International
CIA prisons: Swiss govt plays down leak ----------------------------------------------- Monday, January 16, 2006 (Geneva):
Switzerland's government sought to play down the controversy over a classified document leaked last week in a Swiss newspaper, saying it provided no direct evidence of the existence of clandestine CIA prisons.
The document, published last week by the Zurich weekly SonntagsBlick and reported to be an intercepted Egyptian government fax on alleged CIA detention centers in Europe, "is not spectacular and is not a scoop," said Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
"We do not have evidence, but rather indications," Calmy-Rey said of the allegations in an interview with the weekly NZZ am Sonntag.
The reported fax has raised a storm in neutral Switzerland, with the press asking why Switzerland's government is threatening legal action for the leak, but not condemning the United States for its actions.
Terror suspects
SonntagsBlick reported that Swiss intelligence intercepted the fax, which alleged that the Egyptian Embassy in London had determined through its own sources that the United States had detained 23 terror suspects in Romania.
The fax said there were similar US detention centers in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria, according to the newspaper.
SonntagsBlick followed up its attack on Switzerland's governing seven-member Federal Council.
"See nothing. Hear nothing. Say nothing. That's how our government reacts," the paper said in its article titled "Kneel down to the Yanks: Federal Council on a sorry-tour."
Dick Marty, a Swiss lawmaker leading an investigation by Europe's top human rights watchdog, has also weighed in with criticism of the neutral state's government. (AP)