[A-List] Secret CIA Detention Centres in Poland and Romania

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Press/StopPressView.asp?ID=1924>
08/06/2007
'High-value' detainees were held in secret CIA detention centres in
Poland and Romania, says PACE committee

Strasbourg, 08.06.2007 – So-called US "high-value" detainees (HVD) –
whose existence were revealed by President Bush in September 2006 –
were held in secret CIA detention centres in Poland and Romania
between 2002 and 2005, according to a report of the Legal Affairs
Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)
adopted today.

The report was based in part on the cross-referenced testimonies of
over 30 serving and former members of intelligence services in the US
and Europe, and on a new analysis of computer "data strings" from the
international flight planning system.

It describes in detail the scope and functioning of the US's
"high-value detainees" programme, which it says was set up by the CIA
"with the co-operation of official European partners belonging to
Government services" and kept secret for many years thanks to strict
observance of the rules of confidentiality laid down in the NATO
framework.

The programme "has given rise to repeated serious breaches of human
rights", the committee declared, including the torture of detainees.

In an explanatory memorandum, rapporteur Dick Marty (Switzerland,
ALDE) also revealed:

• US "high-value detainees" (HVDs) were held at the Stare Kiejkuty
intelligence training base during the period from 2002 to 2005

• A secret agreement between the US and NATO allies in October 2001
provided the framework for the CIA to hold "high-value detainees" in
Europe

• Former Polish President Kwasniewski and former Romanian President
Iliescu knew about and authorised such secret detentions

• Flights to Poland – including one that may have carried Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed from Kabul to Szymany on 7 March 2003 – were
deliberately disguised through the filing of "dummy" flight plans and
the complicity of Polish air traffic controllers (see graphic 1)

• Mistaken terror suspect Khaled El-Masri was "homeward rendered" by
the CIA from Kabul to the Bezat-Kuçova Aerodrome in Albania on 28 May
2004 (see graphic 3)

The committee said that only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada, a
Council of Europe observer state, had fully acknowledged their
responsibilities with regard to the unlawful transfers of detainees.

The parliamentarians said information as well as evidence concerning
the liability of the state's representatives for serious violations of
human rights "must not be considered as worthy of protection as state
secrets".

The disclosure of the truth, they said, "is the the best way of
restoring the vital co-operation between secret services for the
prevention and suppression of terrorism".

Adopted draft resolution and recommendation
<http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/APFeaturesManager/defaultArtSiteView.asp?ID=684>
Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council
of Europe member states: Second report

Provisional version

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Rapporteur: Mr Dick Marty, Switzerland, ALDE

A. Draft resolution

1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls its Resolution 1507 (2006) and
Recommendation 1754 (2006), and refers to the report of 12 June 2006
revealing the existence of a "spider's web" of illegal transfers of
detainees woven by the CIA in which Council of Europe member states
were involved, and expressing suspicions that secret places of
detention might exist in Poland and Romania.

2. It now considers it factually established that such secret
detention centres operated by the CIA have existed for some years in
these two countries, though not ruling out the possibility that secret
CIA detentions may also have occurred in other Council of Europe
member states.

3. Analysis of the data on the movements of certain aircraft, obtained
from different sources, including international air traffic control
authorities, and supplemented by numerous credible and concordant
testimonies, has enabled the places in question to be identified.

4. These secret places of detention formed part of the "HVD" (High
Value Detainees) programme publicly referred to by the President of
the United States on 6 September 2006.

5. Analysis of this programme, on the basis of information obtained
from many sources on both sides of the Atlantic, shows that detainees
considered especially sensitive - some of whom were mentioned by the
President of the United States – were held in Poland. For logistical
and security reasons, detainees considered to be less important were
held in Romania.

6. The "HVD" programme was set up by the CIA with the co-operation of
official European partners belonging to Government services and kept
secret for many years thanks to strict observance of the rules of
confidentiality laid down in the NATO framework. The implementation of
this programme has given rise to repeated serious breaches of human
rights.

7. The detainees were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment,
sometimes protracted. Certain "enhanced" interrogation methods used
fulfil the definition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment
in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the United
Nations Convention against Torture. Furthermore, secret detention as
such is contrary to many international undertakings both of the United
States and of the Council of Europe member states concerned.

