The CIA allegedly operated a secret prison in Romania, in the current headquarters of the National Registry Office of Classified Information, according to an Associated Press investigation, in collaboration with the German TV station ARD. The German TV channel broadcast their findings tonight (December 8). They claim the Romanian prison was part of a network called 'Black sites', set up by the CIA in Thailand, Lithuania and Poland. All prisons were closed in 2006 and CIA's detention and interrogation program ended in 2009.

Unlike CIA isolated centers in Lithuania and Poland, the alleged CIA prison in Romania was downtown, in an area of high traffic. Former American secret services officers are said to have described the area where the CIA prison was located and identified the building in pictures.

Adrian Camarasan, the head of the National Registry Office of Classified Information, recently said in an interview that the basement of the building is one of the safest rooms in Romania, but denied that the  Americans had a prison there.

Human right groups have called on the countries where the CIA is alleged to have set up prisons, to mount investigations. President Traian Basescu denies the prison ever existed.

Suspects were sleep deprived in the first months of detention in this prison, while being beaten and water was thrown on them, according to the AP, claiming to quote American officials. The CIA is said to have provided Halal food prepared under Islamic religious regulations for the suspects kept in the alleged prison.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: CIA)