Jefferson Morley of
World Opionion Roundup, a new blogger type section to the Washington Post reports
More on Secret Prison Location this afternoon which states that at least one of the secret locations that the CIA are using is possibly in Poland. This morning he posted
Overseas Media Ask: Where Is the Secret CIA Prison? which documented several of the European Nations denying that the Torture facilities were in their countries, including a spokesman for the
Polish defense ministry. Today Morley points to a
Times Online Article ::
TIMES ONLINE.co.uk
CIA accused of running secret jails in Europe for terrorists
By Daniel McGrory and Tim Reid
The Bush Administration all but acknowledged last night that it runs a network of secret and unaccountable prisons in foreign countries where it hides and interrogates terror suspects.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the US has a global network of "black sites" with the co-operation of countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Afghanistan, and at least one Eastern European nation. Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's National Security Adviser, refused to deny the accusation.
Instead, he said: "The fact they are secret - assuming there are such sites - some people say that the test of your principles are what you do when no one's looking. The President has insisted that whether it is in the public or in private, the same principles will apply."
He added: "The President has been very clear . . . that the United States will not torture, the United States will conduct its activities in compliance with law and international obligations. While we have to do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorist attacks, the President has been very clear that we have to do that in way that is consistent with our values."
Tom Malinowski, the director of Human Rights Watch, told The Times that his investigators had tracked CIA aircraft transferring detainees from Afghanistan to airfields in Eastern Europe that are closed to the public and press, including two in Poland and Romania.
Mr Malinowski said that Human Rights Watch was "90 per cent certain" the CIA used Szymany airport in Poland.
"This is an obscure, rural airport which is very close to a Polish intelligence facility," Mr Malinowski said.
He said the second major eastern European site was the Mihail-Kogalniceanu military airbase in Romania.
In this morning's
post by Morley states ::
A spokesman for U.S.-based Human Rights Watch told the Financial Times that Poland and Romania are among countries that allow the CIA to operate secret detention centers on their soil.
"We have a high degree of confidence that such facilities exist in at least Poland and Romania," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director. He cited the flight records of CIA aircraft transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan as evidence.
"If the allegations were confirmed," said the FT, "they would be likely to provoke serious concern in the European Union."
This latest information comes as no surprise since we knew Bush was running torture chambers in Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan and several other secret bases around the world. What is surprising is their incompetence in thinking they could get away with having more than just a few of them. The more of them they have, the greater the risk of being caught. It boggles the mind to stop and add up the number of times this administration has been caught in their hypocrasy and incompetence. I am sure this latest development does not surprise anyone in Europe or for that matter the rest of the entire world. It is a sad state of affairs to think that Bush and his cronies are looking more and more like the Keystone Cops rather than the most important democrasy in the world. - fc