The United States has been conducting a "dirty war" through its use of secret detention centres for interrogation and torture, the president of the Council of Europe said today.
René van der Linden was commenting after President Bush admitted yesterday that the CIA was running detention centres outside its borders as part of its "war on terror".
The CIA yesterday released selected details of its detention programme but refused to reveal the locations of the centres.
The programme provoked European anger and accusations that the United States violated international law on the treatment of prisoners, after the Washington Postreported last year that detainees were secretly held in Eastern Europe.
The Council of Europe instigated an investigation headed by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty. He produced a report earlier this year that said there were a number of interrogation centres across eastern Europe and north Africa.
He also found that planes used to transport the prisoners under what the United States calls its "extraordinary rendition programme" had flown through Shannon airport.
Mr Van der Linden said President Bush's admission vindicates the Council of Europe's investigation and answers Mr Marty's detractors.
"There were those who doubted our rapporteur, Mr Marty, and scorned his brief - they have been proved wrong, and the council's unique role in upholding European human rights values has been affirmed.
"Our work has helped to flush out the dirty nature of this secret war, which - we learn at last - has been carried out completely beyond any legal framework," Mr Van der Linden said.
Mr Bush also announced that a further 14 detainees had been transferred to military custody in Guanatamo Bay, Cuba and insisted the controversial detention of prisoners for years without trial would continue.
Following Mr Bush's admission last night, Mr Marty was quoted by the BBC saying European states must reveal what information they have about detention centres.
The US administration had not previously acknowledged the programme's existence. It started in 2002 with the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden.
Despite Mr Bush's assertion that the programme remained in place, its future is in doubt after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that all detainees must be protected against degrading treatment under the Geneva Conventions.
Mr Van der Linden said the secret nature of the programme meant Mr Bush's claim that it prevented attacks and saved lives could not be verified.
"Yet even if it is true, such methods will, in the long term, make us less safe, not more. Kidnapping people and torturing them in secret - however tempting the short-term gain may appear to be - is what criminals do, not democratic governments.
"In the long term, such practices create more terrorists and undermine the values we are fighting for. Europe will have no part in such a degrading system," Mr van der Linden said.
Additional reporting agencies