At Pentagon's Request the Washington Post Refuses To Report Location Of Secret CIA Jails

Recently, the Washington Post revealed the existence of a secret Soviet-era prison used by the CIA to detain prisoners in Eastern Europe. The prison is part of a small global network of secret CIA and military compounds used to detain and interrogate prisoners, including the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. At the request of U.S. officials, the Washington Post did not disclose the location of the Eastern European prison. Human Rights Watch says it's likely Poland or Romania. This is based on records the group obtained of military flights from Afghanistan. Officials from both Poland and Romania have denied the allegations. The Post declined to come on our program to discuss their decision. Instead, a spokesperson referred us to a statement made by Executive Editor Len Downie on CNN last Thursday. Downie said, "In this case, we agreed to keep the names of those particular countries out, because we were told, and it seems reasonable to us, that there could be terrorist retaliation against those countries, or more importantly, disruption of other very important intelligence activities, antiterrorist activities." The Post has drawn criticism for acquiescing to the government's demand. Commenting on the Post's rationale, the media watch-dog group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) said, "The possibility that illegal, unpopular government actions might be disrupted is not a consequence to be feared, however-it's the whole point of the First Amendment."

* Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, a public-interest documentation center in Washington.
* Stephen Grey, journalist with the Sunday Times of London. He obtained the flight records that Human Rights Watch is using to identify Poland and Romania as two likely locations for the secret CIA prisons.

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