USS Cole suspect wants probe of alleged CIA sites in Poland

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

WARSAW - A Saudi Guantanamo detainee suspected by the US of plotting the 2000 attack on the

Was Poland also involved in Bush-era trips to the dark side?

Saudi Guantanamo detainee says detained and tortured at CIA black sites in Poland.

USS Cole on Tuesday demanded Warsaw probe his alleged detention and torture at presumed CIA black sites in Poland, his lawyer said.

"Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is seeking vindication for the violation of his rights in Poland, for having been illegally imprisoned without a court order, that he was secretly jailed and smuggled across the border and above all that he was tortured in an incredibly cruel manner that violates the most basic rules of the Geneva Convention," Mikolaj Pietrzak told AFP Tuesday.

"We are seeking the identification and punishment of the perpetrators," he added.

According to a statement Tuesday from the Open Society Justice Initiative supporting al-Nashiri's case, "he is the first victim of the CIA's rendition programme to pursue legal remedies in Poland."

The US detained al-Nashiri on suspicion of plotting the October 2000 suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen US sailors were killed and dozens injured in the attack.

Polish authorities have repeatedly rejected claims by human rights organisations, in media reports and a Council of Europe investigation that Warsaw allowed the US intelligence agency to run a secret interrogation facility for captured Al-Qaeda suspects from 2003 to 2005.

In 2008 Polish prosecutors launched an investigation into the claims of a secret CIA jail for suspected Al-Qaeda leaders, including the alleged mastermind of the 2001 terror attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.

The investigation is continuing.