This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

150613Z Dec 05

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