A-HRC-13-42

A/HRC/13/42
page 50
independent sources informed the experts that the facility was indeed in Thailand and that it was
known as the “Cat’s Eye”. The videotapes were however allegedly destroyed in November 2005
by the CIA and, according to the New York Times, the tapes had been held “in a safe at the CIA
station in Thailand, the country where two detainees - Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri - were interrogated.” 188
111. In its submission for the present study, the Government of Thailand denied the existence of
a secret detention facility in Thailand in 2002/03, stating that international and local media had
visited the suspected places and found no evidence of such a facility. In the light of the detailed
nature of the allegations, however, the experts believe it credible that a CIA black site existed in
Thailand, and calls on the domestic authorities to launch an independent investigation into the
matter.
112. In June 2007, in a report submitted to the Council of Europe, rapporteur Dick Marty stated
that he had enough “evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in
Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania.” 189 The report drew on
testimony from over 30 current and former members of intelligence services in the United States
and from Europe. According to the Rapporteur, the Romanian “black site” was allegedly in force
from 2003 to the second half of 2005. He also noted that “the majority of the detainees brought
to Romania were, according to our sources, extracted ‘out of [the] theater of conflict’. This
phrase is understood as a reference to detainee transfers originating from Afghanistan and, later,
Iraq”. 191 In August 2009, former United States intelligence officials disclosed to the New York
Times, that Kyle D. Foggo, at that time head of the CIA’s main European supply base in
Frankfurt, oversaw the construction of three CIA detention centres, “each built to house about a
half-dozen detainees”. They added that “one jail was a renovated building on a busy street in
Bucharest”. 190
113. While the identities of many detainees who were held in these facilities have not been
revealed yet, it is known that on or around 24 April 2004, Mohammed al-Asad (see para. 133
below) was transferred with at least two other people from Afghanistan to an unknown, modern
facility apparently run by United States officials, which was carefully designed to induce
maximum disorientation, dependence and stress in the detainees. Descriptions of the facility and
its detention regime were given by Mr. al-Asad to Amnesty International, which established that
188
Mark Mazzetti, “US says CIA destroyed 92 tapes of interrogations”, New York Times,
2 March 2009. Available from www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03web-intel.html.
189
Dick Marty, “Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe
member states: second report”, Council of Europe, doc. 11302 rev., 11 June 2007. Available
from assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc07/edoc11302.pdf. In its response to the
report, Romania contested the evidentiary basis of the findings concerning Romania.
190
David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti, “A window into CIA’s embrace of secret jails” New
York Times, 12 August 2009. Available from
www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/13foggo.html?_r=2&ref=global-home. See also response
by the Government of Romania published in the New York Times.