There is no law in the war without rules: from the history of CIA prisons in Eastern Europe
The scandal with the prisons of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in Eastern Europe temporarily subsides, then re-erupted over many years. Recently, a new armful of firewood was thrown into an informational furnace — Helen Duffy's lawyer, defending the interests of the Palestinian Abu Zubaydah, who had once languishing in Lithuania, reported on new facts confirming the existence of secret prison sites. However, despite the presence of a multitude of evidence, the authorities of this state, at one time, bypassing the will of the people, provided the Tsereushniki with secret places for their affairs, trying to deny the obvious. Unlike the Poles' neighbors, who were forced to admit ...
Light of truth and silence figures
Duffy, who runs the Abu Zubaydah case against the Lithuanian government, "refers to a US Senate report confirming that a secret prison for terror suspects operated in the Baltic republic in 2003 — 2006.” According to the information report of the Senate, there are many clear indications of agreements concluded between Lithuanian officials and the CIA, including relatively large sums of money, which passed from hand to hand in exchange for support. ”
The document submitted for consideration by the ECHR contains, according to Duffy, information “leaving no serious room for doubt” that the CIA prison was located in the Republic of Lithuania. “Lithuania is responsible for the imprisonment and torture of my client on its territory,” the lawyer said.
True, the detailed report of the Senate on this account, which fits more than 6 thousands of pages, remains classified. In December, only the censored version of the 2004 pages was published on 524. This leaves officials to dodge. Thus, the deputy of the Lithuanian Seimas Arvydas Anushauskas, who once headed the parliamentary investigation of this issue, said that the allegedly published part of the report does not allow to draw categorical conclusions about the detention of prisoners. “A lawyer is doing his job. In the excerpts of the report of the Senate Commission there are many new facts about transportation. I would say that it is possible to confirm the fact of finding a place of detention in Lithuania. But about the one whom they kept there, what specific persons - this is not mentioned in the material, ”- литulit Anushauskas.
However, the thing is that story The issue has been around for many years - and the Senate report does not exhaust the list of evidence. At the end of last year, Amnesty International accused a number of European governments of complicity with the CIA’s crimes. “European governments that have taken part in the CIA’s clandestine detention, interrogation and torture operations as part of the global“ war on terror ”must act urgently to bring those responsible to justice after the US Senate report revealing new details, . Romania, Great Britain, Macedonia, Germany, Lithuania and Poland fell under the Amnesty International target. Let us dwell on the last two countries.
The Lithuanian public first heard that the US intelligence services had their own prisons (which is contrary to the local constitution) in their native country, in August 2009 of the year - from the American television channel ABC. TV men reported that the Americans contained up to eight al-Qaida fighters somewhere near Vilnius. Later, information about the secret jails that existed in Lithuania was confirmed when Wikileaks began throwing out confidential information from US government agencies for public viewing. The same source confirmed that during the period from 2003 to 2006, the CIA aircraft periodically landed in Vilnius and Palanga
True, the then president, Valdas Adamkus from the United States and Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, as well as the military, categorically denied everything. But to avoid the noise did not work, because two former prisoners lodged complaints with the ECHR, accusing the Lithuanian government of having also had a hand in their troubles. After international human rights organizations organized pressure on Lithuania, the local prosecutor’s office had to open a case.
The plot for the thriller
Also, a commission of inquiry was created at the Parliament: it found out that there were two secret CIA centers in the republic. The first prison was created in 2003, and the second in 2004. By the way, one of them was located in the village of Antavilyay not far from the cottages of Lithuanian officials, twenty kilometers from Vilnius. When the secret became clear, a scandal broke out, costing the post to some important officials. However, even now the authorities of the state do not like to even mention the whole story. A curious fact did not hide from the attention of observers. President Dalia Grybauskaite soon after she took office, dropped the phrase: “The question is not whether there were CIA prisons in Lithuania, but how quickly we will establish when and how it looked.” However, she never again raised this topic - on the contrary, gradually turned into a frantic supporter of the American course. Apparently, the “specialists” from Langley quickly found a way to put the impudent presidency in place. Especially since you don’t need to look for something - the past of Grybauskaite, the once high-ranking communist "lump", is not a secret to anyone ...
