Prison pickle

Poland may launch another investigation into whether the CIA detained and questioned suspects at secret prisons on Polish territory, according to an adviser to Polish President Lech Kaczyński. The storm that erupted last year after the Washington Post published a story claiming that secret prisons existed in Eastern Europe was re-ignited this week, when US President George W Bush admitted the prisons existed.

The Polish government held an investigation to find out whether any such facilities were on its territory after watchdog Human Rights Watch claimed it had evidence that the prisons were located in Poland and Romania. The investigation found no CIA prisons had existed in Poland. The EU, however, was not satisfied, and has repeated its call to the government to answer the claims.

"If the issue continues to come up and if there is international pressure, the President will ask the appropriate services to investigate the issue once again," President Kaczyński's foreign policy adviser, Andrzej Krawczyk, said.

The coalition government has repeatedly rejected the accusations, saying it had been assured by the previous SLD government that no such prisons had ever existed. "At this stage, the President has no knowledge that such detention centers could have existed in Poland,"  Krawczyk added.

Warsaw is one of Washington's strongest allies in Europe, and is being considered as a location for a US anti-missile shield base. (Reuters)