8. The Assembly earnestly deplores the fact that the concepts of state
secrecy or national security are invoked by many Governments (United
States, Poland, Romania, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia",
Italy and Germany, as well as the Russian Federation in the Northern
Caucasus) to obstruct judicial and/or parliamentary proceedings aimed
at ascertaining the responsibilities of the executive in relation to
grave allegations of human rights violations and at rehabilitating and
compensating the alleged victims of such violations.

9. Information as well as evidence concerning the civil, criminal or
political liability of the state's representatives for serious
violations of human rights must not be considered as worthy of
protection as state secrets. If it is not possible to separate such
cases from true, legitimate state secrets, appropriate procedures must
be put into place ensuring that the culprits are held accountable for
their actions while preserving state secrecy.

10. The scope of the executive's reserved area, exempted by virtue of
state secrecy and national security from parliamentary and judicial
review under legislation or in accordance with practice dating from
the worst period of the Cold War, must be reconsidered to take into
account the principles of democracy and rule of law.

11. The Assembly is also anxious about the threats to the European
governments' freedom of action resulting from their covert involvement
in the CIA's unlawful activities. The disclosure of the truth,
necessary on grounds of principle, is also the best way of restoring
the vital co-operation between secret services for the prevention and
suppression of terrorism on a sound and sustainable basis.

12. Only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada, the latter an observer to
the Council of Europe, have fully acknowledged their responsibilities
with regard to the unlawful transfers of detainees.

13. The Romanian parliamentary delegation has shown a firm resolve to
co-operate with the Assembly, but has itself encountered the
government authorities' reluctance to shed all possible light on the
CIA's questionable activities in Romanian territory.

14. In Italy, the trial of the kidnappers of Abu Omar runs into
obstacles due to considerations of state secrecy. The Assembly is
deeply perturbed by the proceedings brought recently against the Milan
public prosecutors themselves for breach of state secrecy. It regards
such proceedings as intolerable impediments to the independence of
justice.

15. In Germany, the work of the Bundestag commission of inquiry is
proceeding energetically. But the prosecutorial authorities, engaged
in the hunt for the kidnappers of Khaled El-Masri, still meets with
lack of co-operation on the part of the American and Macedonian
authorities. Khaled El-Masri still awaits the rehabilitation and
redress of damage owing to him, in the same way as Maher Arar, the
victim in a comparable case in Canada.

16. The Assembly solemnly restates its position that terrorism can and
must be combated by methods consistent with human rights and rule of
law. This position of principle, founded on the values upheld by the
Council of Europe, is also the one that best guarantees the
effectiveness of the fight against terrorism in the long term.

17. The Assembly therefore calls upon:

17.1. the parliaments and judicial authorities of all Council of
Europe member states;

17.1.1. to elucidate fully, by reducing to a reasonable minimum the
restrictions of transparency founded on concepts of state secrecy and
national security, the secret services' wrongful acts committed on
their territory with regard to secret detentions and unlawful
transfers of detainees; and

17.1.2. to ensure that the victims of such unlawful acts are fittingly
rehabilitated and compensated;

17.2. the media to fully perform their role as champions of
transparency, truth, tolerance and of human rights and dignity; and

17.3. the competent authorities of all member states to implement the
other proposals embodied in its Resolution 1507 (2006).

18. Finally, the Assembly reaffirms the importance of setting up
within it a genuine European parliamentary inquiry mechanism.

B. Draft recommendation

1.  The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution … (2007). It
also recalls its Recommendation 1754 (2006), noting with regret that
the Committee of Ministers has not as yet acted positively either on
its own proposals or on those of the Secretary General of the Council
of Europe submitted in June 2006, which the Assembly fully endorses.

2. The Assembly condemns the deafening silence of the Committee of
Ministers as regards the 3rd public statement of the Council of Europe
Anti-Torture Committee concerning the existence of secret detention
facilities in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, made on
13 March 2007. It urges the Committee of Ministers to play its full
part as the decision-making body of the Council of Europe, the
organisation which is guardian of human rights in Europe.

