Lithuanian President Announces Investigation into CIA Secret Prison

[Hissyspit]

Source: ABC News

Lithuanian President Announces Investigation into CIA Secret Prison

Investigation a result of ABC News.com report on CIA 'Black Site' in Lithuanian Capitol

By MATTHEW COLE
Oct. 21, 2009

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. "If this is true," President Dalia Grybauskaite said, "Lithuania has to clean up, accept responsibility, apologize, and promise that it will never happen again." At a press conference with the Council of Europe Human Rights Commission, Grybauskaite announced the investigation after it was clear a previous attempt by the Lithuanian Parliament was insufficient, according to a Council of Europe official.

In August, ABC News reported that the CIA built a secret prison in a residential section of Vilnius from September 2004 through November 2005. The CIA used the prison to detain and interrogate top level al Qaeda prisoners captured around the world after 9/11. Lithuania was the only unknown European country to house so called "black sites," after the identities of Poland and Romania were reported in late 2005 by the Washington Post and ABC News' Brian Ross. Read that report here.

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.

The Lithuanian prison was the last "black" site opened in Europe, after the CIA's secret prison in Poland was closed down in late 2003. In September 2004, European and American flight records examined by ABC News reveal CIA-contracted flights directly from Afghanistan to Lithuania. On September 20th, 2004, a Boeing 707 with tail number N88ZL flew directly from Bagram Airbase to Vilnius. According to several former CIA officials, the flight carried an al Qaeda detainee, who was being moved from one CIA detention facility to another. Additionally, in July 2005, a CIA-chartered Gulfstream IV, tail number N63MU, flew direct from Kabul to Vilnius. Several former intelligence officials involved in the CIA's prison program confirmed the flight as a prisoner transfer to Lithuania. The Vilnius prison was closed, however, after news of other CIA prisons in Poland and Romania were reported in the press in November 2005.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/lithuania-investigating-secret-cia-prisons/story?id=8874887

[Hissyspit]

1. kick nt

[unhappycamper]

2. Lithuanian President Announces Investigation into CIA Secret Prison

Source: abcnews.com

Lithuanian President Announces Investigation into CIA Secret Prison
By MATTHEW COLE
Oct. 21, 2009

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.

"If this is true," President Dalia Grybauskaite said, "Lithuania has to clean up, accept responsibility, apologize, and promise that it will never happen again."

At a press conference with the Council of Europe Human Rights Commission, Grybauskaite announced the investigation after it was clear a previous attempt by the Lithuanian Parliament was insufficient, according to a Council of Europe official.

In August, ABC News reported that the CIA built a secret prison in a residential section of Vilnius from September 2004 through November 2005. The CIA used the prison to detain and interrogate top level al Qaeda prisoners captured around the world after 9/11. Lithuania was the only unknown European country to house so called "black sites," after the identities of Poland and Romania were reported in late 2005 by the Washington Post and ABC News' Brian Ross. Read that report here.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/lithuania-investigating-secret-cia-prisons/story?id=8874887

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I find it interesting that Lithuania is willing to look 'backward'.

[frog92969]

3. Thank you Lithuania

Not everybody wants to sweep these crimes under the carpet.
But don't expect this to persuade the real culprits to take responsibility.

[Vidar]

4. Good for Lithuania.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

They could also prosecute all the "officials" involved. (But then so could America)

http://i.abcnews.com/Blotter/story?id=8373807

"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"

Ever so much easier to apologize after-the-fact.

[Soylent Brice]

6. K&R

[ensho]

7. good

nt