CIA Black Site of Secret Prison Confirmed in Poland
Another CIA-run interrogation "black site" has been exposed after the confessions of top-ranking Polish officials blew the lid on the dirtiest secret in Eastern Europe.
The former head of Poland's intelligence service secret Zbigniew Siemiatkowski has been charged with taking part in establishing a secret prison for the CIA in a remote part of the country.
According to RT's information, foreign prisoners in the detention center were tortured in connection with America's global war on terror.
Siemiatkowski refused to comment on the matter, citing the country's secrecy laws. However, he did not deny the report.
Rumors about Poland hosting a CIA-run prison had circulated for years, though the country's authorities dismissed them as absurd. However, the UN and the Council of Europe had long stated "they had evidence of the site's existence."
The official investigation into a CIA-run prison in Poland started in 2008, a year after the Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office. It took three years for evidence of the site to come to light.
"A secret interrogation facility for "terror" suspects was operating in Stare Kiejkuty, a small village in remote Poland, from December 2002 to the fall of 2003, depriving prisoners of war of their freedom and allowing corporal punishment," the report added.
Earlier, two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, unveiled that they were prisoners at this "black site". Polish prosecutors have already given the two "victim status".
According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, up to eight prisoners underwent "extraordinary rendition" to be tortured in Poland.
The harsh interrogation techniques used by the American spooks included water boarding, starvation, cooling of the body, visual and acoustic deprivation for extended periods of time, slamming prisoners against walls, and mock execution, among many other methods.
Naturally, torture is not allowed in any European country, Poland included. If it is proven that Poland did in fact allow torture to take place at a CIA facility in their country, the matter could be taken before the European Court of Human Rights. The prosecution of Polish and American agents would also remain a distinct possibility.
"We can think about Polish intelligence officers who most probably somehow collaborated with the CIA in establishing this site. We can think about the CIA officers, because if they made it [tortures] in the territory of Poland - it is a crime," human rights lawyer and head of the legal division at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Dr Adam Bodnar told RT.
"But as you most probably know, the US authorities would not give any data regarding them and would not allow them to be extradited," he concluded.
In parallel, Tusk fully supports the high-profile case against the former senior official stating that "Poland has become a political victim of US officials.
"Poland is a democracy where national and international law must be observed," Poland's PM stated, demanding an investigation into the matter.
It is worth mentioning that Lithuania was the first country in Europe to admit it had allowed the CIA to establish two secret detention facilities in 2002-2006.
In November 2011, Lithuania faced a lawsuit for hosting a secret CIA prison on its soil when Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, mentioned that "he was detained and tortured there."
Source: RT, Edited by moqawama.org
