The «Amber Rebuff» was the code name of the operation jointly carried out by the CIA and Lithuania's Department of Homeland Security during which they transferred supposed Al Qaeda militants captured in Afghanistan to the country. In Lithuania, they were subjected to interrogation with tortures with the goal of obtaining information about Muslim extremist groups.
The Lithuanian parliament's inquiry into the hosting of secret CIA jails is unbelievably perfunctory, if at all trustworthy. The findings are inconclusive: the jails did exist but it is unknown whether inmates were actually brought to them, and aircrafts of undeclared origin did land in Lithuania, but it has not been proven that they were used to carry Al Qaeda militants. Since no complaints have been received from the supposed victims of abuse, there is essentially nothing to discuss.
In contrast, the facts unearthed by the Lithuanian media prior to the parliamentary inquiry were quite serious. It appears that at least two secret jails concealed from the public and the human rights watchers were illegally operated in Lithuania in 2002-2005 by the CIA.
One of the jails was sited in Rudnikai and disguised as a part of a special training center of the Public Security Service of the Ministry of Interior, the other - in Antaviliai, a village where residences are owned by influential politicians and businessmen. The distances between Vilnius and the jails were 40 and 20 km respectively, and the CIA operatives together with their Lithuanian partners mainly used the Antaviliai center, evidently to save time on commuting. The site used to be a riding complex which its former owners were - under pressure from the authorities - forced to sell to ELITE-LLC, a company created by the CIA with the help of its residents in Panama (Start Finance Group and INK Holding).
The CIA had to resolve several serious problems to organize the "Amber Rebuff". Rolandas Paksas, then President of Lithuania, opposed the plan on the grounds that it breached the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the European Human Rights Convention, both of which have been signed by Lithuania. Moreover, under Lithuanian law arrests without court warrants — least tortures - are illegal.
It took the CIA little time to get rid of the defiant Paksas. Less than a year after being elected, he was impeached due to allegations of corrupt ties with the Russian business and of other types of mischief. Roughly at the same time, three Russian diplomats in Lithuania were accused of spying and deported from the country, quite likely on the US initiative to prevent the «Amber rebuff» from being watched. Valdas Adamkus, a senior-aged US citizen and a big fan of G. Bush, was elected as the new Lithuanian President. His creed was that Lithuania must contribute to the US cause regardless of any objections. Besides, Adamkus felt that Lithuania was indebted to the US for supporting its bid for the NATO membership.
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