Poland to Investigate CIA Prison Allegations

Poland’s prime minister said Saturday he has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA ran secret prisons for terrorism suspects in the country -- an allegation the government repeatedly has denied.

Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said a “detailed” probe would be conducted to “check if there is any proof that such an event took place in our country. It is necessary to finally close the issue because it could be dangerous to Poland.”

More than half a dozen investigations are underway into whether European countries played host to secret U.S.-run prisons in which Al Qaeda suspects were allegedly tortured, and whether European airports or airspace were used for CIA flights transporting prisoners to countries that practice torture.

On a trip to Europe last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said an international ban on torture applies to U.S. personnel overseas. The statement was apparently meant to ease growing concerns, but it sowed new confusion about U.S. policies on treatment of terrorist suspects.

On Saturday, administration officials refused to discuss Poland’s announcement. “I’m not going to get into the right of a sovereign country to conduct an investigation on its own territory,” said Frederick Jones, a White House spokesman.

Poland’s outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski reiterated last week that “there are no such prisons or such prisoners on Polish territory.” On Nov. 28, he said there “never have been” such jails in Poland.

The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported Saturday that Gulfstream airplanes belonging to either the CIA or FBI landed at least five times at the Szczytno-Szymany airport in northeastern Poland since December 2002. Reports last month that a CIA Boeing 737 landed at the same airport on Sept. 22, 2003, launched much of the speculation on how Poland has cooperated with the CIA.