Europeans To Check CIA Jail Report

Human Rights Groups, Red Cross Say The Will Investigate Claims

(AP) 
Human Rights Watch also obtained the tail numbers of dozens of CIA aircraft to match them with the flight logs, Garlasco said.

He said that in September 2003, a Boeing 737 flew from Washington to Kabul, Afghanistan, making stops along the way in the Czech Republic and Uzbekistan. On Sept. 22, the plane flew on to Szymany Airport, then to Mihail Kogalniceanu, proceeded to Sale, Morocco, and finally landed at Guantanamo, Garlasco said.

As far as he knew, Human Rights Watch has not found and interviewed detainees who were held in any alleged facilities in Poland and Romania.

Washington had an agreement with Romania to use its air space during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the U.S. military has used Kogalniceanu air base. But the Romanian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it was "not aware that such a detention center ... existed at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base," and invited journalists to come see for themselves.

"I repeat: We do not have CIA bases in Romania," said Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu.

In Poland, an aide to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said authorities there had "no information" of such facilities.

Other European countries also issued denials.

Boglar Laszlo, a spokesman for Hungary's prime minister, told the AP that an official report would be drawn up following consultations with air transportation officials and others "so we can bring this matter to a close."

Baltic countries Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia also denied the allegations, as did former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Armenia.

In London, the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has close ties with the Bush administration, declined to comment.

EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told reporters that the European Commission, the EU's executive office, would launch an informal probe, requesting answers from all 25 member governments and EU candidates Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States has not received any request from the EU for cooperation with an investigation into the reported secret prisons.

"If we do receive a request, we will take a look at it," McCormack said.

Such an investigation could create tensions between Washington and EU governments, many of which have been outspoken critics of how the United States has been handling terrorist suspects at Guantanamo. EU heavyweights France and Germany led international opposition to the U.S. decision to invade Iraq.

According to the Post's report, the CIA set up a covert prison system nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.

Roscam Abbing said such prisons could violate EU human rights laws and other European human rights conventions.

Matjaz Gruden, a spokesman for the Council of Europe, said the human rights watchdog would also be following the issue "very closely."