Europe delivered a rebuke to the United States last week, although it was hardly without controversy on the continent. The EU Parliament approved a report yesterday that accuses key European nations of colluding or turning a blind eye to the CIA practice of “extraordinary renditions” and allowing the CIA “secret prisons” to be allowed on the continent.The report is significant because it requires the countries in question, the UK, Italy, Germany and other nations, to conduct investigations into what has been happening over the past five years. It comes at the same time an Italian judge has indicted 26 Americans and 5 Italians for involvement in the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar on the streets of Milan in 2003. Abu Omar was abducted in Milan, taken to Aviano Air Base and then flown via Ramstein in Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. The indictment is the first time the practice of extraordinary rendition could face scrutiny in open court, with the trial set to begin in June.
So, the approval of the report by both the EU Parliament and the EU Commission is sort of the first shot in what could be a long battle between the EU and the US over what went on the last five years here. And essentially the question that could be asked is this: Has the US overstepped its bounds in its military relationships with European nations, and has Europe been too accommodating to the military wishes of the US? The question that I think needs to be asked is this. Is it time to end the US military occupation of Europe?
