WASHINGTON, November 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The reported presence of CIA secret prisons in some European countries has proved a splitting headache to the United States, which is set to start a fresh charm offensive to deflect growing European pressure over the scandal.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to embark next week on a multi-leg European tour that will take her to a number of eastern European countries which were mentioned by name in some press reports (Poland and Romania) as main hosts to the CIA interrogation centers.

Faced with European demands that the United States should explain a Washington Post report on the secret detention centers to interrogate terrorism suspects, Rice intends to remind the Europeans that they are in a joint fight against an enemy that she says -- in an interview with Tuesday’s edition of USA Today -- obeys no laws, Reuters reported.

"I think that the conversation will take place in the broader context of our common struggle against terrorism," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented on Rice’s visit.

"This is a struggle that all free countries, including the countries of Europe, share with us: how to deal with groups of people, individuals, that respect no law, that wear no uniform, that follow no regulations."

Rice's planned approach on next week's trip matches the US response to a scandal that has fueled -- rather than defused -- concerns among European governments and the public, Reuters commented.

Rice can expect to be dogged during her trip by questions over the prison allegations and related investigations that the CIA transports suspects in secret using airports throughout Europe.

"We have received inquiries from Europe concerning these press reports," McCormack said. "We're going to do our best to answer these questions in as complete and forthright a manner as we possibly can."

The Post report has prompted new concern about Washington's tactics in its war on terrorism in Europe, already critical of US prisoner abuse in Iraq and the detention of prisoners for years at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights groups say incommunicado detention is illegal and often leads to torture.

"Should the accusations be accurate, I would be forced to draw serious consequences," Frattini said. (Reuters)

Since The Washington Post report, the Bush administration has refused to deny or confirm the allegation.

Instead, it has repeatedly insisted it is waging a war on "militants" who act outside of the law.

"We have never fought a war like this before where ... you can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them," Rice told the USA Today.

"Because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die," added Rice, who neither confirmed nor denied the existence of secret prisons.

In fresh embarrassment to the US administration, CIA agents revealed in statements to the American ABC network on November 19 that interrogation techniques approved by the US top brass for use at secret CIA jails in Asia and Eastern Europe have violated international laws and led to questionable confessions.

CIA sources speaking on condition of anonymity described six techniques: "Attention Grab, Attention Slap, Belly Slap, Long Time Standing, Cold Cell, Water Boarding."

The scandal has shaken the EU to its foundation with European Union Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini threatened sanctions on Monday, November 28, against any EU nation found to have allowed secret CIA prison camps to operate on their soil.

"Should the accusations be accurate, I would be forced to draw serious consequences," Frattini said at a security conference in Berlin.

He said that any EU country found to have harbored one of the reported prison camps could have their voting rights in the Council of Ministers, the body which groups the 25 EU heads of government, suspended.

Frattini said the operation of such camps on EU soil would violate the bloc's rules governing freedom and human rights.

The EU had made contact several days ago with the White House about possible secret CIA activities in Europe, but Washington had "unfortunately not yet given any formal assurance" that the reports were untrue, he said.

The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly had already announced a probe into the reports.

Germany has already opened an investigation into a case in which an Egyptian suspect was transported via Ramstein in western Germany, the largest US airbase in Europe, to Egypt where his supporters say he was tortured.

A number of other European countries have opened inquiries into alleged CIA plane landings, including Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.