One way or another, Vilnius cannot completely ignore the “uncomfortable topic” - it periodically reminds of itself. Relatively recently, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released some information (however, individual lines from these documents were retouched) regarding cooperation with foreign allies. They included, among other things, a kind of secret “purple place” in Lithuania, which began to operate in 2003. Some Lithuanians have heated their hands very well, having received large sums (“millions of dollars” are mentioned) for arranging this “place”. However, at the time, neither the US ambassador nor the members of the Lithuanian government knew about the true purpose of a well-equipped building.
At the beginning of 2006, the "purple spot" and the "orange hole" (most likely, this is the secret base of the CIA in Afghanistan) contained 28 prisoners. But in the same year, the prison in Lithuania had to be closed - after a refusal was received to transport one of the prisoners, who urgently needed qualified help, to a local hospital. As a result, the Yankees had to pay an impressive amount for curing a sick prisoner. All the "guests" of the "purple place" were taken to the "brown hole" (apparently, another prison in Afghanistan) and since that time all the CIA prisoners have been kept together.
The names of at least two prisoners who languished in Lithuania are known. One of them is called Mustafa al-Hasavi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia. The US is blaming al-Khasawi for financing the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York. He was detained in Pakistan in 2003, placed at the disposal of the United States and subjected to sophisticated torture. The report of the US Senate states that al-Hasavi developed “chronic hemorrhoids from the“ special measures ”applied to him, and there were tears in the anus and symptomatic prolapse of the rectum.”
The second prisoner was the aforementioned Abu Zubaydah - a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, now contained in Guantanamo. It was Abu Zubaydah who became the first detainee in the 11 case of September, where the CIA "tried" methods of "force". According to the documents, he was brutally tortured dozens of times. In one of the certificates, by the way, the Americans emphasize that their state will not bear any legal responsibility for such methods, since they were not used in the United States. Abu Zubaydah was subjected to the vicious effects of "white noise" and torture by insomnia, they popped their heads under water until they lost consciousness. The prisoner was put on his bag, then removed and shown ominous box, like a coffin. The prisoner was beaten and locked in a cramped cell, gradually leading to hysteria. It is not surprising that this man harbored a grudge against not only the direct tormentors, but also the countries in which he had such nightmares - and therefore filed a complaint to Lithuania and Poland.
However, former President Adamkus, during the reign of which all this indecency took place, continues to persist: “I was assured by the top management of our security agencies that there was definitely no prison in Lithuania that no one had brought such prisoners.”
Under pressure from the facts, I had to admit ...
As for Poland, the organization Human Rights Watch for the first time notified the existence of CIA prisons here in November 2005. The Americans paid Warsaw $ 15 million for rent and re-equipment of an empty reconnaissance building in the outback, and in cash. The first prisoners were taken there on December 5 2002 of the year - the Poles were denied access to them. The Gazeta Wyborcza publication reported that the Polish prosecutor’s office had a formal agreement on the establishment of a prison, signed by the former head of intelligence, Zbignnev Sementkovsky. In this case, the autographs of representatives of the American side on the document is missing. They never sign papers whose content is contrary to the US Constitution and international law.
It is now known that in the prison, located in the village of Old Keikuts, they contained at least three: the same Abu Zubaydah, as well as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Sheikh Mohammed (nearly two hundred times undergoing the procedure of incomplete drowning) was accused of participating in the organization of the September 11 attack, and al-Nashiri was accused of preparing the terrorist attack that killed the 17 seamen. The secret prison, in which prisoners were subjected to measures of special action, was supervised by Michael Seeley. The base was closed in September 2003, and the prisoners were transferred to CIA facilities in Romania and Morocco.
