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Europe
Remote Polish airstrip holds clues to secret CIA flights
2007-02-06
Long Chicago Tribune exclusive about a Polish airfield supposedly used for renditions.
SZYMANY, Poland -- At the end of a narrow lane that slices deep into the pine forests of northern Poland, a sign in four languages improbably announces that you have arrived at an international airport. The 6,500-foot runway--long enough to land a Boeing 777--lies under a blanket of snow. No planes have landed here in months, and the front gate is locked.

But in late 2002 and 2003, there was a flurry of unusual activity at Mazury-Szczytno International Airport, a former military facility that happens to be near a Polish intelligence training complex where European investigators suspect the CIA maintained a secret interrogation and detention facility.

Planes began arriving from Afghanistan, all of them registered to American companies. Most of the planes were Gulfstreams, twin-engine jets popular with corporate executives. One was a Boeing 737. These jets would park at the far end of the runway, where they would be met by government vehicles. The planes would stay no more than an hour or two before taking off. Their onward destinations were also unusual: Morocco, Uzbekistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Everything was unusual, from beginning to end," said Mariola Przewlocka, who was the airport's manager from 2003 until 2005, when her job was eliminated. "I was told to accept these flights even when the airport was closed."
Posted by:Steve White

#4  So just how does the airport 'hold clues?' Did Columbo go out and take plaster csts of the tires and then compare the tread to all known or suspected CIA-owned aircraft? Any photographs exist to support tail numbers?
In reality is is nothing more than a Polish Drag Strip with a realllly long shut down area.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2007-02-06 14:26  

#3  An "unusual" woman Mariola Przewlocka, a medaled veteran of the Âåëèêàÿ Îòå÷åñòâåííàÿ âîéíà, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna, who also speaks fluent Russian and takes copious notes. "I was told to accept these flights even when the airport was closed, and I always do what I am told."
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-02-06 12:13  

#2  The idea this is news is ludicrous. First, my only objection would be if the security services were not doing this sort of thing. Second, this is yet another example of the press doing its level best to compromise national security.

This will continue for exactly as long as we fail to hang these "journalists" as the traitors they are.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-02-06 10:29  

#1  Let's hope those flights were filled to capacity.
Posted by: ed   2007-02-06 08:46  

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