CIA's 'secret prisons in Europe'

By Henry Samuel in Paris

Last Updated: 2:16am BST 09/06/2007

The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania to interrogate and even torture some detainees in its "war on terror" under a programme authorised by the countries' presidents, an official European inquiry concluded yesterday.
Swiss senator Dick Marty; the CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania to interrogate and even torture some detainees in its 'war on terror'
Swiss senator Dick Marty said evidence of CIA-run detention facilities in Europe would stand up in court

Swiss senator Dick Marty said Poland housed some of the CIA's most sensitive prisoners - so-called "high value" detainees - including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks in America 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," Mr Marty said in a report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog - the culmination of a 19-month investigation.
The European Commission yesterday called on both countries to hold urgent, independent investigations into the allegations and compensate any victims.
According to the report, Poland's then-president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, the head of the National Security Bureau, Marek Siwiec, the defence minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and military intelligence chief Marek Dukaczewski knew about and could be held accountable for the secret prison operation in Poland.
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Mr Szmajdzinski dismissed the report yesterday as "pure political fiction". The report came as President George Bush arrived in Poland on a brief visit after the G8 summit in Germany. Mr Bush confirmed last September the existence of CIA detention centres but did not say where they were.
The Council of Europe report was mainly based on the cross-referenced testimonies of more than 30 serving and former members of intelligence services in the US and Europe, and on the analysis of international flights.
Mr Marty said the evidence would stand up in court, but that his sources had spoken on condition of anonymity.
The prisons were part of a "global spider's web" of detentions and illegal transfers - known as "extraordinary renditions" - spun out around the world by America and its allies, the report said.
The report also said that it had received "concurring confirmations" that American agencies had used the British-administered island of Diego Garcia as a so-called "black site" - a discreet place to "process" high-value detainees.
It said it had information "sufficiently serious to demand further investigation" and criticised the British government for accepting American "assurances" that it had not used the site without launching its own independent inquiries.
Britain has been accused of providing logistical support to CIA rendition operations, allowing more than 210 CIA flights to pass through civilian and military airports, most notably Prestwick airport in Glasgow. Officials have denied they knew any "ghost" prisoners were on the flights. Yesterday the Association of Chief Police Officers said an 18-month inquiry had found no evidence that CIA torture flights had landed on British soil.
The report was released as 26 American citizens, almost all believed to be CIA agents, went on trial in absentia accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, in Milan and flying him to Egypt.
Mr Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was on Washington's list of terrorist suspects, claims he was tortured in Egypt. The judge adjourned proceedings until June 18 to decide on a defence request to suspend the trial.
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