C.I.A. Ran Secret Prisons in Poland and Romania

Technorati Tags: C.I.A., secret prisons

That is the finding of a report prepared for the Council of Europe, a coalition of countries that monitors human rights:

The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks, and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said yesterday.

The CIA called the report "distorted," but stopped short of denying the existence of such prisons. The agency said it does not discuss the location of its overseas facilities. Poland and Romania also vehemently denied the allegations.

"High value detainees" like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of "remarkable importance," were taken to Romania.
[...]
The report said its conclusions about the clandestine prisons relied on "multiple sources which validate and corroborate one another." Marty said his team spoke with "over 30 one-time members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe" as well as former or current detainees and human rights activists.

While conceding at a news conference that sources for the report were limited, Marty said they were "well placed," including some who "were implicated."

The alleged prisons were at the center of a "spider's web" of purported human rights abuses that Marty outlined in his initial investigation a year ago.

That report focused on flights to spirit detainees to CIA hideouts with landing points in at least 14 nations.

Clandestine prisons and secret CIA flights involving European countries would breach the continent's human rights treaties, although the Council of Europe has no power to punish countries. The council, which is separate from the European Union, was set up four years after World War II to promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Europe.
[...]
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano did not address whether there were secret detention centers, but he disputed the report's characterization of the agency's activities.

"When you see words like apartheid and torture in the document, that tells you it's biased and distorted," he said. "The CIA's counterterror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed, and of benefit to many people -- including Europeans -- in disrupting plots and saving lives. Our counterterror partnerships in Europe are very strong."

Gimigliano is a liar. Note I did not say he is wrong. That would imply a mistake made in good faith. But that is not the case. Gimigliano knows as well as he knows his own name that secret prisons are illegal by definition. Secret prisons cannot be reviewed, closely or otherwise, because they're secret. No one knows where they are. No one knows who is being held in them. To suggest that C.I.A. "reviews" of interrogation practices in its own clandestine facilities, with no independent oversight of those "reviews," could possibly be legitimate, is beyond absurd, beyond outrageous. The contempt such a claim reveals for ordinary common sense, not to mention what the law requires, truly takes one's breath away.

Cross-posted at Shakesville.