THE US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ran a secret prison in Lithuania where al-Qaeda suspects may have been held, a parliamentary investigation in the Baltic state found yesterday.
The head of Lithuania’s domestic intelligence agency has already resigned as speculation about secret jails has intensified.
US broadcaster ABC News reported in August that Lithuania was the third European country, after Poland and Romania, believed to host secret CIA jails. Some CIA staff are reported to have said the use of overseas detention centres was designed to circumvent US law.
Arvydas Anusauskas, head of the parliament’s national security and defence committee, said the investigation found Lithuanian intelligence opened two detention centres in co-operation with the CIA. “There were facilities, there were possibilities, there were planes, though we can’t know what was on board . . . Therefore such a possibility exists,” he said, when asked whether any CIA detainees were held in Lithuania.
Top officials were not informed about the jails, and there was no political approval, he said.
Prime minister Andrius Kubilius said it was “a matter of great concern” that such infrastructure existed and that it could be possible to detain suspected terrorists without government control. In a statement, he said he expected good relations with the US to continue, but that a strategic partnership could not be an excuse for “Soviet methods”.
ABC News said a secret CIA prison operated near Vilnius airport from early 2004 to late 2005, and that CIA aircraft flew into Lithuania with al-Qaeda suspects.
Mr Anusauskas told a news conference CIA flights entered Lithuania but were not inspected. The investigation was demanded by president Dalia Grybauskaite after an earlier probe found no evidence. “It only proves suspicions she had for some time that there were premises designed for detention and there were flights which could have been used for transporting prisoners,” said the president’s spokesman, Linas Balsys.
“The president has no doubts that bilateral Lithuania-US relationships cannot be overshadowed by these conclusions.”
Last week, Ms Grybauskaite said she had ordered the recall of Lithuania’s ambassador to Georgia, Mecys Llaurinkus, who led the state security department from June 1998 until April 2004.
The investigation found five aircraft linked to the CIA landed in Lithuania in 2003-2006, and that domestic intelligence officials prevented guards inspecting them.
The US embassy in Vilnius said it was policy not to comment on intelligence matters. – (Reuters)