Intelligence

Poland denies existence of secret CIA jails for terror suspects

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Nov 3, IRNA
Germany-Poland-Jails
Polish officials have denied an American news report about the existence of secret CIA prisons in which terror suspects are held, DPA said Thursday.

"I don't know anything about any airplane or any al-Qaeda prisoners," former deputy defense minister Janusz Zemke told the liberal Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the CIA has been holding terrorist suspects at secret jails at several locations in the world, among them democratic countries in eastern Europe.

The US newspaper did not name the East European country following a request by US officials who fear that those nations could face terror attacks.

Meanwhile, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski who in 2003 was the Polish defense ministry's CIA liaison officer, also denied any knowledge of secret jails in his country.

"The US never suggested we hold terrorists," Siemiatkowski told Gazeta Wyborcza.

In other related news, the US-based human rights watchdog group Human Rights Watch identified Poland and Romania as the likely locations in eastern Europe for the CIA secret prisons.

Human Rights Watch said it had a strong evidence - including the flight records of CIA aircraft transporting prisoners out of Afghanistan - that Poland and Romania were among countries allowing the CIA to operate secret detention centers in their countries.

Poland has become one of America's closest allies following Warsaw's strong support for the illegal US war in Iraq.

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