[NYC-L] East Europe Black Sites

[Jeton Ademaj]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/international/europe/12cia.html?th&emc=th

January 12, 2006
Swiss Investigate Leak to Paper on C.I.A. Prisons
By DOREEN CARVAJAL,
International Herald Tribune
PARIS, Jan. 11 - Switzerland is conducting criminal investigations to track 
down the source of a leak to the Zurich-based newspaper SonntagsBlick of 
what it reported was a secret document citing clandestine C.I.A. prisons in 
Eastern Europe.

The Sunday weekly published what it reported was a summary of a fax in 
November from Egypt's Foreign Ministry to its London embassy that said the 
United States had held 23 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners at a base in Romania. 
It also referred to similar detention centers in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia 
and Ukraine.

"The Egyptians have sources confirming the presence of secret American 
prisons," said the document, dated Nov. 15 and written in French to 
summarize the contents of the fax.

"According to the embassy's own sources, 23 Iraqis and Afghans were 
interrogated at the Mikhail Kogalniceau base at Constanza, on the Black 
Sea."

The leaked fax, which the newspaper said was sent by satellite and 
intercepted by the Swiss Strategic Intelligence Service, was signed by 
Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the report said.

Christoph Grenacher, the newspaper's editor in chief, said that before the 
article was published, newspaper officials met with high-ranking Swiss 
government officials, who urged the paper to withhold the information. "We 
concluded that the discussion about so-called secret prisons is much more 
important than the interests of the secret service in Switzerland," he said.

During those discussions, he said, no one contested the authenticity of the 
document. Egypt has not commented on the report, but it quickly reignited a 
political fury in Europe that began in the fall with news reports that said 
there were C.I.A. interrogation centers in Europe and that there had been 
secret flights through European countries transferring terrorism suspects 
for questioning.

After the article was published on Sunday, Romania and Ukraine issued 
denials, and the Swiss criminal investigations were opened. Some European 
lawmakers seized on the information as evidence of dissembling by European 
Union members. "This is a piece of real evidence to back up the gut instinct 
many of us have that the denials of complicity we are hearing from E.U. 
member and candidate states cannot be relied upon," Sarah Ludford, a Liberal 
Democratic member of the British Parliament, said in a statement.

The Swiss Army's chief prosecutor opened an investigation of Mr. Grenacher 
and two of his reporters to determine whether military secrets were exposed 
and to find the source of the leaks. The Swiss attorney general's office is 
also investigating the issue, adding another layer to its existing 
investigation of whether there were C.I.A. flights in Swiss airspace.

Germany and Denmark are also examining accusations that the agency used 
their airspace to transport terrorism suspects.

The United States has acknowledged flights but not the existence of prisons. 
A C.I.A. spokeswoman declined to comment on the report in the newspaper.

Conceivably, the journalists could face five years in prison for revealing 
military secrets, although no one prosecuted under the law has ever served 
any prison time, the authorities said.

Martin Immenhauser, a spokesman for the military prosecutor, said of the 
document: "Nobody has told us that it's not authentic. I think you can say 
that it's 99 percent certain that it's authentic."



Copyright 2006The New York Times Company