Democratic oversight and the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme in Europe
Résumé
One of the many findings that the inquiry about the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme has revealed is that the Agency – when almost obliged to delocalize detainees from US bases abroad following the Pentagon’s reluctance to continue such a programme – had carefully chosen its partners over the world on the criteria of absence of accountability and effective oversight of these specific services by their national authorities. They have been more successful than NGOs in ranking secret services in Europe (and beyond) that have the worst practices in terms of human rights records and those that have potential to betray their own politicians when US national security interests are at stake. It has been suggested by many academics, after operation Stay Behind and the follow-up Gladio, that some secret services in Europe were ready, if given specific rewards in terms of money and technology, to consider their loyalty to the “big brother” of the US as more important for the security of the West than their loyalty and strict obedience to their own national governments, especially if these were not in alignment with US and NATO official positions.