[JURIST] A delegation of European Parliament [official website] members told two subcommittees of the US House of Representatives [official website] Tuesday that the use of extraordinary renditions [JURIST news archive] by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] is illegal. At the hearing [notice] conducted by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight [official website], EP rendition investigator Carlo Fava said he deemed renditions "an illegal instrument used by the United States in the fight against terrorism."

Also Tuesday, the Washington Post revealed [Post report] that CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] complained privately to European diplomats last month following the release of Fava's European Parliament report [JURIST report] condemning member states for their cooperation with the CIA in operating illegal secret prisons and extraordinary rendition flights in Europe. Hayden is said to have claimed that the European Parliament report exaggerated rendition practices, which he maintains are legal. AP has more.