UN: United Nations human rights experts have turned down an invitation from the US to visit the Guantanamo Bay military prison for terrorist suspects after Washington said they could not conduct private interviews with detainees.
The five experts, who investigate torture, freedom of religion, health, independent judiciary and arbitrary detention throughout the world, said the restrictions made it impossible properly to assess how detainees are being treated.
"We deeply regret that the United States government did not accept the standard terms of reference for a credible, objective and fair assessment of the situation of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
"These terms include the ability to conduct private interviews with detainees," they said.
US authorities cited concerns over the security of the visitors in refusing private access to detainees but the UN experts said that such concerns could be addressed by allowing UN security personnel to travel with the human rights experts.
The UN team said it would press ahead with a report on conditions at Guantanamo, drawing on the testimony of former detainees who have been released.
Human rights campaigners have described Guantanamo as "the epicentre of a shadow justice system" run by the US throughout the world, which may include secret prisons run by the CIA in eight countries, including two in Europe.
Amnesty International yesterday called on the European Union to investigate claims that the CIA ran secret prisons in Poland, which joined the EU last year, and Romania, which is a candidate for membership.
Several European countries have launched investigations into claims that aircraft leased by the CIA used airports in the EU to transfer terrorist suspects to secret jails or to hand suspects over to countries where torture is common.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA has set up joint operation centres with foreign intelligence services in more than two dozen countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Citing interviews with "more than two dozen current and former intelligence officials and more than a dozen senior foreign intelligence officials as well as diplomatic and congressional sources", the paper says the centres are responsible for the capture or killing of more than 3,000 terrorist suspects since September 11th, 2001.
The report says that a multinational centre in Paris, codenamed Alliance Base, includes representatives from Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Australia, as well as the US.
The "Counter-terrorist Intelligence Centres" are separate from the alleged network of secret prisons but involve an intensification of intelligence co-operation between the US and its allies.
The Washington Post says CIA co-operation with foreign agencies deepened after President Bush signed a classified order on September 17th, 2001, authorising an unprecedented range of covert operations.
"The overall counter-terrorism programme included authorisation of lethal measures against terrorists and the expenditure of vast funds to coax foreign intelligence services into a new era of co-operation with the CIA," the paper said.