The first documents enabling the CIA to establish a detention centre for al-quaeda style terrorists in the northern region of Mazury were signed by the then prime minister Jerzy Buzek, claims Polish press reports.
The Prosecutor’s Appellate Office in Warsaw, which is investigating the case of alleged secret CIA prisons in Poland, has not receive all documents from the Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW) concerning the case, claims the Rzeczpospolita daily, in an attempt to conceal papers signed by the AWS government under Jerzy Buzek (1997 – 2001).
Rzeczpospolita claims that it has established that the documents aimed at tightening up Polish cooperation with the US in its fight against terrorism. An unnamed source from the Ministry of Justice claims that, “It was the first step to establish a CIA base in Mazury and to assign twenty secret agents to assist US officials in anti-terrorist activities.”
The agreement signed by Buzek made it possible for the next government, formed by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), to extend cooperation with the CIA on a large scale, says the informant.
The Prosecutor’s Office - which Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked to investigate the matter last December - wants to establish not only whether there were secret CIA prisons in Poland, but also who made concessions to the CIA as the first place
So far this has been attributed to the former PM Leszek Miller and his leftist government, which followed Buzek into office.
Government ministers in successive government and former president Aleksander Kwasniewski have all denied the existence of such a detention centre.
Jerzy Buzek – now a member of the European Parliament for the Civic Platform party - denied the allegations and accused Rzeczpospolita of telling lies. He claimed that as the Polish Prime Minister he was not allowed to sign an agreement with the head of CIA. „I hope that the untruthful article which appeared in Rzeczpospolita has nothing to do with the fact that I am running for the post of the head of the European Parliament”, said Buzek.
Rzeczpospolita revealed that after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Jerzy Buzek called a special meeting of the heads of Polish intelligence and offered the US help in fighting terrorism. Janusz Palubicki, the coordinator of secret services under Buzek’s AWS government, denied the accusations and said the secret services wanted to fight terrorism together with Americans but cooperation was not established.
In April, reporters of the Rzeczpospolita daily and Polish public television’s TVP Info said they had evidence that Poland allegedly leased a military base to the United States for a CIA prison in the years 2002-2003. The evidence included documents and witness statements. (mg/pg)