Secret CIA jails hosted by Poland, Romania: watchdog
A guard shuts the gate to the airport in Szymany in northeastern Poland identified by Human Rights Watch as a potential site of alleged CIA prisons in this file 2005 picture. (REUTERS/FORUM/Tomasz Marek)
By Jon Boyle | June 8, 2007
PARIS (Reuters) - A European investigator says he has proof Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA prisons under a post-9/11 pact to hunt down and interrogate "high value" terrorist suspects wanted by the United States.
Swiss senator Dick Marty said Poland housed some of the CIA's most sensitive prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people.
"There is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003-2005, in particular in Poland and Romania," Marty says in a report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog.
Marty accused the former Polish president and the current and former presidents of Romania of having known and approved of the secret CIA operations on their soil.
European Union members Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied the existence of secret prisons on their territory.
In a preliminary report last year Marty said 20 mostly European countries colluded in a "global spider's web" of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorist suspects stretching from Asia to Guantanamo Bay.
Marty said Germany and Italy had used "state secrecy" to obstruct investigations and his report could embarrass European governments, which have criticized the detention without trial of suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
Reacting to Marty's report, the European Commission called on Romania and Poland to hold urgent, independent investigations into the allegations and ensure any victims were compensated.
Commission spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told a daily news briefing the European Union executive was "very concerned indeed" about the report, which was the culmination of a 19-month investigation.
POLITICAL APPROVAL
According to the report, Poland's then-president Aleksander Kwasniewski, head of National Security Bureau Marek Siwiec, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and head of military intelligence Marek Dukaczewski were aware of and could be held accountable for the operation of CIA secret prisons in Poland.
"Marty's work is pure political fiction...It is a waste of time and a waste of money," Szmajdzinski told Reuters.
Former Romanian president Ion Iliescu, current President Traian Basescu and former defence Minster Ioan Mircea Pascu were among those who "knew about, authorized and stand accountable" for Romania's role in the CIA program, Marty said.
"The current report, as the previous one from 2006, brings no evidence to confirm these allegations, except for unnamed sources, whose credibility cannot be estimated," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Poland maintains its position...There were no secret centers in Poland," a foreign ministry spokesman said in Warsaw.
The facilities were "run directly and exclusively by the CIA" and European governments connived with the secret transfers and detentions, known as extraordinary renditions, Marty said.
President George W. Bush confirmed last September the CIA had run secret detention centers abroad where terrorism suspects had been interrogated, but he named no country.
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First Trial Involving CIA Renditions Opens in Milan, Italy
By VOA News
08 June 2007
A trial involving a controversial CIA program has started Friday in Italy, but without 26 American defendants accused of kidnapping a suspected Egyptian terrorist.
Nicolo Pollari (File photo)
The Americans, along with the former head of Italy's intelligence service, General Nicolo Pollari, and several other Italians, are on trial in Milan for their role in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. The program has allegedly transferred terrorism suspects to countries known to practice torture.
The trial coincides with a visit to Italy by President Bush.
The U.S. has said it will not extradite the 26 Americans. The Italian indictment accuses them of abducting an Egyptian imam, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Omar, in Milan in February 2003 and flying him to Egypt where he says he was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured.
Defense lawyers are expected to ask for a postponement in Friday's trial until after related rulings by Italy's Constitutional Court.
A guard shuts the gate to the airport in Szymany in northeastern Poland identified by Human Rights Watch as a potential site of alleged CIA prisons in this file 2005 picture. (REUTERS/FORUM/Tomasz Marek)
By Jon Boyle | June 8, 2007
PARIS (Reuters) - A European investigator says he has proof Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA prisons under a post-9/11 pact to hunt down and interrogate "high value" terrorist suspects wanted by the United States.
Swiss senator Dick Marty said Poland housed some of the CIA's most sensitive prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people.
"There is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003-2005, in particular in Poland and Romania," Marty says in a report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog.
Marty accused the former Polish president and the current and former presidents of Romania of having known and approved of the secret CIA operations on their soil.
European Union members Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied the existence of secret prisons on their territory.
In a preliminary report last year Marty said 20 mostly European countries colluded in a "global spider's web" of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorist suspects stretching from Asia to Guantanamo Bay.
Marty said Germany and Italy had used "state secrecy" to obstruct investigations and his report could embarrass European governments, which have criticized the detention without trial of suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
Reacting to Marty's report, the European Commission called on Romania and Poland to hold urgent, independent investigations into the allegations and ensure any victims were compensated.
Commission spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told a daily news briefing the European Union executive was "very concerned indeed" about the report, which was the culmination of a 19-month investigation.
POLITICAL APPROVAL
According to the report, Poland's then-president Aleksander Kwasniewski, head of National Security Bureau Marek Siwiec, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and head of military intelligence Marek Dukaczewski were aware of and could be held accountable for the operation of CIA secret prisons in Poland.
"Marty's work is pure political fiction...It is a waste of time and a waste of money," Szmajdzinski told Reuters.
Former Romanian president Ion Iliescu, current President Traian Basescu and former defence Minster Ioan Mircea Pascu were among those who "knew about, authorized and stand accountable" for Romania's role in the CIA program, Marty said.
"The current report, as the previous one from 2006, brings no evidence to confirm these allegations, except for unnamed sources, whose credibility cannot be estimated," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Poland maintains its position...There were no secret centers in Poland," a foreign ministry spokesman said in Warsaw.
The facilities were "run directly and exclusively by the CIA" and European governments connived with the secret transfers and detentions, known as extraordinary renditions, Marty said.
President George W. Bush confirmed last September the CIA had run secret detention centers abroad where terrorism suspects had been interrogated, but he named no country.
--------------------------------
First Trial Involving CIA Renditions Opens in Milan, Italy
By VOA News
08 June 2007
A trial involving a controversial CIA program has started Friday in Italy, but without 26 American defendants accused of kidnapping a suspected Egyptian terrorist.
Nicolo Pollari (File photo)
The Americans, along with the former head of Italy's intelligence service, General Nicolo Pollari, and several other Italians, are on trial in Milan for their role in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. The program has allegedly transferred terrorism suspects to countries known to practice torture.
The trial coincides with a visit to Italy by President Bush.
The U.S. has said it will not extradite the 26 Americans. The Italian indictment accuses them of abducting an Egyptian imam, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Omar, in Milan in February 2003 and flying him to Egypt where he says he was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured.
Defense lawyers are expected to ask for a postponement in Friday's trial until after related rulings by Italy's Constitutional Court.
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