http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9d14b8ea-6b3b-11da-8aee-0000779e2340.html

Poland to examine claims of secret CIA jails
By Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Published: December 12 2005 18:32 | Last updated: December 12 2005 18:32

The Polish government is launching an inquiry into whether the country
hosted Central Intelligence Agency prisons on its territory, Kazimierz
Marcinkiewicz, the prime minister, announced on Monday.

The charge by US-based Human Rights Watch that the US intelligence agency
kept prisoners accused of terrorism in Poland has been consistently rejected
by Aleksander Kwasniewski, the Polish president.


However, local media have uncovered evidence that US aircraft were stopping
at Szymany, an obscure airport in northern Poland.


On Saturday, the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper quoted airport workers saying a
US Gulfstream executive jet used the airport in December 2002, and three
times more in 2003, when a Boeing 737 also landed at the airport.


The workers said that the aircraft did not refuel and were met on the tarmac
by buses with darkened windows, apparently from a nearby military base at
Stare Kielkuty, which is used for intelligence training.


According to the Polish edition of Newsweek, a senior official in the office
of Mr Marcinkiewicz refused to deny press reports about a secret prison.


Mr Kwasniewski has said many times that there are not and never have been
CIA prisons or prisoners held on Polish territory, although he has left open
the possibility that US aircraft could have made brief stops at Polish
airports.


“I trust the words of Aleksander Kwasniewski, who has expressed himself very
clearly on this issue,” Mr Marcinkiewicz said on Monday, adding that the
Polish investigation will be completed by next week. Poland will not rely on
any outside agencies in the probe, he added. The revelations come at a
sensitive time for Poland, which is engaged in high-stakes negotiations over
the future European Union budget.


Government officials have also warned that such stories could lead
terrorists to take an interest in Poland.


■The UK government yesterday said it had no evidence that the US
administration had been transporting terrorism suspects through British
airports, Frederick Studemann reports from London.


Jack Straw, British foreign secretary, said that after careful examination
of government records he was “as certain as can be” that there were no US
requests for flights carrying suspects to land in the UK.


Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman of the opposition Liberal
Democrats, said Mr Straw’s assurances were unsatisfactory.


“Because there are no records and because there are no requests, this
doesn’t mean to say extraordinary rendition may not have been taking place,”
he said.