inside the BND, we were never quite sure how many operated inside SIS or MI5 or Parliament; and we have zero idea how many Al-Qaeda or similar Muslim agents are operating in our cities, schools, police agencies or transport systems…………………..but Terry Davis thinks we can have a giant European Abwehr to licence foreign spies and presumably to check they are okay to work with children
CIA TORTURE FLIGHT PHOTOS are at this address
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334675.htm…
on the UK Indymedia.
UK and other nations must insist on inspecting each US flight before granting it landing permission.
The UK must cooperate fully in investigating CIA flights through its airspace.
Then the UK will be in compliance with its treaty obligations to the EU and with international law and its own laws.
inspecting each US flight before granting it landing permission.
What a weird idea.
So we should expand Heathrow drastically to cope with each US airline landing and check each individual on an Airbus or Boeing 747……………….pity about connecting flights.
Then we should scrap diplomatic immunity and check every single aircraft
Then we should hope and pray that British aircraft are not delayed by other countries engaging in a worldwide search
There will be little point in issuing the Official Airline Guide any more as it will be faster to go by ship or road than use aircraft
Obviously, you can't check all US flights. But in fact we know the front companies and the physical planes used by the CIA. These can be searched. They do not have diplomatic immunity, because they are operating behind a commercial front.
Obviously, from time to time the CIA will change front companies and planes, and you will get behind for a while. But eventually you catch up, and there is plenty of scope for random searches of non-scheduled, private flights without the kind of disruption you describe.
Craig