lastdj2005 on "CIA secret jails and Ukraine"

lastdj2005 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 07:28:06 +0000

The story is continued the specialized CIA prison on Ukrainian soil for people suspected of terrorist activities against the US (see our news item of March 6) was really set up at Military Unit 12747 stationed at Makarov-1 Garrison (Kievo-Sviatoshinski District, Kiev Region), by personal order of the Ukrainian Minister of Defense. It may be justly assumed that the Minister of Defense could have received such an order only from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, that is, directly from Ukrainian president V. Yushchenko. As for the choice of the location for the prison, it was by no means accidental. It was at Makarov-1 that former Facility "C" was situated. At the time of the USSR, it was used to store and service nuclear warheads, and it was distinct from other military facilities by its special regimen, engineering rig-up and organization of security and defense. Though nuclear warheads had been removed from the facility a long time ago, the local population habitually take any activity at the facility as being highly secret. Our sources have also found out that all military personnel and civilians of the construction/repair firm who had taken part in building and providing security for the CIA prison had been warned about high secrecy of the activities conducted at the facility and responsibility for disclosure of any information about it. And, according to our sources, the authors of the project had been cautions enough not to mention during their personnel briefing one very important and fundamental detail: all work was done in secret from Ukrainian parliament and in breach of the country's Constitution. http://www.inforos.com/?id=11587 Trustworthy sources disclose further details of the complicity of official Ukrainian structures in the unlawful - from the viewpoint of international law - CIA operations involving persons suspected of international terror. Thus, transportation of detainees to transit prisons in Europe was carried out using an airfield at "Ozernoye" locality of the Zhitomir Region. The airfield belongs to a fighter aircraft unit of Air Command "West" of the Ukrainian Air Force (Military Unit No. A-2038). That is the airfield where, according to witnesses, "Gulfstream" aircraft with board numbers beginning with digits "85" (identification number of US aircraft) made several landings starting from August 6, 2005. It is aircraft of that type from which people, mostly non-Europeans, judging by their appearance, were led out under heavy escort. In total, according to air traffic controllers servicing the air space of Ukraine and adjacent states, "Gulfstream" planes made at least 5 landings at "Ozernoye" airfield. Specialists can easily calculate the maximum number of prisoners transported by that type of aircraft. http://www.inforos.com/?id=11590

CIA secret jails and Ukraine,

lastdj2005 — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:16:49 +0000

Last week Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis made a report on CIA secret prisons. The report says that 46 states have denied the existence of any such facilities on their soil. Commenting on the statements made by European countries on the subject, Terry Davis emphasized that a whole number of countries had submitted "incomplete or vague" reports. Among other countries on the "black list" of the Council of Europe is Ukraine. As is known, Ukraine had been mentioned, among others, in the scandalous publication in Swiss newspaper "Sonntag Blick" at the beginning of January this year. At that time Swiss military intelligence had leaked that Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo had allowed the CIA to run its secret prisons on their territories. Notably, Romania, Bulgaria and Kosovo had already been mentioned in the course of the CIA prison scandal, but it was for the first time that Ukraine was mentioned among their number. Ukrainian and foreign media had immediately remembered the strange blitz-visit paid by CIA director Porter Goss to Kiev in December of 2005. Reports of that mysterious visit had appeared in the press only some time later and had been very vague. After the publication in the "Sonntag Blick" well-grounded suppositions had been voiced that P. Goss might have had talks with Ukrainian President V. Yushchenko on issues related to the CIA prisons on Ukrainian soil. At the end of January Mexican newspaper "Unomasuno" also published an article about CIA prisons in Europe. The article claimed that Ukraine was adapting some facilities of its military infrastructure to accommodate sensitive US intelligence operations. According to the newspaper, in summer of 2005 some mysterious construction work began at a military facility "Makarov-1" (former nuclear ammunitions depot in the Kiev-Svyatoshin district) near Kiev. The unit commander was ordered to organize high-security protection of the base perimeter. Each sentry received a tough briefing, and guard patrols were strictly forbidden not only to allow unauthorized persons on the territory of the facility, but to enter it themselves as well. At about the same time Ukrainian Minister of Defense Anatoli Gritsenko ordered to urgently renovate a military airfield near Zhitomir so that it could receive US jet aircraft. Soon after that a small transport plane of the US Air Force, type "Gulfstream", was spotted over Ukrainian territory. It might have landed on the airfield in question. It is aircraft of exactly that type that international human rights groups, in particular "Amnesty International", have named as being used by the CIA in its clandestine operations. http://www.inforos.com/?id=11554

open Democracy News Analysis - CIA secret jails and Ukraine, - Comments

lastdj2005 on "CIA secret jails and Ukraine"

CIA secret jails and Ukraine,