CIA report "shocking": Dutch Foreign Minister

The report on torture by the CIA has caused even more controversy. Minister Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs calls it a "shocking report".

"Especially in the details. Those are horrible. We knew for some time that these matters were discussed, the way they operated, that is naturally shocking and absolutely contrary to the respect of human rights." Koender said to BNR. " Also revealed yesterday is that 25 countries had facilitated the US intelligence service at that time. Earlier former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said that he knew nothing of the practices. He was under the impression that the CIA would use the facilities to gather information from sources "who were willing to participate". The Netherlands has not been associated with the CIA program. Constant Hijzen, researcher at the University of Leiden and expert on security services, expects that there is not a large probability of legal action against the 25 countries. "It turns out that more than one EU country has facilitated the CIA, for example by opening the airspace or facilitating flights. These countries have thus helped in some ways, but it seems unlikely that the report connects some consequences to this." According to Hijzen the Netherlands works with the US intelligence services in various ways. When asked whether it is naive to think that the Netherlands did not know about how the CIA operated, he answers: "It seems unlikely that they knew nothing here. Perhaps the exact intentions of the program were not clear, but after 9/11 it was quite clear that the CIA uses this method." According to Hijzen there are two options. "You either revise cooperation with the intelligence service of the US, or you have to say as a country that you no longer want to receive information obtained in this way."