Report details secret CIA prisons

The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania to interrogate and even torture some detainees in its "war on terror" under a program authorized by the countries' presidents, an official European inquiry concluded on June 8. "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," Swiss senator Dick Marty said in a report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog -- the culmination of a 19-month investigation. The European Commission called on both countries to hold urgent, independent investigations into the allegations and compensate any victims. Although many of the allegations had already been made by human rights groups, former prisoners and the media, the report provided new details about how Washington's Polish and Romanian allies allegedly set up heavily fortified, top-secret outposts where US agents reportedly subjected prisoners to abusive interrogations between 2003 and 2005. The report said the CIA enlisted top officials in those countries to create and conceal the facilities. Marty said senior officials in European governments were fully aware of the policy but continued to cover it up. "Poland and Romania agreed to provide the premises in which these facilities were established, the highest degrees of physical security and secrecy, and steadfast guarantees of noninterference," said Marty. According to the report, Poland's then-president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, the head of the National Security Bureau, Marek Siwiec, the defense minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and military intelligence chief Marek Dukaczewski knew about and could be held accountable for the secret prison operation in Poland. The CIA chose Poland and Romania for the unprecedented, politically explosive operations because they are staunch and eager US allies, the report asserted. Washington formed "special partnerships with countries that were economically vulnerable, emerging from difficult transitional periods in their history, and dependent on American support for their strategic development," the report said. It cited a "long-serving CIA officer" saying: "We have an extraordinary relationship with Poland." US intelligence officers worked exclusively with Polish military intelligence to avoid civilian oversight, the report said. Though Polish security forces provided an outer ring of protection, only US agents handled the prisoners, the report said. US agents in vans took them to the secret facility at Stare Kiejkuty, an intelligence training base, the report said. "Polish officials were not involved in the interrogations or transfers of [detainees], nor did they have contact," Marty said. Following a similar pattern, after gaining clearance from Romania's then-president, Ion Iliescu, and assistance from his military intelligence service, the CIA opened a second interrogation site in Romania as the clandestine detention program expanded in late 2003 and 2004, the report alleged. "Several of our Romanian sources commented that they felt proud to have been able to assist the United States in detaining 'high value' terrorists–not only as a gesture of pro-American sentiment, but also because they thought it was in the best interest of Romania," the report said. 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 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. 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 the United States and its allies, the report said. "The rendition, abduction and detention of terrorist subjects have always taken place outside the US, where such actions would no doubt have been ruled unlawful and unconstitutional," said Marty's report. "These actions are also unacceptable under the laws of European countries who none the less tolerated them or colluded actively in carrying them out. Some European governments have obstructed the truth and are continuing to do so." Marty said the secret facilities were operated solely by the CIA. "We have sufficient grounds to declare that the highest state authorities [in Europe] were aware of the illegal activities on their territories." The report from the council, which serves as Europe's principal human rights watchdog, said: "The fight against terrorism must not serve as an excuse for systematic recourse to... massive violation of human rights and contempt for law." The report also said that it had received "concurring confirmations" that US 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 criticized the British government for accepting US "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. Marty also accused European countries of obstructing "the search for the truth" by invoking the concept of "state secrets." "This criticism applies to Germany and Italy, in particular," his report said. There were at least 10 flights -- six from Kabul -- to Poland between 2002 and 2005, according to the report. The report lists eight of the CIA flights, with one each originating in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Rabat, Morocco, and says it can be "demonstrated" that the majority of them were "deliberately disguised." Sources told investigators that when a CIA flight approached the Szymany airfield, Polish operatives would order all Polish personnel to leave the area of the runway. A US "landing team" usually waited at the end of the runway "in two or three vans with their engines often running." When the aircraft came to a stop, the vans would race toward the plane. US officials would board the craft, then hustle the detainee into one of the vans, usually out of the line of sight of the Polish control tower. The vans would then speed through the airport's front security gates, using high beams that blinded Polish guards, then drive down a paved road "lined by thick pine forests on both sides" and follow an unpaved road along a lake, eventually reaching the entrance to the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training base, where prisoners were held and questioned, the report said. In the report, Marty expressed deep disapproval of US practices with the prisoners. "We must banish forever the Bush Administration mindset that effectively says, 'if it is illegal for us to use such a practice at home or on our own citizens, let us export or outsource it so we will not be held to account for it,'" the report concluded. "The fact that the measures only apply to non-American citizens reflects a kind of 'legal apartheid.'"