CIA 'kidnapped terror suspects on EU territory'

A EUROPEAN Parliament probe into so called CIA "torture flights" said today it was clear the United States had kidnapped and illegally detained terror suspects on EU territory.

Claudio Fava said in his first interim report into the alleged CIA abuses that evidence suggested the flights, which also landed at Edinburgh airport, then flew on to countries who used torture.

He said: "The CIA has, on several occasions, clearly been responsible for kidnapping and illegally detaining alleged terrorists on the territory of (EU) member states, as well as for extraordinary renditions."

It was first revealed last November that the CIA had run secret rendition flights and secret prisons in Eastern Europe for al-Qaida suspects, none of which could be proved.

But earlier this month the Council of Europe - a human rights organisation also investigating the alleged CIA abuses - said at least one European state had admitted to handing over terrorism suspects to foreign agents.

After listening to several of the alleged victims of kidnapping and renditions, the interim EU lawmakers' report brings no "smoking gun" into focus, but comes to the same conclusions as the Council of Europe had reached earlier.