Posted on 08/22/2009 7:31:01 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
"Irresponsible" To Identify Secret Sites, Says CIA; Lithuania Denies Allegation
A third European country has been identified to ABC News as providing the CIA with facilities for a secret prison for high-value al Qaeda suspects: Lithuania, the former Soviet state.
Former CIA officials directly involved or briefed on the highly classified program tell ABC News that Lithuanian officials provided the CIA with a building on the outskirts of Vilnius, the country's capital, where as many as eight suspects were held for more than a year, until late 2005 when they were moved because of public disclosures about the program. Flight logs viewed by ABC News confirm that CIA planes made repeated flights into Lithuania during that period.
The CIA told ABC News that reporting the location of the now-closed prison was "irresponsible."
"The CIA does not publicly discuss where facilities associated with its past detention program may or may not have been located," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "We simply do not comment on those types of claims, which have appeared in the press from time to time over the years. The dangers of airing such allegations are plain. These kinds of assertions could, at least potentially, expose millions of people to direct threat. That is irresponsible."
Former CIA officials tell ABC News that the prison in Lithuania was one of eight facilities the CIA set-up after 9/11 to detain and interrogate top al Qaeda operatives captured around the world. Thailand, Romania, Poland, Morocco, and Afghanistan have previously been identified as countries that housed secret prisons for the CIA.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The MSM is fighting its war against the U.S. very, very well. Let’s disclose the help we’ve received from Lithuania and others, proving how flaky and unreliable we are in our policies. Europeans have much longer memories than we do. This betrayal will not be forgotten there for a long time. There will be no favors to us any time soon. Thank you, Leftist scum in the CIA that leaks to the media, and thank you ABC for the betrayal.
When USSR became the USSWas, Estonia hired a retired U.S Army 0-5 as Commanding General of their new Army! LTC. Aleksander Einseln was born in Estonia, escaped in 1944, served in U.S. Army in Korea and Vietnam and when Estonia kicked the Sovs out, they turned West for help.
Love these new freedon-based loyalties.
If "Torture is wrong" why did a certain Lith wear pink boxer shorts?
:-)
Good, I’m glad to hear we were or are doing this.
What I wonder is if this is a smoke screen to keep doing it. One thing ostammer doesn’t want is an attack because he’s already perceived as a national security lightweight. If he secretly keeps these places going or opens different ones, he can look good to his leftwing support and use it for Bush-bashing while still running the facilities which helps prevent attacks.
It was completely to his benefit for this story to come out. Neither he nor ABC News is concerned about anything other than advancing and protecting ostammer, and is particularly delightful to them when they can do it at the expense of the Bush administration.
Everyone should support this amazing country!!
Plus the amber jewelry is practically FREE!!!!!!!!!!
I agree, Deb. Sadly, I doubt the "new Europe" will be getting the same support from Obama as those countries received from Bush.
It breaks my heart that the street agitator in the White House is betraying our most dedicated allies. All of the old Iron Curtain countries are so supportive of the US and sent troops to Iraq with almost no news coverage.
Update:
Here are just a couple snippets from these two articles. There are several other sources for this story. Somebody should probably post a thread on this, but I’m not able to right now.
Lithuanian President Announces Investigation into CIA Secret Prison ~ http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/lithuania-investigating-secret-cia-prisons/story?id=8874887
The president of Lithuania called for an official investigation Tuesday into an ABC News.com exclusive report in August that the CIA housed a secret prison for al Qaeda suspects in Lithuania for more than a year beginning in 2004.
The CIA built or housed al Qaeda detainees in several countries around the world before President Obama ordered them closed shortly after assuming office earlier this year. Among the countries were Thailand, Afghanistan, Morocco, in addition to the three eastern European nations, according to more than a dozen former and current intelligence officials.
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Report ~ President of Lithuania does not exclude existence of CIA prisons near Vilnius at one time ~ http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1929
The President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite stated that she had “indirect suspicions” about the existence of a secret prison of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Lithuania earlier, news agency BNS reports from Vilnius. She marked that an investigation by parliament, which found no secret prison, had been only a formality.
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