Evidence of CIA flights

26th February 2010

© PAP Szymany Airport where CIA flights from Afghanistan are said to have landed Share:

Two leading human rights groups claimed that they have official evidence that shadowy CIA flights from Afghanistan touched down in Poland despite denials from former ministers.

The Helsinki Foundation and the Open Society Justice Initiative said they had documents from the Air Navigation Services Agency that confirmed a number of CIA aircraft linked to the clandestine transport of detainees had used a Polish airfield between 2002 and 2005.   

“The disclosure marks the first time a Polish government agency has confirmed, on the record, that aircraft associated with the CIA landed repeatedly at Szymany Airport, close to a suspected CIA secret detention and interrogation site for 'high-value detainees' in northern Poland,” the two groups said in a joint statement. 
The information supports the findings of a Council of Europe report that accused Poland and 13 other European countries of allowing the US to operate detention centres or permit flights to land.

Members of the then government have always denied the flights occurred, and that the US used bases on Polish soil for the detention and interrogation of suspects. 

“This is fresh news because it comes from a state agency, not an anonymous source,” says Adam Bodnar from the Helsinki Foundation. “This is an official confirmation coming from a state-run agency. The authorities can no longer ignore facts.” 

Just who was on the flights, and whether people got on or off remains unclear but the official records will add to growing suspicion in the country that the then government allowed the CIA to operate a so-called “black site” despite their somewhat dubious legal status.  

“Every new detail brings us closer to the truth but we cannot say with 100 per-cent certainty that there were CIA prisons in Poland,” Mr Bodnar added. 

Pawel Gras, a government spokesman, offered no comment on the revelations other than that the government was waiting for the findings of a prosecutors’ investigation ordered in 2008. Robert Majewski, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said he was not familiar with the flight logs.