CIA Secret Prisons Still Operational

In September of 2006 President Bush acknowledged the existence of a secret CIA detention system. Last week a report [PDF] released by the Council of Europe (a European intergovernmental human rights group) concluded that secret detention facilities operated by the CIA existed in Europe from 2003 - 2005 in Poland and Romania. They also found that prisoners detained in those facilities were “subjected to interrogation techniques tantamount to torture.”

The report claims that US officials illegally conspired with intelligence officials in multiple countries to “disappear, interrogate and illegally transfer terrorism suspects.” It also includes cross referenced testimonies of more than 30 current and former members of various intelligence services in Europe as well as the US about how the secret prison system operated.

There are 39 people that are believed to have been held in CIA custody that are presently unaccounted for, which indicates that these secret prisons are still operational.