Assessing Damage, Urging Action accused of the kidnapping.202 The US Government has apparently already indicated that it will refuse to comply with any extradition request made. At the Brussels Hearing the Panel received testimony about the lack of effective independent domestic investigations into allegations of secret detention centres. For example, detailed official investigations, undertaken by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and the Parliament of the European Union, found evidence of CIA-run secret detention centres in Poland and Romania.203 International law requires that States conduct independent investigations into serious allegations of human rights violations; that they bring those found responsible for such violations to justice; and that they provide reparation. The failure to conduct an independent investigation itself constitutes a breach of human rights law. Yet, despite this, the Polish Government has only recently announced, three years after the allegations were first made, an investigation by the General Prosecutor into the allegations. The Parliament in Romania similarly has failed to date to carry out an effective investigation, issuing its own report, but keeping the annexes (with most of the relevant information) “classified”.204 The US has failed to act on alleged human rights violations committed by its own agents, and has invoked state secrecy privileges when individuals or other governments seek accountability.205 The administration has also invoked state secrecy privileges in cases involving law suits against private US companies and contractors for their alleged cooperation with human rights violations committed by US intelligence agencies.206 Moreover, the US Military Commissions Act contains various 202 Equally, the German authorities have refused to seek extradition of CIA agents for the alleged rendition of German citizen, Khalid el-Masri. Media reports have indicated that the German Government refrained from seeking the extradition of CIA officials on the grounds, among others, that this might damage intelligence efforts with the USA. 203 See 2006 Marty report and 2007 Marty report. See also, Report of the Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners (2006/2200 (INI)), Rapporteur Claudio Fava, A6-9999/2007, European Parliament, Resolution on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners. P6 TA PROV (2007) 0032. 204 Parliament of Romania, Report of the Inquiry Commission to investigate the allegations of the existence of CIA detention centres or of flights by CIA aircraft on Romanian territory, 22 April 2008. There were 11 classified annexes to the report. The Committee did not have investigatory powers in the conduct of its inquiry. Senator Marty criticised the restrictive terms of the inquiry’s remit and pointed to contradictions between the conclusions of the Parliamentary Committee and flight records of aircraft linked with the CIA, into MK Airfield. He considered that the Romanian Parliamentary inquiry was: “an exercise in denial and rebuttal, without impartial consideration of the evidence”, 2007 Marty Report, para. 230. 205 This includes civil suits brought by Maher Arar, whose case was described above, and Khalid el-Masri, a Lebanese resident in Germany who was allegedly rendered into CIA custody by the Macedonian authorities and detained in Afghanistan. For instance, in the Arar case, the US Government asserted the state secrets privilege, arguing that the lawsuit must be dismissed because allowing it to proceed could “cause exceptionally grave or serious damage to the United States’ national security interests” by disclosing information concerning intelligence activities, sources and methods as well as pose an “exceptionally grave or serious risk to diplomatic relations”, Declaration of Tom Ridge, Secretary of the US Department of the Homeland Security, 17 Jan. 2005. 206 See Mohamed et al. v. Jeppersen Dataplane, Inc., 539 F. Supp. 2d 1128, 1134 (N.D. Cal. 2008) and amicus 87