Originally published January 6 2006
CIA secret prisons issue has not disrupted NATO talks regarding the future of Afghanistan
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In Brussels, NATO has continued to discuss plans to expand its role as a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, in spite of the media frenzy surrounding reports of secret CIA prisons spread throughout Europe.
NATO foreign ministers will push ahead with plans to expand the alliance's peacekeeping role in Afghanistan at talks on Thursday despite the furor over reports of secret CIA jails, alliance diplomats said.
The expansion of the NATO-led ISAF force from 10,000 to around 16,000 expected next year has dominated the military alliance's agenda for months and is central to U.S. efforts to reduce its military presence there.
Several NATO allies are seen raising concerns with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over U.S. handling of terror suspects during the meeting, but diplomats saw little appetite for the issue to replace Afghanistan as the focus of the talks.
As far as we are concerned, the story is Afghanistan," said one senior diplomat who declined to be named.
A second European diplomat, from a country reported to have been used for secret CIA flights of detainees, said he expected Rice to raise the matter but his country would not be doing so.
Rice sought on Monday to deflect criticism of U.S. detention policy before leaving for Europe, saying European intelligence agencies had helped Washington extract information from suspects and urging European allies to see "we are all in this together."
The media reports of secret CIA jails in Europe have been fodder for corridor discussions at NATO headquarters, but have not featured at weekly meetings of the alliance's top envoys.
Yet the alliance is confident that ISAF policies bear up to scrutiny, pointing to mission rules to be approved by ministers on Thursday that will require ISAF troops to release or hand over suspects to Afghan authorities within a maximum 96 hours.
Suspects will have access to Red Cross/Crescent workers and can only be interrogated if deemed "a threat to force protection or to a safe and secure environment," said one alliance source, quoting from rules which have not been made public.
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