The opposition press blamed the "disgrace of Poland" of the then Prime Minister Leszek Möller. But the criminal case initiated in this regard in 2008 year, "stalled." At the end of 2011, the chairman of the Supreme Court of Poland, Stanislav Dombrovsky, personally issued a decree obliging the Intelligence Agency to issue to the investigation documents about the Keikuty prison. However, as the international journalist Grigori Tinsky writes, the “overseas partner” took timely measures: “The Polish intelligence officer who wished to remain anonymous told the press that the Poles had received a clear signal from overseas, indicating dissatisfaction with the success of the Polish investigation. In Langley, the Poles were made to understand that they would have better followed the examples of Lithuania and Romania, which turned out to be more careful in conveying information to the investigating authorities. The anonymous officer also expressed regret that the publicity of operations of such a high degree of secrecy will inevitably affect relations with American allies. ”
Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller now proves that he allegedly does not know anything about the activities of the CIA in the country, calling the accusations "a script for a Hollywood film." However, at the end of last year, former President Aleksander Kwasniewski was forced to officially admit that the CIA prison in Old Keikuts actually existed and acted "by unacceptable methods." The host of the TV channel ReligiaTV, Kazimierz Sowa, retroactively complained that the former Polish authorities "should have caused some warning signal" the refusal of the Americans to sign documents on the maintenance of prisoners in Kejkuty. True, Kwasniewski said that the Polish government did insist that the American side leave signatures on such papers. But, apparently, not very much ... According to the former head of the country, the Americans de facto promised to treat prisoners with dignity and the question was no longer raised. Thus, Alexander Kwasniewski, in contrast to Adamkus, turned out to be more “conscientious” and at least admitted the fact of his deed.
In July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights found that the Polish authorities were guilty in a CIA prison case. The court decision notes that Warsaw has violated a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ordered the Polish authorities to pay each of the victims of 100 thousands of euros in compensation for moral damage. In addition, Abu Zubaydah promised to compensate for legal costs in the amount of 30 thousand euros. Leszek Miller said sharply: "These funds will no doubt go to the accounts of terrorists and will serve to organize new terrorist attacks." Many other local politicians were indignant. An appeal was filed - the court rejected it. And in May, the Poles had to transfer the compensation to Abu Zubaida and al-Nashiri. Lithuania before this step has not yet "matured" ...
Light of truth and silence figures
Duffy, who runs the Abu Zubaydah case against the Lithuanian government, "refers to a US Senate report confirming that a secret prison for terror suspects operated in the Baltic republic in 2003 — 2006.” According to the information report of the Senate, there are many clear indications of agreements concluded between Lithuanian officials and the CIA, including relatively large sums of money, which passed from hand to hand in exchange for support. ”
The document submitted for consideration by the ECHR contains, according to Duffy, information “leaving no serious room for doubt” that the CIA prison was located in the Republic of Lithuania. “Lithuania is responsible for the imprisonment and torture of my client on its territory,” the lawyer said.
True, the detailed report of the Senate on this account, which fits more than 6 thousands of pages, remains classified. In December, only the censored version of the 2004 pages was published on 524. This leaves officials to dodge. Thus, the deputy of the Lithuanian Seimas Arvydas Anushauskas, who once headed the parliamentary investigation of this issue, said that the allegedly published part of the report does not allow to draw categorical conclusions about the detention of prisoners. “A lawyer is doing his job. In the excerpts of the report of the Senate Commission there are many new facts about transportation. I would say that it is possible to confirm the fact of finding a place of detention in Lithuania. But about the one whom they kept there, what specific persons - this is not mentioned in the material, ”- литulit Anushauskas.
However, the thing is that story The issue has been around for many years - and the Senate report does not exhaust the list of evidence. At the end of last year, Amnesty International accused a number of European governments of complicity with the CIA’s crimes. “European governments that have taken part in the CIA’s clandestine detention, interrogation and torture operations as part of the global“ war on terror ”must act urgently to bring those responsible to justice after the US Senate report revealing new details, . Romania, Great Britain, Macedonia, Germany, Lithuania and Poland fell under the Amnesty International target. Let us dwell on the last two countries.
