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Europe's CIA Inquiry: You Forgot Poland
Among the most surprising of the European Parliament's findings -- you can read a summary here -- is the reluctance of the inquiry to substantiate Dana Priest's report that Poland hosted a secret terrorism detention facility. It's a finding that appears underpinned by both a Polish stonewalling of the investigation and a political failure by the European Parliament to call a member-state actively complicit in the detentions:
In an amendment passed with a narrow majority (356 to 323), MEPs noted that, in light of the available "circumstantial evidence", "it is not possible to acknowledge or deny that secret detention centres were based in Poland." However, notes the report, "seven of the fourteen detainees" transferred from a secret detention facility to Guantánamo in September 2006 coincide with those mentioned in a report by ABC News (published in December 2005) listing the identities of twelve top Al Qaeda suspects held in Poland.
Regarding the testimonies gathered during their visit to Poland, MEPs conclude that the investigation carried out by the Polish Parliament was not conducted independently and that statements given to the Committee delegation were “contradictory” and compromised by "confusion about flight logs [...] which were first said not to have been retained, then said to have probably been archived at the airport, and finally to have been sent by the Polish government to the Council of Europe."
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Comments (10)
crazyvietnamvet wrote on February 14, 2007 8:12 PM:The Poles should have never been admitted to the EU...nor the other BushBlowbuddies from the former eastern block...they have not yet matured enough to understand "human rights violations" since it was part and parcel of their way of life for decades.....
Janusz wrote on February 14, 2007 8:46 PM:I'm affraid that Polish traditions for preserving human rights are far more deeper than EU traditions. EU did nothing to stop genocide in Balkans, it can't make any decision, luckily Americans can so they acted in Balkans. EU can only vote for something or talk about something, but it is unable to act and do anything that extends beyond talking and voting.
Please do not call Poland BushBlowbuddies. I remind you that Americans vote for Mr. Bush, not Poles.
libra wrote on February 15, 2007 1:35 AM:Poles remember very well what is communism and nazism - both totalitarian regimes that killed million of people and probably they know more about humans rights than many other Western nations including some Americans who still think that white skin is better than red, brown, yellow or black.
Hey, Janusz
I grew up in Poland too, and agree with you that, when it comes to human rights, the population knows better than most what it means to have them trampled. But what the population thinks and what the government does doesn't seem to coincide in Poland any more than it does in US or did in SU.
And I don't know how old you are but,in my generation, we believed that rumour denied by the govt was, automatically, a rumour confirmed as truth. On that basis, I tend to believe that Poland did, indeed, have secret detention centers it offered at the disposal of CIA (just as, the more Bush denies it, the more I believe US will attack Iran). Poland had (and still does) vested interest in being a part of the "coalition of the willing".
Monroe wrote on February 18, 2007 2:52 PM:If the US needs "secret" detention centers in Poland or Cincinati for that matter, then I would suggest that simply means we need the detention centers. If they need to put one in my back yard I'd be happy to volunteer a little piece of my property but I would ask that the arrangement be kept secret in order to keep reporters, bloggers, and other undesirables away.
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