Inquiry launched into US base claims
From correspondents in Bern
January 09, 2006
A FAX sent by the Egyptian foreign ministry to its embassy in London stated that more than 20 Iraqis and Afghans had been questioned at a US-run base in Romania, a Swiss newspaper has reported.
SonntagsBlick said the Swiss secret services obtained a copy of the fax which said that the Egyptian embassy in London "learned from its own sources that 23 Iraqi and Afghan citizens had been questioned at the Mikhail Kogalniceanu base in the town of Constanza on the Black Sea coast".
The newspaper quoted a report written by the Swiss defence ministry which said Egypt believed there were "similar centres in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria".
The Swiss ministry reacted to the report with a statement saying it would open an investigation into how the information was leaked.
However, because the report is supposed to be secret, the ministry refused to comment on its contents.
A senior officer at the Mikhail Kogalniceanu base told AFP that he categorically denied the report.
"I have been working at this base since 1995 and I have never been aware of such an operation," the officer, Dan Buciuman, said.
He added that the base was open to "anyone who wants to carry out an investigation".
Amid protests from European governments that their airports are being used by the Central Intelligence Agency to transport suspects, the United States has not denied the existence of alleged prisons in eastern and central Europe and elsewhere, but has refuted allegations that it uses torture to obtain information.
US television network ABC reported in December that the US had held 11 senior members of the Al-Qaeda network in Poland but that they were evacuated to north Africa shortly before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice toured Europe that month.
During a stop in Bucharest, Ms Rice signed an agreement with Romania to establish permanent US military bases in the country, the first ever in a former Warsaw Pact nation.
The new US military presence will have its headquarters at Mikhail Kogalniceanu.
Link Here
January 09, 2006
A FAX sent by the Egyptian foreign ministry to its embassy in London stated that more than 20 Iraqis and Afghans had been questioned at a US-run base in Romania, a Swiss newspaper has reported.
SonntagsBlick said the Swiss secret services obtained a copy of the fax which said that the Egyptian embassy in London "learned from its own sources that 23 Iraqi and Afghan citizens had been questioned at the Mikhail Kogalniceanu base in the town of Constanza on the Black Sea coast".
The newspaper quoted a report written by the Swiss defence ministry which said Egypt believed there were "similar centres in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria".
The Swiss ministry reacted to the report with a statement saying it would open an investigation into how the information was leaked.
However, because the report is supposed to be secret, the ministry refused to comment on its contents.
A senior officer at the Mikhail Kogalniceanu base told AFP that he categorically denied the report.
"I have been working at this base since 1995 and I have never been aware of such an operation," the officer, Dan Buciuman, said.
He added that the base was open to "anyone who wants to carry out an investigation".
Amid protests from European governments that their airports are being used by the Central Intelligence Agency to transport suspects, the United States has not denied the existence of alleged prisons in eastern and central Europe and elsewhere, but has refuted allegations that it uses torture to obtain information.
US television network ABC reported in December that the US had held 11 senior members of the Al-Qaeda network in Poland but that they were evacuated to north Africa shortly before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice toured Europe that month.
During a stop in Bucharest, Ms Rice signed an agreement with Romania to establish permanent US military bases in the country, the first ever in a former Warsaw Pact nation.
The new US military presence will have its headquarters at Mikhail Kogalniceanu.
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 3:41 PM
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