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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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September 5th,
2008 - Polish Prosecutors Probe Possible CIA Jail |
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Polish Prosecutors
Probe Possible CIA Jail By Gabriela Baczynska Reuters September 5, 2008 Warsaw - The Polish
prosecutor's office is investigating claims there was a CIA prison in Poland
for al Qaeda suspects where guards might have used methods close to torture,
the prime minister's top adviser said on Friday. Polish media reported
earlier on Friday that a classified note written by the Polish secret service
had proved the existence of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency base in
Poland. "I am not familiar with
such a note and I don't think Prime Minister Donald Tusk is either,"
Slawomir Nowak, who heads Tusk's political office, said in an interview with
Tok FM radio. "But the premier asked
the justice minister to clarify this matter and the country's prosecutor's
office is investigating the potential existence of the CIA prison." The Washington Post reported
for the first time in 2005, quoting unnamed CIA sources, that CIA prisons
existed in Europe. A U.S. human rights group, Human Rights Watch, later said
Poland and Romania hosted the prisons. "There definitely was
cooperation between Polish and American secret services," a source close
to the secret service told Reuters. "But whether there was torture at
the base, hopefully we will learn about that soon." Foreign and local media
speculated that the base was operational between 2002 and 2005, while
Aleksander Kwasniewski was president and Poland was run by the leftist
governments of Leszek Miller and Marek Belka and then a rightist
administration under Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. Denials All three former prime
ministers have denied any knowledge of such a prison or base, as have many
other senior officials including top secret service personnel. Tusk's
centre-right cabinet has also played down the speculation. "I hope this will not
be confirmed," Nowak said. "It would not only have serious
consequences inside the country but would also take a very serious toll on
the international scene." "This has to be
investigated very carefully, without emotions." Asked about the case during
a visit to France, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski urged
discretion. "I think this is all
speculation about things that should be kept secret among all countries which
take part in such cooperation. Let's leave it alone. The less we talk about
it the better," Sikorski told reporters in Avignon. Since 2005, separate reports
by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Commission
have concluded that CIA prisons did exist in Poland and Romania. Under Polish law, a Pole who
was party to an agreement allowing the CIA to torture suspects could be sued
in the regular courts or even in the State Tribunal, a special court for
government officials. "We demanded official
information from the prime minister about the prisons in June, but we never
got it," said Dawid Szescilo of the Polish unit of the Helsinki
Foundation for Human Rights. "This is the third
government that has banned (the release of) any information about the case,
and public opinion should be given knowledge of all of this." (Editing by Keith Weir) © Thomson Reuters 2008. All
rights reserved. External link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL557283920080905 |