[Marxism] CIA remands to "Old Europe" may torture the "Old U.S.A."

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Same old, same old" may be the sentiment in the U.S. over the alleged 
secret jails in Eastern Europe, but it will not be the sentiment in 
Europe where public inquiry will be fueled by a different consciousness 
from the United States. The built-in rivalries between European 
capitalism and U.S. capitalism, along with a public that has no 
inherent patriotic impulse to support the U.S. and active 
social-democratic and Far Left political movements promises trouble for 
both "New Europe" and the old United States.

Besides that, "old Europe" is still Europe, and it will not long escape 
notice that the new torture prisons are not far from Hitler's torture 
prisons of over 50 years ago.

Brian Shannon
_______________________

Europeans To Check CIA Jail Report

BRUSSELS, Nov. 3, 2005(AP) The European Union and the continent's top 
human rights group said Thursday they will investigate allegations the 
CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate 
terror suspects, and the Red Cross demanded access to any prisoners.

Human Rights Watch said it has evidence, based on flight logs, that 
indicate the CIA transported suspects captured in Afghanistan to Poland 
and Romania.* But the two countries — and others in the former Soviet 
bloc — denied the allegations. U.S. officials have refused to confirm 
or deny the claims.

Such prisons, European officials say, would violate the continent's 
human rights principles. At work may be a complex web of global 
politics, in which eastern European countries face choices between the 
views of the European Union and their interest in close ties with the 
United States.
. . .
Red Cross chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said the agency asked 
Washington about the allegations and requested access to the prisons if 
they exist. The Red Cross, which has exclusive rights to visit terror 
suspects detained at a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, long 
has been concerned about reports U.S. officials were hiding detainees 
from ICRC delegates.

Europe's top human rights organization, the Council of Europe, said it, 
too, would investigate.

[T]he Red Cross . . . has been unable to find some people who 
reportedly were detained [and is] "concerned about the fate of an 
unknown number of persons detained as part of what is called the 
'global war on terror' and held in undisclosed places of detention."

In implicating Poland and Romania, Human Rights Watch examined flight 
logs * of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004, said Mark Garlasco, a senior 
military analyst with the New York-based organization. He said the 
group matched the flight patterns with testimony from some of the 
hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism who have been released by 
the United States.
. . .
He would not say how the organization obtained the flight logs,* but 
said two destinations of the flights stood out as likely sites of any 
secret CIA detention centers: Szymany Airport in Poland, which is near 
the headquarters of Poland's intelligence service; and Mihail 
Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania.
. . .
[Garlasco] said that in September 2003, a Boeing 737 flew from 
Washington to Kabul, Afghanistan, making stops along the way in the 
Czech Republic and Uzbekistan. On Sept. 22, the plane flew on to 
Szymany Airport, then to Mihail Kogalniceanu, proceeded to Sale, 
Morocco, and finally landed at Guantanamo, Garlasco said.

As far as he knew, Human Rights Watch has not found and interviewed 
detainees who were held in any alleged facilities in Poland and 
Romania.

[T]he Romanian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it was "not 
aware that such a detention center ... existed at the Mihail 
Kogalniceanu base," and invited journalists to come see for themselves.
. . .
In Poland, an aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said authorities 
there had "no information" of such facilities.
. . .
In London, the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has close ties 
with the Bush administration, declined to comment.
. . .
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the United 
States has not received any request from the EU for cooperation with an 
investigation into the reported secret prisons.

"If we do receive a request, we will take a look at it," McCormack said.
. . .
According to the Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system 
nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight 
countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It 
quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as 
sources for its story.
. . . [Full at http://makeashorterlink.com/?X4AC2191C]
_______________

* The need for flight manifests and airport records has an interesting 
historical echo and was even used in a Hollywood movie. During the 
Moscow Trials there was testimony that one of Trotsky's alleged fellow 
conspirators flew from Berlin to Oslo in December to meet with Trotsky 
and plan terrorist activities against the Stalin government. However, 
it was shown that during the alleged time period no planes had landed 
at Oslo, thus undermining a material "fact" that was introduced to give 
legitimacy to the forced confessions.
     The airport log-keeping requirement was even used as a critical 
element in the movie "A few good men" resulting in the undermining of 
testimony by a Colonel (played by Jack Nicholson) who was hiding his 
own complicity in the frame-up up two soldiers who followed orders that 
resulted in the death of a fellow soldier.


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