Investigation into reports of CIA prisons

Allegations that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate al Qaida suspects today triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted European Union officials, the continent’s top human rights organisation and the international Red Cross to investigate.

Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent’s human rights principles.

At work may be a complex web of global politics, in which eastern European countries face choices between the views of the European Union and their interest in close ties with the United States.

According to a report in yesterday’s Washington Post, the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaida captives at Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has had exclusive rights to visit terror suspects detained at a US military base at Guantanamo, took strong interest in the claims – having long been concerned about reports US officials were hiding detainees from ICRC delegates.

Red Cross chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said the organisation had asked Washington about the allegations and requested access to the prisons if they exist.

Europe’s top human rights organisation, the Council of Europe, said it, too, would investigate the claims.

Notari said the Red Cross, which also monitors conditions at US detention centres in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been unable to find some people who have reportedly been detained. She said the Red Cross was “concerned about the fate of an unknown number of persons detained as part of what is called the ’global war on terror’ and held in undisclosed places of detention.”

Human Rights Watch in New York said today it has evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.

The conclusion is based on an analysis of flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 obtained by the group, said Mark Garlasco, a senior military analyst with the organisation.

Human Rights Watch said it matched the flight patterns of the CIA aircraft with testimony from some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by the United States.

“The indications are that prisoners in Afghanistan are being (taken) to facilities in Europe and other countries in the world,” Garlasco, a former civilian intelligence officer with the Defence Intelligence Agency, told The Associated Press.

He would not say how the organisation attained the flight logs, but he noted that two destinations of the flights in particular stood out as likely sites of any secret CIA detention centres: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near the headquarters of Poland’s intelligence service; and Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania, Garlasco said.

The group also obtained the tail numbers of dozens of CIA aircraft to match them with the flight logs, Garlasco said.

On one of the flights, a Boeing 737 in September 2003 flew to Kabul, Afghanistan from Washington via Ruzyne in the Czech Republic and Tashkent, Uzbekistan he said. On September 22, the plane flew to Szymany Airport, then to Mihail Kogalniceanu, proceeded to Sale, Morocco and finally landed at the US Naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, Garlasco said.

As far as he knew, Human Rights Watch has not found and interviewed detainees who were held in any alleged facilities in Poland and Romania.

Romania is one of the countries that had an agreement with the United States to use its air space during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and the US has used he Kogalniceanu air base in Romania.

But the Defence Ministry issued a statement saying it was “not aware that such a detention centre … existed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base,” and invited journalists to come see for themselves.

“I repeat: We do not have CIA bases in Romania,” said Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu.

In Poland, an aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said authorities there had “no information” of such facilities.

Other European countries also issued denials.

Boglar Laszlo, a spokesman for Hungary’s prime minister, told AP that an official report would be drawn up following consultations with air transportation officials and others “so we can bring this mattr to a close.”

Baltic countries Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia also denied the allegations as did now-independent former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Armenia.

EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told reporters that the European Commission, the EU’s executive office, would launch an informal probe, requesting answers from all 25 member governments and EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.

The investigation could create tensions between Washington and EU governments, many of which have been outspoken critics of how the US has been handling terrorist suspects at its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. EU heavyweights France and Germany led international opposition to the U.S. decision to invade Iraq.

According to the Post’s report, a covert prison system was set up by the CIA nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story. U.S. officials have refused to confirm or deny the allegations.

Roscam Abbing said said such prisons could violate EU human rights laws and other European human rights conventions.

Matjaz Gruden, a spokesman for the Council of Europe, said the human rights watchdog would also be following the issue “very closely".