WASHINGTON - Secret prisons in Eastern Europe. Illegal detentions. Suspects snatched off the streets and shipped without extradition to other countries for harsh interrogation. Government directives cloaked in secrecy. A flashback to Stalin's Soviet Union? Hardly. To hear some European critics of the Bush administration tell it, this all describes current practices of the world's most powerful and open democracy - the United States. Dismay over Washington's covert intelligence practices and the seizures of suspected terrorists has swept Europe. It has challenged the administration's credibility and tarnished the nation's status as the premier defender of human rights.
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