VILNIUS - On Aug. 20, ABC News announced
that Lithuanian
officials provided the CIA
with a building on the outskirts of
Vilnius where as many as eight al
Qaeda suspects were held for more
than a year, until late 2005 when
they were moved. Lithuanian officials
deny this allegation.
According to ABC News, a former
intelligence official (his name
was not disclosed) involved in
the program, said that Lithuania
agreed to host a prison because it
wanted better relations with the
U.S. Asked whether the Bush administration
or the CIA offered incentives
in return for allowing the
prison, the official said, "We didn't
have to."
The official said, "They
were happy to have our ear."
"I have no data which would
confirm it. It is unpleasant information.
Mentioning of Lithuania
in such context is harmful," Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite
said during a short briefing
on Aug. 21.
On the same day, former Lithuanian
President Valdas Adamkus
expressed his surprise during his
briefing. "I didn't know about it
until yesterday. I would be certainly
informed about the existence of
such prison," he said.
Adamkus was echoed by Algirdas
Brazauskas, the first Lithuanian
president after re-establishment
of Lithuania's independence,
who was the prime minister from
2000-2006. Brazauskas described
ABC News information as "fantasies".
According to Arvydas Anusauskas,
MP of the ruling Homeland
Union 's Christian Democrats,
European institutions investigated
similar accusations against
Poland and Romania, however,
Lithuania was never mentioned in
the conclusions of those investigations.
Existence of such prisons in
Poland and Romania in the past is
a "public secret" though local politicians
of both countries denied
it and if such accusations against
Lithuania would were to be true it
would harm Lithuania's image as
it would be a violation of Lithuanian
and international laws, according
to Kestutis Girnius, political
analyst and former director of
Cold War-era U.S.-sponsored Radio
Free Europe Lithuanian service.
He does not reject possibility of
the existence of such a prison.
Dick Marty, the Swiss rapporteur
of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe
(PACE) on secret detentions, said
his own sources confirmed the
ABC News report.
Many Lithuanians seem to believe
ABC News, according to the
most popular Lithuanian internet
site delfi.lt. On Aug. 23, the site
conducted a survey by electronic
vote asking its readers a question,
"Do you believe that there was a
secret CIA prison in Lithuania?"
Answers were as follows, 47 percent
"yes," 35 percent "no" and 18
percent "I don't know." Of course,
such a survey can not be described
as scientific.
On Aug. 25, Russia Today,
Kremlin-sponsored English-language
satellite TV, said that the
CIA prison for al Qaeda suspects
was situated 40 kilometers from
Vilnius in Rudninkai, a former
Soviet military base, now a training
base of the Public Security
Service at the Lithuanian Interior
Ministry.
Russia Today is considered to
be a brainwashing broadcaster 's so,
when delfi.lt repeated it's question
after Russia Today's report, only 36
percent said "yes", 51 percent said
"no" and 14 percent said "I don't
know".
However, daily Lietuvos Zinios
reported that in Rudninkai one
local man, who refused to say his
name, told the daily that he saw the
Americans visiting the base there.
Grybauskaite seems to feel
uneasy about the situation.
On
Aug. 25, visiting the European
Commission where previously
Grybauskaite worked as commissioner
for financial programming
and budget, she was met by European
Commission President Jose
Manuel Barroso. He kissed the air
near both cheeks of Grybauskaite
and told her "welcome home," but
during their common press conference
Grybauskaite's face turned to
be slightly reddish when a German
journalist asked her about a secret
CIA prison.
"It is regretful that my country's
name is on the list. It will be
for us to prove if it is true or not,"
Grybauskaite said adding that the
Lithuanian parliament was already
putting together a special committee
to look into the case.
"We have repeatedly stressed
the need for member states to start
or continue in-depth, independent,
impartial investigations to establish
the truth of such claims," Barroso
echoed.
Arunas Brazauskas, deputy
editor of the Lithuanian business
newspaper Verslo Zinios, in his
weekly commentary on the Lithuanian
public radio said a simple advice
to those Lithuanian MPs who
want to find out the truth.
"They should send a request
to the Washington administration
asking for information on the basis
of the U.S. Freedom of Information
Act," he said.
Melvin Goodman, who in the
past worked as an analyst with the
CIA for 24 years, told daily Lietuvos
Rytas that ABC News informer
could spread disinformation because
other major U.S. information
giants, such as The New York Times
and the Los Angeles Times, which
have reporters investigating such
issues, ignored this news. However,
Goodman did not exclude categorically
a possibility of such prison's
existence in Lithuania.
Analysts point out to the clumsy
reaction of Lithuanian government
in this case. The Rudninkai
training base of the Public Security
Service remains closed territory
for journalists though it would be
in the interest of the government
to invite journalists and foreign
investigators there if no wrongdoings
were made at that base.
