European Parliament presses Romania on CIA transfers

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) could have transfered terrorist suspects to Romania without the knowledge of Romanian authorities, EU representatives said Thursday.

After three days of meetings with officials in Bucharest, members of an EU commission set up to investigate CIA prisoner transfers in Europe said it was possible the Romanian government was ignorant of the agency's activities.

"We cannot rule out that CIA transfers to the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base (in eastern Romania) were unbeknownst to Romanian officials," said commission member Claudio Fava.

Last month US President George W. Bush admitted that the CIA had covertly held prisoners in overseas camps, an act the EU said violated international law.

The Romanian government has denied involvement, but a Romanian parliamentary committee appointed to investigate the allegations revealed in June that CIA planes had made stopovers there for technical reasons such as refueling.

During Thursday's news conference, both Fava and the lawmaker leading the probe, Portuguese deputy Carlo Coelho, expressed wariness over Romania's failure to investigate the claims earlier.

"The CIA's activities in Romania were not sufficiently monitored and it is surprising that Bucharest did not demand more of an explanation from the American government, since George Bush confirmed the existence of flights transporting prisoners two months ago," Fava said.

Fava also referred to the mysterious crash landing of a Gulfstream plane at Bucharest's Baneasa airport two years ago, which some experts have implicated in the CIA operation.

"The plane's seven passengers had passports of American servicemen and the plane was chartered by a company that works exclusively for American institutions, notably the CIA," he said.

Coelho told AFP that when asked such questions, Romanian officials "responded that they had not approached the American president for it is assumed that the Romanian government is aware of what is going on in its country."

"There are still unanswered questions and our investigation will continue," Coelho said.

On Tuesday, the head of the Romanian parliamentary committee investigating the allegations, Norica Nicolai, reiterated that no terrorist had ever been interrogated in Romania.

"Our investigation proves that no passenger left or came on board these aircraft that the CIA had used to transport terrorists," said Nicolai.

A June report by the Council of Europe alleged that 14 countries including Romania had colluded in or tolerated the secret transfer of terror suspects by the United States.