The Lithuanian public first heard that the US intelligence services had their own prisons (which is contrary to the local constitution) in their native country, in August 2009 of the year - from the American television channel ABC. TV men reported that the Americans contained up to eight al-Qaida fighters somewhere near Vilnius. Later, information about the secret jails that existed in Lithuania was confirmed when Wikileaks began throwing out confidential information from US government agencies for public viewing. The same source confirmed that during the period from 2003 to 2006, the CIA aircraft periodically landed in Vilnius and Palanga
True, the then president, Valdas Adamkus from the United States and Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, as well as the military, categorically denied everything. But to avoid the noise did not work, because two former prisoners lodged complaints with the ECHR, accusing the Lithuanian government of having also had a hand in their troubles. After international human rights organizations organized pressure on Lithuania, the local prosecutor’s office had to open a case.
The plot for the thriller
Also, a commission of inquiry was created at the Parliament: it found out that there were two secret CIA centers in the republic. The first prison was created in 2003, and the second in 2004. By the way, one of them was located in the village of Antavilyay not far from the cottages of Lithuanian officials, twenty kilometers from Vilnius. When the secret became clear, a scandal broke out, costing the post to some important officials. However, even now the authorities of the state do not like to even mention the whole story. A curious fact did not hide from the attention of observers. President Dalia Grybauskaite soon after she took office, dropped the phrase: “The question is not whether there were CIA prisons in Lithuania, but how quickly we will establish when and how it looked.” However, she never again raised this topic - on the contrary, gradually turned into a frantic supporter of the American course. Apparently, the “specialists” from Langley quickly found a way to put the impudent presidency in place. Especially since you don’t need to look for something - the past of Grybauskaite, the once high-ranking communist "lump", is not a secret to anyone ...
One way or another, Vilnius cannot completely ignore the “uncomfortable topic” - it periodically reminds of itself. Relatively recently, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released some information (however, individual lines from these documents were retouched) regarding cooperation with foreign allies. They included, among other things, a kind of secret “purple place” in Lithuania, which began to operate in 2003. Some Lithuanians have heated their hands very well, having received large sums (“millions of dollars” are mentioned) for arranging this “place”. However, at the time, neither the US ambassador nor the members of the Lithuanian government knew about the true purpose of a well-equipped building.
At the beginning of 2006, the "purple spot" and the "orange hole" (most likely, this is the secret base of the CIA in Afghanistan) contained 28 prisoners. But in the same year, the prison in Lithuania had to be closed - after a refusal was received to transport one of the prisoners, who urgently needed qualified help, to a local hospital. As a result, the Yankees had to pay an impressive amount for curing a sick prisoner. All the "guests" of the "purple place" were taken to the "brown hole" (apparently, another prison in Afghanistan) and since that time all the CIA prisoners have been kept together.
The names of at least two prisoners who languished in Lithuania are known. One of them is called Mustafa al-Hasavi, a citizen of Saudi Arabia. The US is blaming al-Khasawi for financing the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York. He was detained in Pakistan in 2003, placed at the disposal of the United States and subjected to sophisticated torture. The report of the US Senate states that al-Hasavi developed “chronic hemorrhoids from the“ special measures ”applied to him, and there were tears in the anus and symptomatic prolapse of the rectum.”
The second prisoner was the aforementioned Abu Zubaydah - a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, now contained in Guantanamo. It was Abu Zubaydah who became the first detainee in the 11 case of September, where the CIA "tried" methods of "force". According to the documents, he was brutally tortured dozens of times. In one of the certificates, by the way, the Americans emphasize that their state will not bear any legal responsibility for such methods, since they were not used in the United States. Abu Zubaydah was subjected to the vicious effects of "white noise" and torture by insomnia, they popped their heads under water until they lost consciousness. The prisoner was put on his bag, then removed and shown ominous box, like a coffin. The prisoner was beaten and locked in a cramped cell, gradually leading to hysteria. It is not surprising that this man harbored a grudge against not only the direct tormentors, but also the countries in which he had such nightmares - and therefore filed a complaint to Lithuania and Poland.
