Report:US ran secret prisons in Europe, suspects could be interrogated free of US legal restraints

[dajoki]

Report claims US ran secret prisons in Europe
Fred Attewill and agencies
Friday June 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2098870,00.html

The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 where terrorism suspects could be interrogated free of US legal restraints, a Council of Europe investigation concluded today.
It revealed that Abu Zubaydah, believed to be a senior al-Qaida member, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, were held and interrogated in Poland.

None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subjected to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture.

The report said that detainees had been subjected to months of solitary confinement, constant shackling in cramped cells and poor food. They were also said to have been kept naked for weeks and exposed to extremes of temperature to prevent sleep.
The report said that within weeks of the 9/11 attacks, Nato signed an agreement with the US that allowed civilian jets used by the CIA during its so-called extraordinary rendition programme to move across member states' airspace.

[L. Coyote]

1. NAZIS: Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence in World War II

European Report Addresses CIA Sites - Prisons in Poland, Romania, It Says
By Molly Moore and Julie Tate - Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 8, 2007; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060702425.html


PARIS, June 7 -- A European investigator said he has "factually established" that Poland and Romania allowed the CIA to operate secret prisons where alleged al-Qaeda operatives were detained and interrogated, according to documents scheduled to be presented Friday to Europe's official human rights organization.

Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer for the Council of Europe, the continent's human rights agency, said detainees who were considered "especially sensitive" were incarcerated in Poland and those believed "to be less important were held in Romania," the documents said.

The documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post, include the cover letter and explanatory note of a report Marty has drafted, as well as a related draft resolution to be proposed to the council. Those documents did not provide details of the evidence Marty used to verify the participation of Poland and Romania in the covert CIA program.

Those two countries have repeatedly denied hosting CIA prisons. Marty said the two countries' government agencies did not cooperate with his investigation.

The report -- part of a larger investigation into partnerships among the CIA, NATO and European nations in the capture, transfer and detention of suspected terrorists -- reflects European outrage over the secret operations.

"Large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is a common practice," Marty wrote, adding, "The fight against terrorism must not serve as an excuse for systematic recourse to illegal acts, massive violation of fundamental human rights and contempt for the rule of law." ..................

===================================
Dick Marty = He chairs the legal affairs and human rights committee

Profile: Dick Marty
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4526418.stm

Dick Marty has risen to prominence because of the CIA probe

The Swiss politician leading a European probe into allegations that the CIA abducted and moved terror suspects across European borders is a veteran legislator with years of experience in international law and human rights.

A married father of three and a lawyer by trade, Dick Marty holds a doctorate in law, and began his career as a specialist on Swiss law.

He lived in Freiburg, Germany, from 1969 until 1975, based at the section on Swiss law at an academic institution in the city.

He returned to Switzerland in 1975, taking up a position as state prosecutor in the canton of Ticino, ....

in 1998, he was elected to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he sits with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Within the council, Mr Marty serves on a number of influential committees.

He chairs the legal affairs and human rights committee and serves on the political affairs committee, among a host of others.

The Council of Europe has a wide membership not restricted to European Union members, and is responsible for overseeing the European Court of Human Rights. ..........

=============================
Rawstory in March

Soviet-era compound in northern Poland was site of secret CIA interrogation, detentions
Larisa Alexandrovna and David Dastych
Published: Wednesday March 7, 2007
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Sovietera_compound_in_Poland_was_site_0307.html

US, Britain asked Poland to join clandestine program

POLAND -- The CIA operated an interrogation and short-term detention facility for suspected terrorists within a Polish intelligence training school with the explicit approval of British and US authorities, according to British and Polish intelligence officials familiar with the arrangements.

Intelligence officials identify the site as a component of a Polish intelligence training school outside the northern Polish village of Stare Kiejkuty. While previously suspected, the facility has never been conclusively identified as being part of the CIA's secret rendition and detention program.

Only the Polish prime minister and top Polish intelligence brass were told of the plan, in which agents of the United States quietly shuttled detainees from other holding facilities around the globe for stopovers and short-term interrogation in Poland between late 2002 and 2004.

According to a confidential British intelligence memo shown to RAW STORY, Prime Minister Tony Blair told Poland's then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller to keep the information secret, even from his own government.

“Miller was asked to keep it as tight as possible,” the memo said.

The complex at Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence in World War II, is best known as having been the only Russian intelligence training school to operate outside the Soviet Union.