Pentagon

Updated November 19, 2009

Report: CIA 'Black Site' Found in Lithuania

FOXNews.com

Officials reportedly claim an upscale Lithuanian horseback riding school and cafe was used to interrogate up to eight Al Qaeda suspects at a time.

The CIA built and ran a secret prison in Lithuania where it apparently used harsh interrogation techniques on Al Qaeda suspects, according to a broadcast report.

ABC News, citing unnamed Lithuanian government officials and a former U.S. intelligence official, claimed an upscale Lithuanian horseback riding school and cafe outside Vilnius was used to interrogate up to eight Al Qaeda suspects at a time.

The CIA is alleged to have constructed thick concrete pillars inside the facility, which it bought using a front company in Washington.

"The new members of NATO [Lithuania] were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to ABC News. "They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters."

In October, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite ruled out accepting any prisoners from the Guantanamo detention facility that President Obama has vowed to close until Lithuania is cleared of allegations it secretly hosted any CIA jails.

Lithuania is the third European nation to face accusations of hosting so-called "black sites" during the Bush administration, after Poland and Romania.

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