Proof of Secret Prisons in Eurpoe

This is a translation of a Swiss article from a magazine called SonntagsBlick. It claims to have the proof of secret American prisons in Europe, where Iraqis and Afghans were taken and interrogated. Over all it's a good read.

Sandro Brotz and Beat Jost (translated by Carl Bergquist) writes:

How Swiss agents netted the Egyptian fax out of the air waves.

It is the middle of the night when the first ounce of light is shed on a dark tale, nearly one thirty in the morning on November 15, 2005. The electronic surveillance command of the Swiss Defense Ministry (VBS), located in Zimmerwald, a mile south of the capital Bern, is eavesdropping as usual, and naturally, strictly according to procedure. This night, like all others, the satellite-based intercept system Onyx is listening with a million ears. The intelligence officer with the codename "wbm" is polishing up "Report COMINT SAT" file number S160018TER00000115.

It was intercepted from outer space, secretly transmitted from a satellite down to earth five days earlier on the 10th of November at 8:24 pm. It is a fax exchanged between Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and his ambassador in London. The Swiss agent uses the following headline for the communication: "The Egyptians have sources who confirm the existence of secret American prisons." According to the Swiss intelligence report, the fax stated: "The embassy has via its own sources ascertained that 23 Iraqi and Afghani nationals have indeed been interrogated at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base near Constanţa, Romania, just by the Black Sea. There are similar interrogation facilities in Ukraine, Kosovo, in Macedonia and in Bulgaria." Furthermore, the fax says that the NGO Human Rights Watch, according to a newspaper article, has evidence that "on the 21st and the 22nd of September 2005, prisoners were transported in U.S. military planes from the Salt Pit base in Kabul, Afghanistan to both the aforementioned Romanian base and the Szymany base in Poland." The Egyptians also pointedly note: "Despite these facts, the Romanian authorities deny the existence of secret prisons where American intelligence agents interrogate al-Qaeda members. These denials by the Romanians have been accepted by the spokespersons of the European Union."

For the first time a country confirms that it has knowledge regarding the existence of secret CIA prisons in Europe

The political explosiveness of the Egyptian Foreign Minister’s fax is hard to top, proving a country is actually aware of secret CIA prisons on European soil. Here, the basis is not a public source like the media or reports by organizations like Human Rights Watch. Instead, the fax refers to [Egypt's] "own sources." The work of the Egyptian intelligence services is, according to experts, who themselves wish to remain anonymous, considered "highly professional." In spy circles, intelligence information out of Cairo is generally seen as "totally reliable and trustworthy." The Egyptian ambassador to Bern declined to answer SonntagsBlick’s queries about the fax transmission. The editors did not comply with his request to hand over the document. Further questioning about whether he disputed the authenticity of the fax was met with silence.

Thus, what the whole world has so far only assumed can now be confirmed, thanks to the Egyptian sources. That is: that the U.S. systematically abducts, hides and interrogates its prisoners in the War on Terror. "We have not used airports or airspace for the purpose of transferring people or detainees to places where we believe that they are going to be tortured," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Brussels in early December. But what she did not say is: that there are no prisons or transports.

The rest of the article deals with how it got the information and Swiss reaction to it. It's more of a sensationalist piece than anything else. It would be better if they have a copy of that report they were talking about. It can't be believed without it.

The article can be found here:
Watching America

The Swiss version can be found here:
SonntagsBlick