Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-211"
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"en.20070926.17.3-211"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we in the Committee have done our work. It is a proven fact that the CIA has kidnapped and abducted people in Europe. The public prosecutors in Milan and Munich have established and proved this beyond doubt.
What kind of policy is in place, however, when responsible people in Berlin and Rome are now refusing to pass an arrest warrant – that is the correct term – to the US Government? The kidnappers – and that is exactly what the CIA agents who abducted Khaled al-Masri in Skopje are – must be handed over. In a state governed by the rule of law – which is what we have, surely – no one can be exempt from the law. This is true even if, as certain high-ranking security officials in Berlin claim, relations with the US Government are being soured by the work of the Munich public prosecutors, who are simply doing their job in the prescribed fashion: this speaks volumes about these people's mentality and their attitude to the rule of law.
Yes, international terrorism must be combated by every means, but please, with the means available under the rule of law, not with Wild West methods according to the country-of-origin principle, which is what the CIA has done here. It is all well and good for the Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to urge the Chinese to respect human rights and for her to receive the Dalai Lama, but that is not enough. We have homework to do here in Europe as well. We cannot have a strong à la carte rule of law, a rule of law which is only permitted to be strong when it fits in with the system.
When I hear the questions about what the Committee cost, what democracy actually costs, let me just say this to those people: my dear people, a dictatorship is much cheaper, but tell me the price of that! It is a price we are not willing to pay!"@en1
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