WHEN Condoleezza Rice tours Europe next week, she will fly into an extraordinary storm over US — or at least alleged US — counter-terrorism practices that threatens to send the still fragile transatlantic relationship into a tailspin.

Allegations that the CIA has been conducting clandestine operations across Europe were sparked by an article in The Washington Post and have multiplied so rapidly that they have now engulfed most European Governments.

The allegations are potentially devastating, an abuse of national sovereignty and of human rights: that the CIA has illegally abducted terrorist suspects in Europe, covertly used European airports for transporting terrorist suspects and has been interrogating them in secret prisons — “black sites” — in Europe.

The row has been fuelled by Washington’s steadfast refusal to confirm or deny the allegations. European Governments have become increasingly vociferous in demanding answers: eight, including Britain, have appealed directly to the US for “clarification”, a dozen are conducting internal investigations and the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental human rights body, has opened a pancontinental inquiry.

The European Commission has sought answers from Washington, which has replied that it needs “time to evaluate the situation”.

The controversy is dogging the US Secretary of State even before she arrives in Europe: it was on the agenda of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the new German Foreign Minister, on his first official visit to America yesterday. On arrival he raised the matter with Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary- General, saying: “I presume the seriousness of these (accusations) is being recognised in Washington.”

When the allegations first erupted, the US Administration all but admitted that the “black sites” existed.

Dr Rice dodged the matter yesterday in a newspaper interview before her trip to Brussels, Poland and Romania, but said: “We have never fought a war like this before where . . . you can’t allow someone to commit the crime before you detain them. Because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die.”

The row is frustrated by the lack of denial on one side and the lack of firm evidence on the other, but it could have widespread repercussions.

The Netherlands has given warning that if true, the allegations would have serious consequences for its participation in military operations in Afghanistan.

On Monday the European Commission threatened political sanctions, including the potential loss of voting rights, against any EU member that harboured CIA prisons, declaring them a violation of the EU’s human rights values. The EU had warned applicant countries that their membership talks would be suspended if they had secret CIA sites.

The Washington Post article alleged that the CIA has been interrogating suspects in secret prisons in various countries around the world, including unnamed “Eastern European democracies”.

Eastern European countries lined up to plead innocence, but the US group Human Rights Watch said it was practically convinced that the allegations were true. It cited flight details that pointed to CIA activity in two former Soviet bases, one in Poland and one in Romania. The Polish and Romanian Governments have strongly denied the charge, with Aleksander Kwasniewski, the outgoing Polish President, saying: “Such prisons do not exist on Polish territory . . . and there have not been any.”

There was then a spate of reports that the CIA had been covertly using European airports to transport terrorist suspects around the world, in so-called extraordinary renditions — secretly moving suspects from one territory to another for interrogation that may include torture.

The Spanish media said that CIA flights had landed at least ten times at airports in the country this year and last. It was reported in Germany that the CIA had operated 85 flights through the country. Baghdad, Kabul and Amman, the Jordanian capital, were the usual points of origin and destination.

The Council of Europe’s investigator, Dick Marty, is examining 31 suspect flights. He said that large-scale CIA bases were unlikely, but that it was possible that detainees had been held for up to 30 days.

Asked whether it was just an excuse to bash the United States, he said: “This is absolutely not a crusade against America.”

But the most serious allegations against the CIA are that it has been abducting suspects in Europe. German prosecutors are investigating the alleged CIA kidnapping of Khaled Masri in Macedonia in 2003. Mr Masri, who is of Lebanese origin, says that he was flown by the CIA to Afghanistan, where he was interrogated for five months before being freed.

An Italian prosecutor is trying to extradite 22 CIA agents from the US, whom he accuses of abducting the radical Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003. Mr Omar claims that he was tortured in Egypt in the presence of US officials. But the Italian Government has distanced itself from the accusation, calling the prosecutor a left-wing militant. As with all the allegations, it is as difficult to substantiate as it is potentially damaging.

Tony Blair has urged caution. “These types of stories arise with a fair degree of regularity,” he said. “I think we should wait for the facts first.”

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