Powell: Europe chiefs feign shock

The CIA allegedly used this Boeing 737 with registration number N313P to transport terror suspects, AP said.

• EU to set up CIA prisons inquiry

• Europe CIA probe: Prisoners abducted, transferred

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has suggested that European leaders are pretending to be shocked by news reports America took suspected terrorists to secret prison camps in Europe for interrogation.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on the BBC, Powell compared the situation to the movie "Casablanca," in which "the inspector says 'I'm shocked, shocked that this kind of thing takes place.'"

This week, the European Parliament announced a committee to investigate CIA flights and detention camps in Europe. (Full story)

The parliament adopted a resolution expressing "deep concern at the allegations concerning the role of the CIA in the illegal kidnapping, transportation, secret detention and torture of terrorist suspects."

The CIA is alleged to be operating secret jails in Romania and Poland and covertly flying prisoners through airports in Italy, Germany and Romania.

Earlier this month, Powell's successor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the United States has captured and held terrorists through "renditions," and that European governments have cooperated.

But she said the United States "does not transport, and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation and torture."

She made the remark after news reports about the secret prisons set off a flurry of questions from European leaders -- and just before her trip through Europe.

Powell, in the BBC interview broadcast Sunday, did not say the secret sites were used for illegal purposes.

And he argued that European leaders are well aware of the rendition process.

"Well, most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place ... The fact that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."

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