Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: 'Bright Light' on CIA operated secret prison in Romania

The CIA operated a secret prison in the Romanian capital Bucharest where 
terrorism suspects were interrogated, an investigation by the Associated 
Press and German media has found.
 
Former CIA operatives identified the building where, they said, detainees 
were held and tortured.
 
The building belongs to a Romanian agency, Orniss, which stores classified 
information from the EU and Nato.
 
Orniss has denied hosting a CIA prison and the CIA has refused to comment.
 
The investigation, by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the German TV 
network ARD, said those held in the secret prison included Khaled Sheikh 
Mohammed, who has admitted organising the 9/11 attacks.
 
He was seized in Pakistan in March 2003 under the US programme known as 
"extraordinary rendition" - the extra-judicial detention and transfer of 
terrorism suspects.
 
He has been in the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay since 2006, where 
he is awaiting trial.
 
'Bright Light'
The building identified in the German investigation houses the Office of the 
National Register for Secret State Information, or Orniss.
 
Orniss has denied all claims that its premises were used as a CIA prison.
 
Asked whether the building was ever used to hold Islamist terrorism 
suspects, Orniss deputy head Adrian Camarasan told the Sueddeutsche: "Here? 
No!"
 
The building, at 4 Mures Street, was codenamed "Bright Light", the 
Sueddeutsche reported.
 
One former CIA operative who said he visited the site frequently was quoted 
as saying: "It was very discreet there. It was not as though Romanian 
officials came out to greet me."
 
Allegations of a network of CIA "black sites" in countries including Romania 
first surfaced in 2005 but were denied by Washington.
 
In 2007, an investigation by the Council of Europe accused Romania of 
operating a secret prison - accusations denied by Bucharest.
 
The CIA called the report "biased and distorted" and said it had operated 
legally.
 
Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty on Thursday welcomed the new 
report.
 
"The dynamic of truth has run its course and we are at last beginning to 
learn what really happened in Bucharest," he said in a statement.
 
However, he criticised the lack of what he called a "serious judicial 
inquiry" in Romania.
 
In 2006, then-US President George W Bush admitted that terror suspects had 
been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but he did not say where the prisons 
were located.
 
A BBC investigation in 2010 alleged the CIA used a secret Polish prison 
where Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to simulated drowning - the 
practice known as waterboarding.
 
The Associated Press news agency, which worked with the Sueddeutsche and ARD 
on their investigation, says the alleged prison in Romania opened in 2003 
after the CIA decided to empty the black site in Poland.
 
It quoted former US officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
 
The basement consisted of six prefabricated cells, each with a clock and 
arrow pointing to Mecca, the officials told AP.
 
Waterboarding was not used in Romania, they said.
 
Other detainees of intelligence value to the US held in Romania included 
Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Faraj al-Libi, AP reported.
 
 

 terrorism suspects were interrogated,
 
ecco perchè Ceausescu andava fatto fuori, era troppo buono...