(MintPress)-The former head of Poland’s intelligence agency has been charged with aiding the Central Intelligence Agency in establishing a secret prison for terror suspects, a leading Polish newspaper reported last week, placing renewed pressure on Polish leaders and the international community to publicly acknowledge that the CIA ran secret interrogation prisons for suspected members of Al-Qaeda in 2002 and 2003 in Eastern Europe.
Reports by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper of charges against former intelligence chief, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, reveal the first high profile case of a former senior official of any government to be prosecuted in connection with the CIA programs.
Siemiatkowski reported to the local newspaper that he faced charges of violating international law by “unlawfully depriving prisoners of their liberty,” in connection to the United States detainment facility where prisoners faced brutal interrogation methods.
Shortly after reports emerged regarding Siemiatkowski’s alleged allegations, Polish leaders began speaking out in an unnatural display of openness on the disclosed topic of CIA black sites in the country.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a news conference in Warsaw on Thursday that “Poland will no longer be a country where politicians—even if they are working arm-in-arm with the world’s greatest superpower—could make some deal somewhere under the table and then it would never see daylight.”
Tusk did not confirm nor deny the newspaper report claiming charges had been made against Siemiatkowski, saying, “If I were in the prosecutors’ shoes, I would not come up with such charges. But maybe I don’t have enough information.”
Tusk did, however, affirm the need for a proper investigation into the clandestine operations that took place in Poland during the height of the former US President George W. Bush’s “War on Terror.” “This issue must be explained,” said Tusk. “Let there be no doubt about it either in Poland or on the other side of the ocean.”
Evidence Supports Existence of Black Sites
The Bush administration acknowledged the existence of overseas secret prisons operated by the CIA in a 2006 speech. However, no further information has been released regarding the quantity or whereabouts of these black sites.
A 2007 report released by the Council of Europe provided evidence that high-value detainees were held in secret CIA prisons in Poland and Romania from 2002-2005, based on a secret agreement among NATO allies.
Other sites are believed to have existed in Lithuania, Jordan, Thailand and Afghanistan. Of the 100 prisoners believed to be held in these facilities, roughly 30 were reported to have been subjected to “enhanced” interrogation techniques including waterboarding, which many rights groups regard as torture.
The report suggests that former President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland authorized the secret detention facility in Stare Kiejkuty, a village in a lush area of woods and lakes. Eight terror suspects are believed to have been held in Poland, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, charged with planning the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in 2000; and Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian terror suspect who was reportedly waterboarded 83 times in one month during secret detention.
Italy and Germany were also criticised in the report for alleged involvement in illegal transfers of suspects to third countries, known as renditions, where suspects are often transferred to third-party secret prisons. Of particular concern was Italy and Germany’s involvement in the illegal rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, in 2003.
Even after the report was released, many countries refused to acknowledge or launch serious investigations into the illegal activities of the CIA and various intelligence agencies internationally.
When President Obama took office in 2009, he said, “when it comes to national security, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past.” Obama feared that a broad investigation of counterterrorism programs under the Bush administration would result in good CIA officers “looking over their shoulders and lawyering up.”
A limited investigation was enacted into the CIA black sites, and, in accordance with Obama’s recommendations, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in July that no charges would be filed in connection with interrogations at the overseas sites.
Leading the Way in Black Site Investigations
In contrast to the forgive and forget approach taken by the United States, Poland sees the investigation into its own involvement in CIA black sites as a crucial test of the legitimacy of the democratic system in place.
“We try to treat our Constitution seriously and try not to forget the fact that there was a manifest violation of the Polish Constitution within the country’s borders,” said Adam Bodnar, of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. “This case is a huge threat to any Polish official that he will know in the future that such things cannot happen.”
Polish prosecutors opened an investigation into the matter in 2008, bringing the issue into a public, serious spotlight, and urging past skeptics to consider the Polish involvement in the secret rendition programs as a legitimate possibility.
Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and Siemiatkowski’s deputy, Col. Andrzej Derlatka, may also face similar charges, according to Gazeta Wyborcza. Miller, who served in office during the time of the alleged rendition program, continues to vehemently deny the existence of any secret detention facilities in Poland while claiming that tough measures were necessary given the circumstances facing the US and its allies after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bodnar hopes that the current case will bring accountability to those who allowed the secret detention facilities to operate. According to Bodnar, “Intelligence agencies cooperate with each other, but after this they will remember that they need to obey the constitution and that some things they cover up could become public at some point.”
Crofton Black, Secret Prisons Investigator at Reprieve, a British human rights group, acknowledges the importance of the reported charges made against Siemiatkowski, but is frustrated that the prosecutor’s office has not yet publicly confirmed the reports, leaving many questions left unanswered.
“This is potentially important – and very positive – news from Poland,” said Black. “But it is a shame that we have only heard it from a newspaper and not from the Prosecutor himself. When will Mr Seremet, the Prosecutor General, confirm that charges were brought?”
Nonetheless, “Poland deserves credit for this step, as the first European state to begin to deal with CIA torture on its own soil,” said Cori Crider, Black’s colleague and Legal Director for Reprieve. “There is much still to be done, of course, and all eyes will be on the new prosecutors to see what they do next.”