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CIA up to no good - again!

It will come as no surprise to read that there is evidence -challenged by some, including the countries involved - that the CIA did operate secret prisons in both Poland and Romania. So concludes the lead investigator for the Council of Europe, as the IHT reports in this piece:

"In a report issued Friday, the lead investigator for the Council of Europe gave a bleak description of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe with information he said was gleaned from anonymous intelligence agents, many of whom wanted to unburden themselves.

Prisoners, guarded by silent men in black masks and dark visors, were held naked in cramped cells and shackled by handcuffs and leg irons to rings attached to walls, according to the more than 100-page report prepared by Dick Marty, a Swiss senator investigating CIA operations for the human rights group based in Strasbourg.

Ventilation holes in the cells released bursts of hot or freezing air, with temperature used as a form of extreme pressure to wear down prisoners, the investigators found. Prisoners were also subjected to water-boarding, a form of simulated drowning, and relentless blasts of music and sound, from rap to cackling laughter and screams, the report says.

The report, which says the prisons were operated exclusively by Americans in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2006, relies heavily on testimony from CIA agents who justified grim treatment to investigators: "Here's my question? Was the guy a terrorist? 'Cause if he's a terrorist, then I figure he got what was coming to him."

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