http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-02T064210Z_01_KNE224035_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-PRISONS.xml&archived=False
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA has been holding and interrogating al Qaeda captives at a secret facility in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison system established after the September 11, 2001, attacks, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The Soviet-era compound is part of a network that has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand and Afghanistan"
"the existence and locations of the facilities are known only to a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country."
I'm pretty sure there have been news reports about these jails before. It's good that this is getting some attention, but shouldn't it have gotten that attention when the first reports about the jails came?
There were a number of reports about the CIA abducting "suspects" and torturing them in facilites in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan or handing them over to the respective authorities for "interrogation".
Might be news for the Washington Post/US press.
>>2 The new element is that it's located in a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe.
Now, where it is?
Possible locations: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near the headquarters of Poland's intelligence service; and Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania. But no evidence, and both countries denied.
Baltic countries Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia also denied the allegations, as did former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Armenia.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/13070568.htm
Sure, that's the new element, but is it only news if it happens in the western world? You can torture and abduct people all you want as long as you do it in places that end in -stan?
Maybe I should just shut about it and just be happy that it is finally news, but it does bother me a bit.
>>6 The thing is, Bush and his cronies haven't really done anything at all when the tortures/abductions came into light the first time. Of course, because they are the ones who threw away the Geneva convention rules, wrote the torture memo and renamed war prisoners "enemy combatants". And Cuba isn't doing anything despite that Gitmo is on their territory. That's old news, we all know that.
But if it's true that they are CIA torture centers located in Europe, then it becomes Europe's problem. This is newsworthy.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article324587.ece
EU promises inquiry into CIA's 'gulag'
"Poland and Romania are at the centre of a row over human rights after the European Commission promised to investigate whether the two nations hosted secret jails for CIA interrogation of al-Qa'ida suspects.
The claims provoked an angry reaction from European politicians and, if true, could delay Romania's accession to the EU."
I think these things have gotten attention...the difference is that now someone can do something about it. EU actually cares about this, but unfortunately doesn't have big enough muscles to influence what the US does outside its immediate surroundings.
If it's true that Poland/other current member has one of these facilities....I can only wonder what the hell they were thinking. The US has tons of morally corrupt allies, how come they weren't good enough for this?
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - The Central Intelligence Agency has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation to determine the source of a Washington Post article that said the agency had set up a covert prison network in Eastern Europe and other countries to hold important terrorism suspects, government officials said on Tuesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/politics/09inquire.html
"We don't have any secret prisons! And who leaked that secret?"
Where does anyone deny that they had secret prisons?
Well, they didn't confirm it either.
While a refusal to comment may be as good as an admittance to a cynic, morally it is still the equivalent of a denial, especially when coming from an institution in a position of power.
>While a refusal to comment may be as good as an admittance to a cynic, morally it is still the equivalent of a denial, except when coming from an institution in a position of power.
fixed
what
Are you somehow trying to argue that when a governemental institution doesn't really need to admit to wrongdoing?
WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1206/dailyUpdate.html
"ABC News, citing unidentified current and former CIA agents, reported Monday night that 11 "high value" Al Qaeda terrorists had been held at a former Soviet air base in Eastern Europe and were spirited to a site in North Africa just before Ms. Rice's arrival in Europe.
Of the 12 high value targets housed by the CIA, only one did not require water boarding [what the CIA describes as "an enhanced interrogation technique"] before he talked. Ramzi bin al-Shibh broke down in tears after he was walked past the cell of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the operational planner for Sept. 11. Visibly shaken, he started to cry and became as cooperative as if he had been tied down to a water board, sources said."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051209/ap_on_re_eu/poland_secret_prisons
"Poland served as the CIA's main center to detain terrorist suspects in Europe at clandestine prisons, according to remarks by a Human Rights Watch investigator made public Friday."
""Romania was more of a hub""
"The Council of Europe has ordered Swiss lawmaker Dick Marty to investigate the matter."