U.S. Says European Governments Knew About CIA Rendition Flights

A photo taken on March 12, 2004, of a suspected CIA plane departing from Palma de Mallorca airport in Spain (AFP) May 17, 2006 -- European Union investigators today quoted U.S. officials as suggesting that a wave of CIA flights that secretly transferred terrorist suspects across Europe could only have been carried out with the "knowledge and support" of host nations.

The head of a European Parliament probe into the flights, Carlos Coelho, said the information was gathered during a visit to the United States last week. Coelho said U.S. State Department officials insisted that the United States never violated the sovereignty of EU countries during the so-called extraordinary renditions.

Fellow investigator Claudio Fava said up to 50 people were moved across the continent to jails in third countries where
some faced torture and other abuses.

(AFP, Reuters)