CIA practices face criticism and prosecution

The CIA operated secret prisons in Poland and Romania, a report by the Council of Europe has confirmed. Meanwhile in Italy, a trial connected with the CIA rendition operations has got under way.

The two separate cases show similar patterns of American intelligence agency using proxies for actions legally restricted for U.S. federal agents.

The Council of Europe has been investigating so-called CIA secret prisons since 2005, when the first reports on secret prisons emerged. The investigator for the Council, Dick Marty, explained the agency’s operations were done with the knowledge of many of the European member states.

“A few days after 11 September, a NATO meeting took place and there was an agreement on the fight against terrorism. Part of this agreement is public. We claim, we affirm that there were also a series of secret agreements. This platform allowed the CIA to be able to move around Europe unobstructed, without undergoing any control and especially the NATO protocol on secrecy was applied,” he stated.

The report says key terror suspects were held, kept naked and in isolation. Among them were top al-Qaida suspects and other high value detainees.

The report also claimed that top Polish and Romanian officials were aware of the CIA operation. Poland and Romania deny there were any of such prisons.

Meanwhile in Italy, twenty-six Americans and several Italians were accused of kidnapping an Egyptian suspect in 2003 and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured before being released earlier this year.

After ruling on several motions, the court was adjourned until June 18.