Bush operated torture facilities throughout the world… Obama closed them. What does that tell about their respective morality? If Obama’s a “socialist“, I’d rather have an upright Socialist than a violent and brutal whore for the rich who kicked people in the teeth whilst he bore a smarmy pious expression on his face. I prefer the company of irreligious people who take a moral stand to immoral “believers” who torture in the name of God. That’s the way it is…
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Confessions of top-ranking Polish officials exposed another CIA-run interrogation “black site”, blowing the lid on one of the dirtiest secrets in Eastern Europe. Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former head of the Polish intelligence service, faces charges of taking part in establishing a secret prison for the CIA in a remote part of Poland. Allegedly, foreign prisoners at the detention centre were tortured in connection with America’s global war on terror. Siemiątkowski refused to comment on the matter, citing Polish secrecy laws. However, he didn’t deny the report.
Rumours about Poland hosting a CIA-run prison had circulated for years, though the authorities dismissed them as absurd. However, the UN and the Council of Europe long claimed they had evidence of the site’s existence. Former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller both repeatedly denied the knowledge of the prison. The official investigation into a CIA-run prison in Poland started in 2008, three years after Donald Tusk took office. It took just as long for evidence of the site to come to light.
Allegedly, a secret interrogation facility for terror suspects operated in Stare Kiejkuty, a small village in remote Poland, from December 2002 to the fall of 2003, “depriving prisoners of war of their freedom” and “allowing corporal punishment”. Earlier, two prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, claimed they were prisoners at this “black site”. Polish prosecutors have already given the two “victim status”. Among other possible detainees are self-proclaimed 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, perpetrator of the 2000 USS Cole bombing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Palestinian terror suspect Abu Zubaydah. According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, up to eight prisoners underwent “extraordinary rendition” to undergo torture in Poland.
The harsh interrogation techniques used by American spooks included waterboarding, starvation, cooling of the body, visual and acoustic deprivation for extended periods of time, slamming prisoners against walls, and mock execution, amongst many other methods. Naturally, no European country, Poland included, allows. If it comes out that Poland did, in fact, allow torture to take place at a CIA facility in their country, interested parties could take the matter before the European Court of Human Rights. The prosecution of Polish and American agents would also remain a distinct possibility. Dr Adam Bodnar, human rights lawyer and head of the legal division at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, told RT, “We can think about Polish intelligence officers, who, most probably, somehow, collaborated with the CIA in establishing this site. We can think about the CIA officers, because if they made it [tortures] in the territory of Poland… it’s a crime. But, as you most probably know, the US authorities wouldn’t give any data regarding them and wouldn’t allow them to be extradited”.
Never Again in Poland?
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk fully supported the high-profile case against the former senior official. Tusk charged that Poland has become a “political victim” of US officials, saying, “This may be painful, but concrete evidence that Poland is no longer a country where politicians can fix something under the table and expect it not to [eventually] come out… even if they do so with the world’s greatest superpower”. In fact, the Polish PM had no other choice but to recognise the existence of the CIA prison in his country. Tusk charged that Poland has become the “political victim” of US officials leaking some aspects of their bilateral relations, stating, “Poland’s a democracy where national and international law must be observed”, demanding an investigation into the matter. He said harshly, “Let there be no doubt about it either in Poland or on the other side of the ocean. 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’d never see daylight”. He referred to the current investigation, which has the purpose of ensuring that nothing like this will happen in Poland again.
The US never disclosed the whereabouts of the so-called “black sites,” but human rights groups named Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Thailand as the most likely hosts. Lithuania was the first country in Europe to admit it’d allowed the CIA to establish two secret detention facilities in 2002-06. In November 2011, Lithuania faced a lawsuit for hosting a secret CIA prison on its soil when Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, claimed that the CIA detained and tortured him there.
Let’s keep this simple. A vote for the Republican Party is a vote for torture. This torture had the approval of the highest members of the Bush administration, including GWB and Vice President Cheney (a brutal coward who dodged he draft “legally”, who refused to serve in the forces himself, but who advocated aggressive war throughout the world for the enrichment of his corporate sugar daddies). If there were justice, the cops would drag these two out into an open field; make them to kneel down, and shoot them dead in the nape of the neck. It won’t happen… don’t hold your breath. Money DOES talk… and “money” supports the political prostitutes who whore for the One Percent. What Bush and Cheney did was the exact same thing as some of the Nazi war criminals faced the gibbet for. Note well that the oligarch paymasters of the Republicans use “outsourcing” to circumvent American labour, safety, and environmental regulations to fatten their boodle-bags (they have another McMansion to pay for, dontcha know!), so, why would it surprise you to see their amoral political whores used the same tack?
