Martelen 71

'Soviet-Era Compound in Poland Was Secret CIA Prison Site
By Larisa Alexandrovna and David Dastych

This explosive investigative report is the first to expose the location of one of the Bush-sanctioned prison sites for terror suspects in Europe. The CIA operated an interrogation and short-term detention facility for suspected terrorists within a Polish intelligence training school with the explicit approval of British and US authorities, according to British and Polish intelligence officials familiar with the arrangements.
Intelligence officials identify the site as a component of a Polish intelligence training school outside the northern Polish village of Stare Kiejkuty. While previously suspected, the facility has never been conclusively identified as being part of the CIA's secret rendition and detention program.
Only the Polish prime minister and top Polish intelligence brass were told of the plan, in which agents of the United States quietly shuttled detainees from other holding facilities around the globe for stopovers and short-term interrogation in Poland between late 2002 and 2004.
According to a confidential British intelligence memo shown to Raw Story, Prime Minister Tony Blair told Poland's then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller to keep the information secret, even from his own government.
"Miller was asked to keep it as tight as possible," the memo said.
The complex at Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence in World War II, is best known as having been the only Russian intelligence training school to operate outside the Soviet Union. Its prominence in the Soviet era suggests that it may have been the facility first identified -- but never named -- when the Washington Post's Dana Priest revealed the existence of the CIA's secret prison network in November 2005.
Reached by telephone Monday, Priest would not discuss the allegations in her article beyond her original report.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano would not confirm or deny any allegations about the Polish facility. He maintained the rendition program was legal and conducted "with great care."
"The agency's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives," Gimigliano said Monday. "That is also true of renditions, another key, lawful tool in the fight against terror."
"The United States does not conduct or condone torture, nor does it transfer anyone to other countries for the purpose of torture," he added.
US intelligence officials confirmed that the CIA had used the compound at Stare Kiejkuty in the past. Speaking generally about the agency's program, a former senior official said the CIA had never conducted unlawful interrogations.'

Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/rights/48939/

'About 10km from village of Stare Kiejkuty, Poland, is a restricted military area that is the headquarters of Military Unit 2669; officially it is described as "training center for news service cadres."[1] Since 2005 it has attracted scrutiny as being a possible black site involved in the CIA's program of extraordinary rendition.[2]
The facility's military uses go back at least as far as the Second World War, when it served as an outpost of the German SD (the intelligence service of the SS) and Abwehr.[3] The airstrip that would later be expanded into the modern Szczytno-Szymany International Airport, 20km away, originally served as a landing strip for Luftwaffe planes for bombing raids on Warsaw. In 1968 it would be used by the Soviet Army to plan operations to crush the Prague Spring.
Its use by Polish intelligence dates to the fall 1971; in the socialist era it appeared on maps as a non-descript vacation resort. It had a very special status, however, having been the only intelligence training facility in the Eastern Bloc located outside the Soviet Union.
Signs are posted nearby reminding casual visitors of prohibitions against taking photographs, and journalists have reported having their cameras searched (and memory cards confiscated) when taking pictures near the facility.
On December 15, 2005, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former head of the the current Polish national intelligence agency, Agencja Wywiadu, confirmed[4] that within near the village of Stare Kiejkuty facility there exists two "internal zones" to which CIA officers have access; one of these (referred to as Strefa B) is officially the home of Military Unit 2669. Other Polish intelligence officials have confirmed[5] that American personnel associated with the facility have been known to reside in the area for several months at a time, going back 5 or 6 years.'

Lees verder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_Kiejkuty_(base)

Het is volstrekt onbegrijpelijk dat bepaalde mensen tegen toetreding van Turkije tot de EU zijn en niet tegen de toetreding van het roomskatholieke Polen.