Rice Warns Europe on Questioning U.S. Tactics

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, facing a potential new rift in transatlantic relations, warned European leaders Monday that objections to the U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects overseas could damage efforts to protect their own citizens from terrorist attacks.

Rice embarked on a trip to Europe amid a monthlong furor over alleged secret CIA prisons there and widening suspicions by European leaders and citizens alike that U.S. agencies have adopted brutal tactics in dealing with terrorism suspects.

But in response to a call for clarification from European leaders, Rice was unyielding Monday. She declared that the United States does not torture prisoners or hand them over to governments that do, but she refused to confirm or deny that the U.S. government maintains secret prisons around the world -- called “black sites” by critics -- to detain terrorism suspects, a chief concern of many of the Europeans.

Rice also staunchly defended the U.S. practice of “rendition” -- sending suspects to another country for interrogation, often after arresting them on the streets of a foreign country outside local law.

She said that when U.S. and European officials cooperate in the “two-way street” of counter-terrorism, “we share intelligence that has helped protect European countries from attack, helping save European lives.”

It was the most detailed U.S. response to growing world concern and anger over American treatment of detainees that has been fueled by abuses at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, questions about the detention center at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegations of abuses elsewhere. But most critics and human rights organizations were unconvinced, citing Rice’s statements as evidence of questionable U.S. policies.

Rice’s comments came at the start of a five-day trip on which she is likely to be questioned repeatedly by European officials about reports that the CIA has been flying terrorism suspects to eight alleged secret prison sites for questioning. Several European governments, under public pressure to learn whether the United States is violating European sovereignty or human rights standards, are investigating the reports.

Diplomatically, U.S. officials and their European allies are eager to avoid another collision like the one that grew from bitter differences over the U.S.-led Iraq invasion in 2003. But it is unclear whether the Bush administration is willing to share information the Europeans are seeking on sensitive intelligence issues, even in private meetings in coming days. At least publicly, Rice said further details were not going to be divulged, especially on the question of the secret prisons.

“Whether or not we engage in certain activities is a matter of classification because they’re intelligence activities, so it wouldn’t matter what the answer is; I wouldn’t comment,” Rice told reporters after her morning remarks.

Some European officials have warned that cooperation on a range of issues could be set back if the issue is not resolved. Among European allies, the U.S. government needs cooperation on several security-related issues, such as counter-terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation and the Middle East peace process.

Most Europeans believe the Bush administration has mistreated prisoners, a view that may have been reinforced by White House threats in recent weeks to veto legislation that would ban torture.

Although Rice did not confirm that the CIA has set up secret sites for interrogating prisoners, as the American and European press have reported for the last month, her words left no doubt that the United States sometimes shuttles suspects between countries as they undergo interrogation.

She contended that dangerous and “effectively stateless” terrorists have made traditional criminal or military justice outmoded.

“The captured terrorists of the 21st century do not fit easily into traditional systems of criminal or military justice, which were designed for different needs,” Rice said. “We have to adapt.”

Critics have accused the United States of using rendition to hand over suspects to countries where harsh treatment is acceptable.

But Rice contended that rendition is warranted where countries can’t detain or prosecute suspects or carry out traditional extraditions because of local laws.

“Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives,” she asserted. She did not name a specific instance in which an incident was disrupted through rendition.

Rice said that France used rendition 10 years ago to take a terrorist called “Carlos the Jackal” out of Sudan to France for trial and imprisonment.

She added that it was up to other governments to decide if they wanted to work with the United States.

She said public debate abroad was healthy, but that she hoped it “also includes a healthy regard for the responsibilities of governments to protect their citizens.”

The Sept. 11 attacks have spurred a tougher U.S. posture, Rice acknowledged. “I know what it is like to face an inquiry into whether everything was done that could have been done,” she said. “So now, before the next attack, we should all consider the hard choices that democratic governments must face.”

Later, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters that “what you heard in public is largely what we’ll be saying in private” this week when Rice gives formal replies to European inquiries.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw issued a statement of support for Rice, pointing to her comments that the United States would not breach American laws against torture, and that U.S. policies were built upon the need to fight terrorism.

“All of us work together -- within the rule of law -- to use every tool at our disposal to deal with the threat of terrorism,” Straw said in his statement.

But former Irish President Mary Robinson told Irish broadcaster RTE that the Bush administration remains “ambivalent about what constitutes torture” and has not disclosed whether it is shipping suspects through Ireland.

Other European diplomats have also said in recent days that U.S. officials are not disclosing whether they have transported suspects through their airspace.

Amnesty International, a critic of U.S. detention policies, released records Monday on more than 800 flights in or out of airspace in European countries between 2001 and 2005, counting takeoffs and landings. The flights were by planes believed to be owned by firms affiliated with the CIA or aircraft reportedly used by the CIA.

“Secretary Rice is either misinformed or is part of an ongoing, orchestrated effort by the administration to mislead the American people and the world community,” said William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Also Monday, ABC News reported that 11 Al Qaeda suspects held at secret CIA prisons in Europe were transferred because the locations where they had been held were shut down in the wake of media reports investigating the existence of such sites.

In Germany, where Rice landed Monday evening, new Chancellor Angela Merkel is under increasing pressure from her fragile coalition government to get explanations from Rice about alleged CIA flights that stopped in Germany in recent years. The German government Monday confirmed reports that planes suspected of belonging to the CIA made more than 430 overflights or stopovers at U.S. military bases in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base.