That’s how low the GOP’s fallen… it’s become a shill for the worst elements of the One Percent, and anything’s kosher in the defence of the “rights” of the plutocrats… ANYTHING. Do remember Pastor Niemöller’s words… and, then, mark your ballot for President Obama this fall. He’s NOT perfect… but we have a responsibility to keep the Republicans out this time around. If we do, the chance that they’ll collapse into a dribbling regional/confessional bloc representing oddbod white Southern Evangelical crazies is very good.
If you had told Americans in 1945 that the USA would use Nazi tactics, and that the Republican Party would defend them relentlessly, they would’ve locked you up in a rubber room, for they’d consider you nutters beyond redemption. We’ve got a job to do to clean up the mess…
In an article entitled The Mystery of CIA Villa at Stare Kiejkuty in the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Wojciech Czuchnowski and Adam Krzykowski once again raised the hot potato issue of American detention camps and torture centres in Poland. Previously, Warsaw refuted point-blank all allegations of CIA secret establishments on Polish territory. As it turned out, the CIA did operate secret torture and detention facilities in Stare Kiejkuty. Moreover, the Polish government colluded in that.
Aleksei Makarin of the Centre for Political Technologies said, “We all have our skeletons in the closet, you know, and the countries declaring that they’re all for democracy and the principles of freedom, who claim they’ve never violated human rights may turn out to have quite a few. When Polish diplomats were forging ties with the United States, they were ready to go a long way to show their gratitude for American help. Washington didn’t feel like violating laws at home when it could get away with committing crimes on the territory of its faithful allies, considering that their allies had nothing against it. On the contrary, actually, I feel that they were proud of the trust America put in them. That’s for one. What’s no less important is that, although Poland was violating human rights ‘out of mere courtesy’ for its close and strong ally, the truth still came out. Now, I reckon it’ll trigger a serious investigation that’ll affect the interests of many people. One can’t be sure if the probe will bring everything to the surface. That’s only castles in the air. However, Polish society and media have developed a very efficient mechanism of setting ‘guilty’ politicians and state officials right. That’s a very important aspect of the CIA villa mystery”.
Speaking about “guilty” chiefs, it’s of interest that the former head of the Polish intelligence services, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, has been charged not only with organizing “black sites” on Polish territory, but also with abuse of power and breaking international law by “depriving people of liberty” and of using “corporal punishment” against detainees. A similar court case is also looming over Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who headed the country from 2001 to 2004. A witness in this case is a mujahideen prisoner-of-war, arrested by the US special services, given a number instead of his name, and locked away at a CIA detention centre together with the other so-called “passengers”. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the investigation received a list of Polish officials from the intelligence services who took part in setting up CIA detention facilities.
Let’s keep this focused. The Republican Party refuses to condemn the extralegal and immoral torture programme run by the Bushies, and they refuse to indict those responsible for it, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Under the Nürnberg definitions, Bush, Cheney, et al are war criminals; like Göring and Kaltenbrunner, they deserve to swing at the end of a rope until they’re good n’ dead, but that won’t happen (this isn’t a threat, it’s a comparison unflattering to the Republicans)… justice is rarely served for pols, sadly enough. Ergo, one has to conclude that the GOP’s unrepentant, and that they intend to do it again, at the first possible opportunity. Therefore, all good and decent people should vote against the Republican Party in November. If you don’t, they could come after YOU next… do remember the words of Pastor Niemöller!
Confirmed: CIA Secret Prison in Poland
Tags: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah, Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Donald Tusk, EU, European Union, global war on terror, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Poland, political commentary, politics, prisoners of war, Republicans, secret interrogation, Stare Kiejkuty, United States, USA, War on Terror, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski
Bush operated torture facilities throughout the world… Obama closed them. What does that tell about their respective morality? If Obama’s a “socialist“, I’d rather have an upright Socialist than a violent and brutal whore for the rich who kicked people in the teeth whilst he bore a smarmy pious expression on his face. I prefer the company of irreligious people who take a moral stand to immoral “believers” who torture in the name of God. That’s the way it is…
******
******
******
______________________________
Confessions of top-ranking Polish officials exposed another CIA-run interrogation “black site”, blowing the lid on one of the dirtiest secrets in Eastern Europe. Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former head of the Polish intelligence service, faces charges of taking part in establishing a secret prison for the CIA in a remote part of Poland. Allegedly, foreign prisoners at the detention centre were tortured in connection with America’s global war on terror. Siemiątkowski refused to comment on the matter, citing Polish secrecy laws. However, he didn’t deny the report.
