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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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November 20th,
2009 - CIA Detainees Again an Issue in Lithuania |
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CIA Detainees Again an Issue
in Lithuania By Craig Whitlock Washington Post November 20, 2009 Vilnius, Lithuania - Twice
in the past three years, the Lithuanian Parliament investigated reports that
the CIA secretly imprisoned al-Qaeda leaders in this Baltic country. Both
times, legislators concluded that there was no evidence. Now the Parliament is
investigating a third time, and it is looking a little harder. Fresh reports
of covert CIA flights carrying prisoners from Afghanistan to Lithuania, as
well as the revelation that U.S. contractors built a high-security complex at
the edge of a forest near Vilnius, have added to the suspicions. Many Lithuanian officials
said they remain unconvinced that their country's secret services allowed the
CIA to detain international terrorists. A few legislators blame Russia and
other outside interests for inventing the allegations in an attempt to besmirch
Lithuania's reputation. But increasingly, after
years of issuing denials, Lithuania's leaders are no longer ruling out the
possibility that the CIA operated a secret prison in this northern European
country of 3.5 million people, and that its government will have to deal with
the fallout. Last month, newly elected
President Dalia Grybauskaite said she had "indirect suspicions"
that the CIA reports might be true, and urged Parliament to investigate more
thoroughly. The Washington Post first
revealed the CIA's overseas prison network's existence in 2005. At the time,
it withheld the names of Eastern European countries involved in the covert
program at the request of White House officials, who argued that disclosure
could subject those countries to retaliation from al-Qaeda. Valdas Adamkus, who was
president when the CIA prison was reportedly in operation, from 2004 until
2005, said he had no personal knowledge of the covert program. But he raised
the possibility that Lithuanian security officials could face prosecution if
the reports are confirmed. "If this actually did
occur, and it is grounded with proof, we have to apologize to the
international community that something like this went down in
Lithuania," he told the Baltic News Service. "And those who did
it," he added, "in my eyes are criminals." In neighboring Poland,
prosecutors in the capital of Warsaw have opened a criminal probe into
reports that the CIA operated a prison for al-Qaeda suspects near a former
military air base. No charges have yet been filed. Dainius Zalimas, a legal
adviser to the Lithuanian Defense Ministry, said the existence of a covert
prison would violate both Lithuanian statutes and international human rights
conventions that the government signed. If firm evidence is gathered by the
Parliament, he said, prosecutors would be obliged to open a case and could
target both Lithuanian and U.S. officials. "From a legal point of
view, it would mean that Lithuania, along with the United States, was
contributing to quite serious violations of human rights," said Zalimas,
who is also a law professor at the University of Vilnius. Legal experts said the odds
of a successful prosecution are remote, given the secret nature of the CIA's
overseas prison network. But there is precedent. On
Nov. 4, after a long-running trial, an Italian judge convicted 22 CIA
operatives and a U.S. Air Force colonel of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in
Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he said he was tortured. Kestutis Girnius, a
Lithuanian political analyst, questioned whether the parliamentary committee
that is leading the current investigation can get to the bottom of things. He noted that the committee
lacks subpoena power. And although witnesses have a legal obligation to
testify truthfully before Parliament, there is no law that would enable them
to be charged with perjury if they lie. "I don't think they
have the tools and know-how to do a proper probe," he said. Audronius Azubalis is
chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which held exploratory
hearings in 2006 but found no evidence that the CIA had operated illegally in
Lithuania. He urged patience. "Right now, we can just
say, 'Maybe yes, maybe no,'" he said when asked if he gives credence to
the CIA allegations. If necessary, he added, "we have the will to clean
up the stable." © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/11/19/ST2009111904615.html |