The Washington Post presented new evidence of the use by the US of the military basis in Mihail Kogalniceanu for illegal transfers of terrorism suspects. The Post cites a top Romanian military official with access to the basis who witnessed a number of suspicious happenings on the airport. According to the article, only very few high-level Romanian politicians such as the former and the present presidents are aware of these operations. The findings in the article were presented in a number of Romanian media outlets, such as HERE. It is also interesting to note that recently the UK admitted that the US had used one of its military basis in the Indian Ocean for transferring terror suspects, despite having previously denied it.
So far the prevailing view in Romania on such allegations has been as follows: a) politicians are denying such incidents ever took place (I remember former Romanian foreign affairs minister Ungureanu during a lecture at Chatham House in London aggressively responding to such allegations raised by members of the audience); b) same politicians and media are taking these accusations lightly (such as otherwise sensible weekly 22, or as manifest in the weakness of the official investigatory mechanisms set up by the Romanian Parliament on this occasion) and c) civil society (with some exceptions) are complacent and indifferent.
Without doubt, Romania is complicit in the serious breach by the US of human rights of terror suspects by allowing the Americans to use its territory for operations such as those described in the Post article. The question is when the huge lie perpetrated by the politicians will be exposed. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
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