(Polish) Airport at centre of CIA interrogation storm

[DoYouEverWonder]

Jan 6, 2006

Tucked away at the end of a pot-holed country lane which runs through a dense forest, Szymany airport would be the perfect setting for a John Le Carre novel. A shabby control tower looks out over a long runway which appears slightly out of place next to a modest terminal building.

<snip>

These suspicions were recently hardened when the airport's former director confirmed that numerous alleged CIA flights touched down at Szymany, where they were met by military vehicles from Stare Kiejkuty. The evidence from Mariola Przewlocka, who was sacked from her job last year for "political reasons", prompted MEPs to make the first official claim that terror suspects may have been detained on EU soil.

An unassuming and softly spoken woman, who is now earning her living as a mortgage consultant in her home town of Szczytno, close to the airport, Ms Przewlocka said she became curious soon after taking over as the airport's director in 2003.

<snip>

The Polish authorities are far less forthcoming than the airport staff, whose testimony is seen as some of the most significant since allegations about the CIA flights were exposed last year. MEPs now allege that 11 "CIA-operated" planes landed in Poland from, or bound for, countries "linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees".

Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, head of Poland's military intelligence agency at the time of the flights, admitted cooperating with the US. "I have confirmed myself that CIA planes landed in Poland. In 2003, this cooperation was very intense. People were moved around, equipment was moved around. This required a lot of flights."

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/airport-at-centre-of-cia-interrogation-storm/2007/01/06/1167777324467.html?page=2

[magellan]

1. No wonder Dimson was so quick to correct Kerry

...and remind him of Poland being part of the "coalition of the willing" (to engage in war crimes).

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Semi-related: I was reading an account from a local man near Walkill, NY...

...in which he related an experience he had at an abandoned USAAF airfield in Ulster Co:

"During a two day adventure there (it's a pretty good hike into the property), I was challenged by suit-types, who got fairly frantic. The previous day I had watched several suits driving Suburbans, doing 'moonshine' turns & the like, while I was measuring the runway width & sketching the property. There were several smaller outbuildings on the southeast side of the field that appeared very much in use... glass in windows, grass not grown up on sills, etc.

The next day the suits made it very clear that I was not wanted there."



Probably not related, but who knows?:shrug:

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. More likely

they're bringing in drugs.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Hmmm - you might be right...

:think:

[peacetalksforall]

3. Everyone assume that the 'coalition of the willing' meant soldiers

or hardware. The 'donations' to this regime from a variety of countries represented a variety of 'services' - not all soldiers.

I hold contempr for all those countries who didn't withdraw their 'services' by the last half of 2004.

Stinking rotting services.