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PM calls for reform of VSD in the wake of CIA prison probe  

VSD pastatai Antaviliuose (R. Dačkaus nuotr.) (Fotodiena.lt nuotr.)

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius on Tuesday called for sweeping reforms to Lithuania's spy agency after a report revealed that senior agents obscured their activities from the eyes of government.

The report released on Tuesday by a parliamentary inquiry found that Lithuania's Department of State Security, the VSD, "created the conditions" for a CIA detention facility to operate in Lithuania in 2004-2005.

"A small group of VSD officers took the decision to build this detention centre without informing society and, possibly, state leaders, and they circumvented parliamentary control," Andrius Kubilius said in a statement.

Kubilius said he was "alarmed" by the report's findings that laws had been broken, adding that the VSD had become a "state within a state."

The report recommended that three former senior VSD officers now face a criminal investigation by Lithuania's prosecutor general.

Kubilius said the USA remains a key strategic partner, but "a strategic partnership with the USA is not a justification for acting in ways that are essentially Soviet, ignoring civilian control of special services."

 
"An honest assessment of the lessons of the CIA prison in Lithuania, and a reform of the special service will only improve the quality of our cooperation with our strategic partner, the USA."

 

 
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