Stare Kiejkuty (base)

On the territory village of Stare Kiejkuty, Poland, is a restricted military area that is the seat of (postal service name, simply) Jednostka Wojskowa 2669 (military unit 2669), Ośrodek Szkolenia Agencji Wywiadu (Agencja Wywiadu Intelligence Agency Training Center). Since 2005 it has attracted scrutiny as being a black site involved in the CIA's program of extraordinary rendition.^[1][2][3]

History

The facility's military uses go back at least as far as World War II, when it served as an outpost of the Nazi German SD (the intelligence service of the SS) and Abwehr. It was a part of Germany then, Ostpreussen.^[4] The airstrip that would later be expanded into the modern Szczytno-Szymany International Airport, 20 km away, originally served as a landing strip for Luftwaffe planes for bombing raids on Warsaw. In 1968, it would be used by the Soviet Army to plan operations to crush the Prague Spring.

Its use by Polish intelligence dates to the fall 1971; in the Communist era, it appeared on maps as a nondescript holiday resort. It had a very special status, however, having been the only intelligence training facility in the Eastern Bloc located outside the Soviet Union.

Signs are posted nearby reminding casual visitors of prohibitions against taking photographs, and journalists have reported having their cameras searched (and memory cards confiscated) when taking pictures near the facility.

On December 15, 2005, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former head of the current Polish national intelligence agency, Agencja Wywiadu, confirmed that in the Stare Kiejkuty facility there are two "internal zones" to which CIA officers have access; one of these (referred to as Strefa B) is officially the home of OSAW.^[5] Other Polish intelligence officials have confirmed that American personnel associated with the facility have been known to reside in the area for several months at a time, going back five or six years.^[6]

After the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture in December 2014, the President of Poland between 1995-2005, Alexander Kwasniewski, admitted that he had agreed to host a secret CIA black site in Poland, but that activities were to be carried out in accordance to Polish law. He said that a U.S. draft memorandum had stated that "people held in Poland are to be treated as prisoners of war and will be afforded all the rights they are entitled to", but due to time constraints the U.S. had not signed the memorandum.^[7]

See also

• Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri

References

CIA secret prisons and detainees Suspected black sites Salt Pit Dark Prison Diego Garcia Temara interrogation centre Ain Aouda Stare Kiejkuty Szczytno-Szymany Mihail Kogălniceanu Camp Nama Camp Eggers Strawberry Fields (Guantanamo) Black Jail Held in the Salt Pit Khalid El-Masri Laid Saidi Gul Rahman1 Held in the dark prison Jamil el Banna Abd al-Salam Ali al-Hila Bisher Amin Khalil al-Rawi Hassan bin Attash Laid Saidi Binyam Mohamed Musab Omar Ali Al Mudwani Walid al Qadasi See also Enhanced interrogation techniques Extraordinary rendition Ghost detainees Waterboarding Destruction of interrogation tapes 1 Died in custody.

Coordinates: 53°37′52″N 21°04′44″E / 53.63111°N 21.07889°E / 53.63111; 21.07889