WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — Morell commented on the CIA’s overseas black sites where terrorist suspects had been subjected to torture and other human rights abuses:
“CIA was not operating without the knowledge of these governments.”
“I am telling you what I know, and I am telling you what I perceive to be the truth,” Morell continued.
Over the weekend, the European Court of Human Rights forced the government of Poland to pay approximately $250,000 in reparations to two terrorist suspects who had reported being tortured at a CIA black site in Poland.
During a Monday press conference at the National Press Club, Morell said that the CIA’s management of overseas interrogation sites “was not some rogue operation inside the borders of these countries.”
The former deputy director added that the program was supported “by the leadership of those countries.”
The exact number of countries that participated in the CIA program during the US War on Terror is unknown, but the existence of the overseas program was confirmed in a 2014 US Senate Intelligence report on the use of what is termed “enhanced interrogation practices” by the US intelligence agency. The report also confirmed the use of “torture” by the CIA in dealing with terrorist detainees.
While the host countries wanted the US assurance of secrecy, he added, “we were not able to deliver on the discretion part.”
The Polish government faced a Saturday deadline to process payments to the two terrorist suspects who were unlawfully detained in a CIA facility in Poland. The Polish foreign ministry said on Friday that it was processing the payments.
According to independent reports by the Open Society Foundation, as many as 54 countries took part in the CIA’s overseas terrorist detention and transfer program during the early years of the US War on Terror.
