Poland in Senate report on CIA prisons?

US Senate. Photo: wikipedia

“Our sources tell us that the summary of the report which will be published, will most likely not name any particular country,” John Sifton from Human Rights Watch (HRW) told news agency PAP on Monday evening.

It was HRW which first wrote about the highly classified (CIA) allegedly located in Poland and Romania.

Polish involvement?

In 2008 The New York Times claimed that alleged terrorist leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was flown to the Szczytno-Szymany airport in northern Poland.

It is alleged that Mohammed masterminded several Al Qaeda attacks and was waterboarded at a military facility at Stare Kiejkuty, near the Szczytno-Szymany airport, around 2003.

Leszek Miller, who was prime minister of Poland at that time, has consistently denied the existence of a 'black site' torture facility in recent years.

Poland is conducting an investigation into the allegations, but has been criticised for repeatedly delaying publication of the report.

Former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a television interview in June 2014 that “Poland is the only country [among suspected European states] which is leading an investigation into this matter, so it is very unfair to pillory Poland.

“Because we did not torture anyone, and we are investigating the matter,” he said.

Many embassies around the world are already taking precautions amid signs of “greater risk” posed by the publication of the Senate report, the BBC reported, noting that the 480-page document is a summary of a longer still-classified 6,000 tome on CIA interrogation techniques. (rg/nh)