Rumours about Poland hosting a CIA-run prison had circulated for years, though the authorities dismissed them as absurd. However, the UN and the Council of Europe long claimed they had evidence of the site’s existence. Former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and former Prime Minister Leszek Miller both repeatedly denied the knowledge of the prison. The official investigation into a CIA-run prison in Poland started in 2008, three years after Donald Tusk took office. It took just as long for evidence of the site to come to light.
Allegedly, a secret interrogation facility for terror suspects operated in Stare Kiejkuty, a small village in remote Poland, from December 2002 to the fall of 2003, “depriving prisoners of war of their freedom” and “allowing corporal punishment”. Earlier, two prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, claimed they were prisoners at this “black site”. Polish prosecutors have already given the two “victim status”. Among other possible detainees are self-proclaimed 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, perpetrator of the 2000 USS Cole bombing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Palestinian terror suspect Abu Zubaydah. According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, up to eight prisoners underwent “extraordinary rendition” to undergo torture in Poland.
The harsh interrogation techniques used by American spooks included waterboarding, starvation, cooling of the body, visual and acoustic deprivation for extended periods of time, slamming prisoners against walls, and mock execution, amongst many other methods. Naturally, no European country, Poland included, allows. If it comes out that Poland did, in fact, allow torture to take place at a CIA facility in their country, interested parties could take the matter before the European Court of Human Rights. The prosecution of Polish and American agents would also remain a distinct possibility. Dr Adam Bodnar, human rights lawyer and head of the legal division at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, told RT, “We can think about Polish intelligence officers, who, most probably, somehow, collaborated with the CIA in establishing this site. We can think about the CIA officers, because if they made it [tortures] in the territory of Poland… it’s a crime. But, as you most probably know, the US authorities wouldn’t give any data regarding them and wouldn’t allow them to be extradited”.
Never Again in Poland?
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk fully supported the high-profile case against the former senior official. Tusk charged that Poland has become a “political victim” of US officials, saying, “This may be painful, but concrete evidence that Poland is no longer a country where politicians can fix something under the table and expect it not to [eventually] come out… even if they do so with the world’s greatest superpower”. In fact, the Polish PM had no other choice but to recognise the existence of the CIA prison in his country. Tusk charged that Poland has become the “political victim” of US officials leaking some aspects of their bilateral relations, stating, “Poland’s a democracy where national and international law must be observed”, demanding an investigation into the matter. He said harshly, “Let there be no doubt about it either in Poland or on the other side of the ocean. 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’d never see daylight”. He referred to the current investigation, which has the purpose of ensuring that nothing like this will happen in Poland again.
The US never disclosed the whereabouts of the so-called “black sites,” but human rights groups named Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Thailand as the most likely hosts. Lithuania was the first country in Europe to admit it’d allowed the CIA to establish two secret detention facilities in 2002-06. In November 2011, Lithuania faced a lawsuit for hosting a secret CIA prison on its soil when Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, claimed that the CIA detained and tortured him there.
1 April 2012
Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/poland-cia-secret-prison-968/
Editor’s Note:
Let’s keep this simple. A vote for the Republican Party is a vote for torture. This torture had the approval of the highest members of the Bush administration, including GWB and Vice President Cheney (a brutal coward who dodged he draft “legally”, who refused to serve in the forces himself, but who advocated aggressive war throughout the world for the enrichment of his corporate sugar daddies). If there were justice, the cops would drag these two out into an open field; make them to kneel down, and shoot them dead in the nape of the neck. It won’t happen… don’t hold your breath. Money DOES talk… and “money” supports the political prostitutes who whore for the One Percent. What Bush and Cheney did was the exact same thing as some of the Nazi war criminals faced the gibbet for. Note well that the oligarch paymasters of the Republicans use “outsourcing” to circumvent American labour, safety, and environmental regulations to fatten their boodle-bags (they have another McMansion to pay for, dontcha know!), so, why would it surprise you to see their amoral political whores used the same tack?
That’s how low the GOP’s fallen… it’s become a shill for the worst elements of the One Percent, and anything’s kosher in the defence of the “rights” of the plutocrats… ANYTHING. Do remember Pastor Niemöller’s words… and, then, mark your ballot for President Obama this fall. He’s NOT perfect… but we have a responsibility to keep the Republicans out this time around. If we do, the chance that they’ll collapse into a dribbling regional/confessional bloc representing oddbod white Southern Evangelical crazies is very good.
If you had told Americans in 1945 that the USA would use Nazi tactics, and that the Republican Party would defend them relentlessly, they would’ve locked you up in a rubber room, for they’d consider you nutters beyond redemption. We’ve got a job to do to clean up the mess…
Fight the Republican Hydra… IN THE NAME OF LIFE!
BMD