The CIA Secret Prisons in Europe

The CIA Secret Prisons in Europe. Political Camouflage in the EU. Washington’s “European
Partners in Crime”

By Nako Minchev
Global Research, March 04, 2015
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cia-secret-prisons-in-europe-political-camoufla
ge-in-the-eu-washingtons-european-partners-in-crime/5434762

It is common knowledge that at end-January 2015 the global movement Amnesty International
published a report, titled “Breaking the conspiracy of silence: USA’s European “partners
in crime” must act after Senate torture report”, which throws further light upon the
information gathered within the US Senate investigation into torture methods, applied by
the Central Intelligence Agency, by referring to media reports on the way CIA-operated
secret detention sites were run in Europe – in particular, on the territory of Lithuania,
Poland and Romania. As a matter of fact, it was several years ago when it first became
known that CIA tortured terror suspects not only in these countries but also on the
territory of another EU Member State – namely, Great Britain. According to the Lawrence
Wilkinson, former Chief of Staff to the US Secretary of State, after the terror attack of
11th September 2001 the CIA used the US military base on the island of Diego Garcia,
located in the British Indian Ocean Territory, to conduct interrogations and torture
terror suspects who had been abducted from various countries without any court order
whatsoever.

After the US Senate report got published, the European Parliament adopted a special
resolution on 11th February 2015 in which it:

“expresses its deep condemnation of the gruesome interrogation practices that
characterized these illegal counterterrorism operations; underlines the fundamental
conclusion by the US Senate that the violent methods applied by the CIA failed to generate
intelligence that prevented further terrorist attacks; recalls its absolute condemnation
of torture”.

The resolution also highlights the fact that:

“the climate of impunity regarding the CIA programme has enabled the continuation of
fundamental rights violations, as further revealed by the mass surveillance programmes of
the US National Security Agency and secret services of various EU Member States”.

In this context, the US Government is called on:

“to investigate and prosecute the multiple human rights violations resulting from the CIA
rendition and secret detention programmes, and to cooperate with all requests from EU
Member States for information, extradition or effective remedies for victims in connection
with the CIA programme”.

The European Parliament also:

“reiterates its calls on Member States to investigate the allegations that there were
secret prisons on their territory where people were held under the CIA programme, and to
prosecute those involved in these operations, taking into account all the new evidence
that has come to light”.

At the same time it:

“expresses concerns regarding the obstacles encountered by national parliamentary and
judicial investigations into some Member States’ involvement in the CIA programme, the
abuse of state secrecy, and the undue classification of documents resulting in the
termination of criminal proceedings and leading to de facto impunity of perpetrators of
human rights violations”.

Furthermore, the resolution “calls for the findings of existing inquiries relating to
Member States’ involvement in the CIA programme, in particular the Chilcot inquiry, to be
published without further delay”.

Considering the above, we are unpleasantly impressed by the fact that the Council of
Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) have hitherto failed to demonstrate the due
will to discuss the refusal of the governmental authorities in Vilnius, Warsaw and
Bucharest to investigate the multiple occasions of human rights violations, ensuing from
the agreement of these countries to host the establishment of CIA black sites on their
territory. Such an attitude erodes the very foundations of the European Union, weakens the
belief of European citizens that their fundamental rights are truly guaranteed, divests
the EU of its moral authority and discredits its allegiance to the universal human values.

The US Senate report and the one issued by Amnesty International, unequivocally point out
that the above three EU Member States, as well as Great Britain, played a key role in the
implementation of this CIA “operation” on the territory of the Old Continent. Without the
help of these governments the USA would not have been in the position to detain and
torture people for so many years, applying such inhumane methods as waterboarding and mock
execution, sleep deprivation, use of coffin-sized confinement boxes or sexual threats.

It is high time that Europe became aware of the fact that the time for paying lip service
to the condemnation of these crimes or the attempts at their covering up is over for good.
The governments of Lithuania , Poland and Romania can no longer hide behind the
unconvincing “national security reasons” and “state secret” arguments, thus refusing to
bring to light the entire truth about their role for the torture and abduction of people
in their countries. Jozef Pinior, one of the legendary leaders of the Polish “Solidarity”
trade union, member of the European Parliament in the period 2004 – 2009 and of the
Parliamentary committee on secret CIA prisons in Europe, now a Polish senator, points out:

“The information in the Washington Post about the fact that Polish intelligence services
received USD 15 million to “host” a secret CIA prison in the country compromises the
entire Polish state which should elucidate this issue as quickly as possible. This
unquestionably confirmed the grimmest hypothesis that under Leszek Miller Poland turned
into a “banana republic” to the USA . Another deplorable fact is that our national
services have contributed in no way whatsoever to the disclosure of this conspiracy. This
is an extremely disgraceful situation. The Polish state, the judicial system and the
Government should publish the investigation findings as soon as possible. Otherwise we are
going to become Europe ’s laughing stock. It turns out that we while we give lessons in
democracy to countries like the Ukraine , we take money from the US to allow them to
practice illicit torture of people on our territory”.

In its turn the Bulgarian Government should state its official support for the appeal of
Amnesty International and the European Parliament and urge the authorities in Vilnius ,
Bucharest and Warsaw to undertake an immediate and full investigation of this case and to
prosecute those involved in the tortures. Let us be reminded that most of the victims of
these malpractices are Muslims and in the context of surging anti-Islam mood after the
terror attacks in Paris and Copenhagen it becomes even more important to find out the
truth about the secret CIA “black sites” in Europe.

Copyright © 2015 Global Research

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