United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Europe shocked by CIA prison camp claims
United Press International - Security & Terrorism - Europe shocked by CIA prison camp claims: "BRUSSELS, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency is running prison camps for suspected al-Qaida terrorists in Eastern Europe have sparked howls of protest from EU legislators and human rights groups, but strenuous denials from politicians in Poland -- one of the countries said to host the secret jails.
Human Rights Watch Thursday released fresh information they say indicates Poland, an EU member state, and Romania -- which is expected to join the bloc in 2007 -- both have, or had, CIA prisons on their territories. Vanessa Saenen, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group in Brussels, said flight records showed a CIA-commissioned Boeing 737 made frequent stops between Afghanistan, Iraq and the two former communist countries after 2002.
On Sept. 22, 2003, flight records obtained by Human Rights Watch showed that a plane from the Afghan capital Kabul touched down in Szymany, a military airport in northeast Poland. The following day, the same plane -- with the registration number N313P -- landed in Mihail Kojalniceanu military airport in Romania. Both airports are closed to the public and press, although U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld made a courtesy call to the latter base in Oct. 2004, according to the lobby group.
The claims have been corroborated by a Washington Post story Wednesday that revealed details of eight 'black sites' -- as the covert prisons are referred to in classified White House, CIA and Justice Department documents -- in South Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. They have also been given credence by Czech Interior Minister Frantiszek Bublan, who told the aktualne.cz news agency that the U.S. administration approached Prague to build a camp, but the request was turned down by the Czechs.
'What is happening in these camps is illegal,' said Saenen. 'You cannot just arrest people without trail, transport them halfway across the globe and not give them access to a lawyer. Even terrorist suspects are guaranteed basic rights -- such as the right not to be tortured.""
Human Rights Watch Thursday released fresh information they say indicates Poland, an EU member state, and Romania -- which is expected to join the bloc in 2007 -- both have, or had, CIA prisons on their territories. Vanessa Saenen, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group in Brussels, said flight records showed a CIA-commissioned Boeing 737 made frequent stops between Afghanistan, Iraq and the two former communist countries after 2002.
On Sept. 22, 2003, flight records obtained by Human Rights Watch showed that a plane from the Afghan capital Kabul touched down in Szymany, a military airport in northeast Poland. The following day, the same plane -- with the registration number N313P -- landed in Mihail Kojalniceanu military airport in Romania. Both airports are closed to the public and press, although U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld made a courtesy call to the latter base in Oct. 2004, according to the lobby group.
The claims have been corroborated by a Washington Post story Wednesday that revealed details of eight 'black sites' -- as the covert prisons are referred to in classified White House, CIA and Justice Department documents -- in South Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. They have also been given credence by Czech Interior Minister Frantiszek Bublan, who told the aktualne.cz news agency that the U.S. administration approached Prague to build a camp, but the request was turned down by the Czechs.
'What is happening in these camps is illegal,' said Saenen. 'You cannot just arrest people without trail, transport them halfway across the globe and not give them access to a lawyer. Even terrorist suspects are guaranteed basic rights -- such as the right not to be tortured.""
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