'Dark site' revealed

A government building in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, was used as a clandestine CIA prison according to German media reports.

The facility was used between 2003 and 2006 and was located in the basement of the building in the northwest of the city, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and public broadcaster ARD.

Journalists at media outlets, as well as news agency The Associated Press, said former CIA operatives had identified the center in photographs. The facility was said to be located near a major city boulevard, in a residential area. Codenamed "Bright Light," it is reported to have consisted of six prefabricated cells based on springs so as to disorientate inmates.

Top al-Qaeda operative and mastermind of the September 11 attacks Khalid Sheik Mohammad is believed to have been among those detained at the site.

Reports quoted several former CIA officials as saying that, during the first month of their stay, inmates were subject to a range of techniques intended to extract information. These included sleep deprivation, dousing with water, slapping and being forced to stand in painful positions.

Secretive branch of government

The building was home to Romania's Office of the National Register for Secret State Information (ORNISS), to which access was strictly limited, reports said.

The existence of such a facility in Romania has long been suspected. Swiss politician Dick Marty, who headed a 2007 Council of Europe report into the existence of such "black sites" in Europe, said he was pleased the location had been revealed.

"The dynamic of truth has run its course and we are at last beginning to learn what really happened in Bucharest," said Marty in a statement. He criticized the lack of a "serious judicial inquiry" in Romania and called for prosecutions to take place.

Romania has strongly denied hosting such a facility, and the ORNISS has also issued repeated denials.

The Council of Europe's warned in September that Lithuania, Poland and Romania should reveal details of black sites. A 2005 report by the campaign group Human Rights Watch had identified Romania as one of the countries to which suspects captured in Afghanistan were flown by the CIA.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, AP)
Editor: Nancy Isenson