EU lawmaker investigating possible Ukraine link to CIA rendition ops

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An EU investigator said Wednesday he has evidence to suggest that a Ukrainian airstrip was used by CIA-operated planes involved in the US extraordinary rendition program. Giovanni Fava said he was also looking into possible CIA use of a military facility at a Ukrainian base. Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, drafted a report last year identifying more than 1,000 secret CIA flights with stopovers on European territory since 2001. He identified several of them as being used to transfer terror suspects. Ukraine's Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, dismissed Fava's statements on the use of Ukrainian airspace by CIA planes and the use of a military base as "nonsense." He declined further comment.