3. Given that the concepts of state secrecy or national security are
invoked by many governments to obstruct judicial or parliamentary
proceedings aimed at ascertaining the responsibilities of the
government authorities in relation to grave allegations of human
rights violations and at rehabilitating and compensating the presumed
victims of such violations, the Assembly invites the Committees of
Ministers to prepare a recommendation on the matter, in order:

3.1. to ensure that secrets concerning the civil, criminal or
political liability of the State's representatives for grave human
rights violations committed in their name are excluded from protection
as state secrets;

3.2. to introduce appropriate procedures ensuring that the culprits
are accountable for their actions while preserving lawful state
secrecy and national security, if secrets unworthy of protection are
inextricably linked with lawful state secrets.

4. The Committee of Ministers should be guided in particular by the
Canadian procedures followed in the case of Maher Arar and by national
parliamentary inquiry procedures such as the rules of the German
Bundestag commissions of inquiry providing for the possibility of the
commission's appointing a special investigator.

5. The Committee of Ministers is invited to inform the Assembly,
before the end of 2007, of the progress of its work on the
implementation of the Secretary General's proposals, and of the
Assembly's Recommendation 1754 (2006).

Mr Marty's explanatory memorandum (PDF)
<http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/EMarty_20070608_NoEmbargo.pdf>

Appendix 1 – graphic
<http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/EMarty_20070608_Appendix-1_Low_Res.jpg>

Appendix 2 – graphic
<http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/EMarty_20070608_Appendix-2_Low_res.jpg>

Appendix 3 – graphic (PDF)
<http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2007/EMarty_20070608_Appendix-3.pdf>

Background: chronology and other documents
<http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/APFeaturesManager/defaultArtSiteView.asp?ID=362>
The investigation into secret detentions in Europe: a chronology

Briefing note

8 June 2007: Following several months of additional inquiry, Swiss
Senator Dick Marty is due to submit a second report on "alleged secret
detentions and illegal inter-state transfers of detainees involving
Council of Europe member states" to PACE's Legal Affairs Committee,
focusing in particular on secret detentions. If approved, the report
is due to be debated by the plenary Assembly on Wednesday 27 June in
Strasbourg.

14 February 2007: In a report, the European Parliament comes to
similar conclusions to Mr Marty, saying EU countries "turned a blind
eye" to extraordinary renditions across their territory and airspace.

6 September 2006: PACE President René van der Linden reacts to US
President George Bush's admission of the existence of secret CIA
prisons by declaring that kidnapping people and torturing them in
secret "is what criminals do, not democratic governments". Such
activities will not make citizens safer in the long run, he says.

30 June 2006: Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis makes
concrete proposals to European governments for laws to control the
activities of foreign intelligence services in Europe, reviewing state
immunity, and making better use of existing controls on over-flights,
including requiring landing and search of civil flights engaged in
state functions.

27 June 2006: The plenary Assembly debates Mr Marty's report and calls
for the dismantling of the system of secret prisons, oversight of
foreign intelligence services operating in Europe and a common
strategy for fighting terrorism which does not undermine human rights.

7 June 2006: Presenting his first report, Dick Marty says he has
exposed a global "spider's web" of illegal US detentions and
transfers, and alleges collusion in this system by 14 Council of
Europe member states, 7 of whom may have violated the rights of named
individuals.

17 March 2006: In an opinion, legal experts from the Council of
Europe's Venice Commission say that, under the Human Rights Convention
and other international laws, member states should refuse to allow
transit of prisoners where there is a risk of torture. If this is
suspected, they should search civil planes or refuse overflight to
state planes.

1 March 2006: Analysing governments' replies to his inquiry using
powers under the European Convention on Human Rights, Council of
Europe Secretary General Terry Davis says Europe appears to be "a
happy hunting-ground for foreign security services" and calls for
better safeguards against abuse.

7 November 2005: Following media reports, the Parliamentary Assembly
appoints Senator Dick Marty, a Swiss former prosecutor, to conduct a
parliamentary inquiry into "alleged secret detentions and unlawful
inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member
states". PACE President René van der Linden declares: "This issue goes
to the very heart of the Council of Europe's human rights mandate."

Other relevant Assembly documents:

* Report on enforced disappearances (2005)
<http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/doc05/EDOC10679.htm>
* Report on the control of internal security services in Council of
Europe member states (1999)
<http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/workingdocs/doc99/edoc8301.htm>
* Report on the lawfulness of detentions by the United States in
Guantánamo Bay (2005)
<http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10497.htm>
--
Yoshie