The CIA has had detention facilities set up in other countries for various reasons that include avoidance of US laws in transporting and detaining the prisoners.
A soviet-era facility, which is now a Polish intelligence training school, has been utilized by the CIA for the detention and interrogation of prisoners.
A remote and infrequently used airfield in the Northern Polish town of Szymany was used for transit flights that came from Afghanistan and the complex at nearby Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound that was once used by German intelligence during World War II, was best known as the only Russian intelligence training school to operate outside the Soviet Union.
According to British and Polish intelligence officials familiar with the arrangements, the secret plan had the approval of British and US authorities. The then Polish prime minister Mr Leszek Miller kept the information secret, even from his own government.
It is no secret that the CIA has operated several detention centres in many countries as part of its own secret programmes. These centres are widely believed to be a network used for the ill-treatment and torture of suspected terrorists. But, the revelation of the centre in the Polish village has come as a shock to many.
Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman of CIA neither confirmed nor denied any allegations about the Polish facility. He maintained that the rendition program was legal and conducted ‘with great care’.
He said ‘the agency’s terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review’. Rendition, or extradition of a fugitive to another state for interrogation, is a lawful tool in the fight against terror, according to him.
