NEWS: EU looking into report of secret U.S. CIA gulags in EU soil
By Judy Dempsey and James Kanter International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2005
iht.com
The European Union struggled Thursday to respond to allegations that a member country and a would-be member were among the sites of secret CIA jails for Al Qaeda suspects, saying it would "seek more information" but stopping short of starting a formal investigation.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, was responding to allegations by Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based human rights group, which said Romania, scheduled to join the EU in 2007, and Poland, which joined last year, were sites for secret prisons on behalf of the CIA.
The Washington Post wrote about the possible existence of secret detention facilities on Wednesday, but did not name the host countries. Both countries, strong U.S. allies, denied involvement, and it was unclear whether such detentions, if they existed, were continuing or had occurred in the past.
However, the allegations alone brought heated exchanges at the regular news briefing at EU headquarters in Brussels. Fending off reporters' questions, an EU spokesman, Frisco Roscam Abbing, said the EU needed to confirm the reports before considering further steps, let alone sanctions.
"We have no knowledge of this at this point in time anyhow," he said. At this stage, he said, it would not be appropriate for the EU commissioner for justice and security, Franco Frattini, to question the leaders of Romania or Poland.
Abbing, however, warned Romania that it could face obstacles to joining the European Union in 2007 if reports of secret jails were true.
"I don't think the existence of secret prisons would be compatible" with rules for joining the trade bloc, Abbing said. He said the EU could take steps to sanction Poland if evidence suggested the need, but he cautioned that any breach of European treaty rules would have to be "serious and persistent."
Vanessa Saenen, spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch's Brussels office, said the group had obtained what it said were flight records of CIA planes.
The planes moved high-level detainees out of Afghanistan on Sept. 23, 2003, and landed in Poland and Romania, she said.
"The flight records show that the planes landed at Szymany airport, a small airfield in northeastern Poland which is close to a military training site, and also at Mihail Kogalniceanu military airport in southern Romania," Saenen said in an interview.
Romania and Poland are members of the NATO military alliance and are among Washington's staunchest allies in Europe. They both supported the U.S.-led war against Iraq and sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the prime minister of Romania, insisted on Thursday that there were no CIA bases in the country. "I repeat. We do not have CIA bases in Romania," he told journalists.
When Romanian government officials were asked several questions, including whether Romania had ever cooperated with the United States over receiving detainees or had ever been asked to cooperate and whether the officials could explain the alleged CIA flight records, the chief government spokesperson, Oana Marinescu, issued a one-sentence statement to the International Herald Tribune: "In the portfolio of projects of the Romanian government, there is no activity as the one that you refer to."
Marius Bercaru, spokesman for the Romanian Intelligence Service, said in a telephone interview and later in a written reply, "The Romanian Intelligence Service does not have any intelligence on such detention centers in Romania."
Also, Titus Cazacu, chief of security and operations at Mihail Kogalniceanu airport, dismissed the allegations by Human Rights Watch.
Polish officials also categorically denied the existence of any detention camps. A senior member of President Aleksander Kwasniewski's cabinet, Waldemar Dubaniowski, said there was "no information" on such facilities.
Jerzy Szmajdzinski, who was defense minister until a new government took office recently, said "holding foreign nationals on Polish territory would be illegal." In an interview with the private Radio Zet station, Szmajdzinski said, "We are not detaining terrorists or interrogating them, or doing anything else with them."
In Washington, Stephen Hadley, national security adviser to President George W. Bush, said Wednesday: "While we have to do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorists and to win the war on terror, the president has been very clear that we're going to do that in a way that is consistent with our values and that is why he has been very clear that the United States will not torture."
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a former Polish defense minister and member of the European Parliament, said in a telephone interview that he thought the whole thing "was a hoax. I don't believe we could have such centers given the level of transparency. It would be impossible to keep a thing like this secret. You could have one or two people but not a large number. It is extremely unlikely."
Onyszkiewicz said the existence of such centers "would do enormous damage" to Poland's image. "We already suffer from being America's Trojan donkey in Europe," he added.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it asked the United States about the Washington Post report and asked that, if the facilities exist, a representative be allowed to visit prisoners. |
