Posted on 11/25/2005 8:29:52 AM PST by ncountylee
Military officials flatly deny allegations of secret detentions
MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, Romania — In a weedy field on this wind-swept military base, Romanians in greasy combat fatigues tinker with unmanned drone aircraft near a ragged lineup of rusting MiG-29 fighter jets. There's not an American in sight, but the sprawling Soviet-era facility has become a key focus of a European investigation into allegations the CIA operated secret prisons.
Top Romanian leaders and the Pentagon vehemently deny that the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in the country's southeast ever hosted a covert detention center, and the Romanians insist the United States never used it as a transit point for al-Qaida captives.
"It's impossible for something like that to have happened on this base," Lt. Cmdr. Florin Putanu, the base's No. 2 officer, angrily said.
But the compound, heavily used by American forces in 2001-2003 to transport troops and equipment to Afghanistan and Iraq, and scheduled to be handed over to the U.S. military early next year, is under increasing scrutiny.
Ioan Mircea Pascu, Romania's defense minister in 2001-2004, said parts of Mihail Kogalniceanu were off-limits to Romanian authorities, and the country's main intelligence agency said it has no jurisdiction there.
(Excerpt) Read more at insidebayarea.com ...
How do you say Club Gitmo in Latin?
If Europe has so much free time, why not examine the Islamic threat to Western freedom.
Who is conducting this "investigation"? The EU? The UN maybe? Or just leftwing anti-American journalists?
Perhaps they are being held on the Space Station?
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