The senior European diplomat could not have been clearer: “You don’t talk about torture in the morning and then say in the afternoon: ‘Democratise yourself’.” His comments, on the contrast between the Bush administration’s use of intensive interrogation techniques abroad and its public message about worldwide democratisation, underlined how Iraq-war tensions have found an echo in the controversy over the CIA’s alleged “secret prisons”. They also show how, despite President George W. Bush’s high-profile attempt this year at rapprochement with Europe, the two sides of the Atlantic are still often at odds over international law and the fight against terrorism. The storm has steadily grown ever since the Washington Post claimed this month that Europe had hosted secret facilities used by the Central Intelligence Agency to interrogate terror suspects. The issue is also likely to overshadow the inaugural trip to Washington on Tuesday of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s new foreign minister, who will discuss the issue with Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state. Sean McCormack, State Department spokesman, on Monday said Ms Rice would be prepared to discuss the issue during her visit to Europe next week, which includes stops in Germany, Romania, Ukraine and Belgium. “I think that the conversation will take place in the broader context of our common struggle against terrorism,” said Mr McCormack. Poland and Romania, indicated as likely hosts of the facilities by human rights groups, have vehemently denied any such allegations. But a second line of inquiry has already yielded more concrete results: records of US aircraft stopping in countries such as Spain, Ireland and Switzerland. The suspicion is that they were carrying suspects for interrogation in places where torture is practised or where, as in Guantánamo Bay, the applicable rules are less binding than in the US or the European Union. Judicial investigations into the affair are beginning in Italy, Spain and Germany, while Sweden and Norway have asked the US for more information about CIA flights. Last week Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, was asked by his EU counterparts to request an explanation from the US. “We cannot limit ourselves solely to the ‘secret prisons’ issue,” said Dick Marty, the Swiss politician who has headed the main political investigation into the incidents under the auspices of the 46-member Council of Europe, covering countries from east and west Europe, including Russia. He said that further investigation needed to look into “illegal detention, even of a short duration” of US prisoners on European soil, such as stops to refuel aircraft.
At heart, many European countries recoil from Washington’s approach to its “war on terrorism”, preferring instead the legalistic approach for which the Bush administration criticises its Democratic predecessor. The controversy is strongest in the “old Europe” countries to the west of the continent, where US diplomacy is often seen as particularly heavy-handed. Despite Mr Bush’s multiple trips to Europe this year, public opinion has not warmed to his administration. A poll by the German Marshall Fund of the US found European attitudes towards the US largely unchanged. The US and the EU have co-operated more closely this year on specific issues such as Syria and Iran, and the US has modest hopes for better relations with Germany in the wake of the election of Angela Merkel, the new Christian Democrat chancellor. But the CIA affair has tested the relationship anew, because European governments must weigh their wish to work with Washington against domestic calls to be tough on torture. “This is a reflection of how the two sides see the world differently and how they see terrorism differently,” says Jeremy Shapiro, director of research at the centre for US and Europe at the Brookings Institution in Europe. “But I don’t see this as a huge problem for EU-US relations, because there’s not going to be any hugely public spat on this issue. The US won’t say that there weren’t any secret prisons in Europe, but it will give assurances that they are not there now.” He added that a quiet US backdown was all the more likely because of the attempt by Senator John McCain to provide firmer checks against the use of torture – an initiative that has led to a public relations disaster for the White House. But in the meantime the dispute has only served to highlight, once again, the profound difference in philosophy between the EU and the Bush administration.