However, former President Adamkus, during the reign of which all this indecency took place, continues to persist: “I was assured by the top management of our security agencies that there was definitely no prison in Lithuania that no one had brought such prisoners.”
Under pressure from the facts, I had to admit ...
As for Poland, the organization Human Rights Watch for the first time notified the existence of CIA prisons here in November 2005. The Americans paid Warsaw $ 15 million for rent and re-equipment of an empty reconnaissance building in the outback, and in cash. The first prisoners were taken there on December 5 2002 of the year - the Poles were denied access to them. The Gazeta Wyborcza publication reported that the Polish prosecutor’s office had a formal agreement on the establishment of a prison, signed by the former head of intelligence, Zbignnev Sementkovsky. In this case, the autographs of representatives of the American side on the document is missing. They never sign papers whose content is contrary to the US Constitution and international law.
It is now known that in the prison, located in the village of Old Keikuts, they contained at least three: the same Abu Zubaydah, as well as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Sheikh Mohammed (nearly two hundred times undergoing the procedure of incomplete drowning) was accused of participating in the organization of the September 11 attack, and al-Nashiri was accused of preparing the terrorist attack that killed the 17 seamen. The secret prison, in which prisoners were subjected to measures of special action, was supervised by Michael Seeley. The base was closed in September 2003, and the prisoners were transferred to CIA facilities in Romania and Morocco.
The opposition press blamed the "disgrace of Poland" of the then Prime Minister Leszek Möller. But the criminal case initiated in this regard in 2008 year, "stalled." At the end of 2011, the chairman of the Supreme Court of Poland, Stanislav Dombrovsky, personally issued a decree obliging the Intelligence Agency to issue to the investigation documents about the Keikuty prison. However, as the international journalist Grigori Tinsky writes, the “overseas partner” took timely measures: “The Polish intelligence officer who wished to remain anonymous told the press that the Poles had received a clear signal from overseas, indicating dissatisfaction with the success of the Polish investigation. In Langley, the Poles were made to understand that they would have better followed the examples of Lithuania and Romania, which turned out to be more careful in conveying information to the investigating authorities. The anonymous officer also expressed regret that the publicity of operations of such a high degree of secrecy will inevitably affect relations with American allies. ”
Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller now proves that he allegedly does not know anything about the activities of the CIA in the country, calling the accusations "a script for a Hollywood film." However, at the end of last year, former President Aleksander Kwasniewski was forced to officially admit that the CIA prison in Old Keikuts actually existed and acted "by unacceptable methods." The host of the TV channel ReligiaTV, Kazimierz Sowa, retroactively complained that the former Polish authorities "should have caused some warning signal" the refusal of the Americans to sign documents on the maintenance of prisoners in Kejkuty. True, Kwasniewski said that the Polish government did insist that the American side leave signatures on such papers. But, apparently, not very much ... According to the former head of the country, the Americans de facto promised to treat prisoners with dignity and the question was no longer raised. Thus, Alexander Kwasniewski, in contrast to Adamkus, turned out to be more “conscientious” and at least admitted the fact of his deed.
In July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights found that the Polish authorities were guilty in a CIA prison case. The court decision notes that Warsaw has violated a number of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ordered the Polish authorities to pay each of the victims of 100 thousands of euros in compensation for moral damage. In addition, Abu Zubaydah promised to compensate for legal costs in the amount of 30 thousand euros. Leszek Miller said sharply: "These funds will no doubt go to the accounts of terrorists and will serve to organize new terrorist attacks." Many other local politicians were indignant. An appeal was filed - the court rejected it. And in May, the Poles had to transfer the compensation to Abu Zubaida and al-Nashiri. Lithuania before this step has not yet "matured" ...
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