EU:The European Parliament yesterday voted to adopt a report that strongly criticises 14 member states, including Ireland, for failing to deal properly with the rendition of terrorist suspects by the CIA.
The report investigates the illegal transfer and detention of terrorist suspects by the CIA in Europe, and accuses some member states of turning a blind eye to extraordinary renditions, where suspects are transferred to other countries.
It urged the Irish Government to launch a full parliamentary inquiry into the use of Irish territory as part of the CIA rendition circuit.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday he was disappointed by the outcome, and reiterated his belief that the committee that dealt with the report was obsessed with "political point- scoring". The report expresses concern about the purpose of 147 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft in Ireland.
Paragraph 125, which was passed despite a motion for its amendment yesterday, recommends that a ban be imposed on all CIA-operated aircraft landing in Ireland in the absence of a random inspection regime.
The report welcomes the testimony given by Dermot Ahern to the temporary committee, and also his "unequivocal criticism of the process of extraordinary rendition".
However, it also notes that he failed to answer all the questions in relation to concerns that Irish airports may have been used by CIA aircraft travelling to or from extraordinary missions.
In response to the findings, Mr Ahern said Seanad Éireann had recently examined the issue for the third time in a year and agreed that a parliamentary committee of inquiry was not warranted.
The Minister said he would continue to pursue a review of regulation of civil aviation and the system of flight classification, by calling for changes to the Chicago convention that deals with regulation of civilian aircraft.
He said the figure of 147 flights was "grossly inflated" and that he had been given "categoric assurances" by US authorities that no extraordinary rendition had taken place through Ireland.
The report, which was drafted by Italian socialist MEP Claudio Fava, was keenly debated in parliament prior to yesterday's vote. Those who supported it said it would ensure that human rights were upheld, while others dismissed it as "anti-American propaganda" based on circumstantial evidence.
It was passed by 382 votes to 256, with 74 abstentions.
The report ends a year-long investigation by the parliament that heard the testimony of 172 people, including victims.
It found that at least 1,245 flights operated by the CIA flew into European airspace between 2001 and 2005, though not all of these were used for extraordinary rendition.
It condemns the complicity and passivity of some member states on the issue, and also denounces the lack of co-operation by some EU countries.
It was unlikely that certain European governments were unaware of extraordinary rendition activities taking place on their territory, the report found.
Speaking after the vote, Mr Fava said he hoped that necessary action was being taken to ensure that what occurred in the past five years never happened again.
Amnesty International welcomed the vote but urged that member states carry out independent investigations.