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The '''Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base''' is a [[U.S. military bases overseas|U.S. military base ]] located near the Black Sea city of Constanza in [[Romania]]. [http://useu.usmission.gov/Article.asp?ID=E274DE79-1EDE-4BB6-AB3E-84FF14B75FF1]
Romania joined [[NATO]] in 2004 and "hopes to join" the [[European Union]] in 2007. [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1533876/posts]<ref>[http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/eu_members/romania/index_en.htm Romania], ''Europa'', accessed March 2008.</ref>
==2003 Invasion of Iraq==
Scotland's ''Sunday Herald'' [http://www.sundayherald.com/31821 reported] March 2, 2003, that
:"...close to a thousand US soldiers landed at Mihail Kogalniceanu air base over the past few days. [Romanian presidential spokeswoman Corina] Cretu said that half a dozen giant C-130 Hercules transport planes and up to a dozen MH-46 helicopters are ferrying arms, technical material and urgent military supplies from [[Germany ]] to the 'temporary' US war base on Romanian soil. Romanian military police have thrown a defensive cordon around the base.
:"The officers of the US advance party have turned three storeys of Hotel Savoy in the neighbouring Black Sea resort of Mamaia into their billet, but to assure their safety Romanian military police have erected steel barriers and set up several checkpoints on all the approach roads. Romania's Supreme Defence Council also announced that Bucharest is sending hundreds of nuclear, chemical and biological warfare decontamination specialists, as well as military police units and a complete field hospital.
==Extraordinary Rendition==
According to a June 2006 report in Scotland's ''Sunday Herald'', a fax intercepted by [[Switzerland|Swiss]] intelligence has revealed that the base is [http://www.blick.ch/sonntagsblick/aktuell/artikel30413 the site] of a secret [[CIA]] [[Global detention system|prison]]:{{ref|mackay11June06}}
:"The fax, datelined November 10, 2005, 8.24pm, was sent by the [[Egypt|Egyptian]] foreign minister, [[Ahmed Aboul Gheit]], in Cairo, to his ambassador in London. It revealed that the US had detained at least 23 [[Iraq]]i and [[Afghanistan|Afghani]] captives at a military base called Mihail Kogalniceanu in Romania, and added that similar secret prisons were also to be found in [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]], [[Kosovo]], [[Macedonia]] and [[Bulgaria]].
The November 7, 2005, [[Human Rights Watch]] [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/07/usint11995.htm "Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe"] stated:
:"The records show that the [[N313P]] plane landed the next day, September 23, 2003, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania. The flight records indicate that the plane flew on to [[Morocco ]] the same day, and then to [[Guantanamo Camp Xray|Guantanamo Bay]]. The [[Department of Defense]], which releases information about all detainee transfers to Guantanamo, released no statement about a transfer to Guantanamo around this date.
:"According to our research, the United States has been using the Mihail Kogalniceanu airfield in Romania for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, and the base has been closed to the public and journalists since early 2004. Secretary of Defense [[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Romania and the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in October 2004. The N313P plane also flew from Kabul to Timisoara airport in Romania on January 25, 2004."
"The document indicates four military facilities: Smardan, Babadag, Mihail Kogalniceanu, and Cincu, which are to be used by NATO forces or NATO partners only after the Romanian authorities approve the operations. On judicial provisions, the agreement states that Romanian laws must be taken into account, but allows the US forces to initiate various actions like construction works and changes to the surroundings. The military facilities allow the US troops to initiate training programs for artillery, infantry, and air bombing exercises. The Smardan military facility is the largest, with a surface area of about 8,500 hectares. It can accommodate over 600 soldiers. The Babadag camp has 2,700 hectares and can host about 250 soldiers. The Mihail Kogalniceanu aerodrome has a length of 3,500 meters and will be used for air exercises, while the Cincu shooting range will mainly be used for the training of infantry." [http://www.axisglobe.com/news.asp?news=5510]
==Resources=====Related SourceWatch Resourcesarticles===
*[[extraordinary rendition]]
*[[global detention system]]
*[[rendition]]
*[[U.S. military bases overseas]]
*[[The CIA Secret Prisons Leak]]
==External Links=References===<references/>
===Profiles===
*[http://www.fallingrain.com/world/RO/0/Mihail_Kogalniceanu3.html Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania], Falling Rain Geonomics, Inc, 1996-2004: Other names: Mihail-Cogalniceanu, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Cogălniceanu, Mihail-Cogălniceanu, and Cogalniceanu.
*Philip Ó Ceallaigh, [http://www.vivid.ro/index.php/issue/78/page/feature/tstamp/1143438373 "Romania– a CIA 'black site'? By Vivid writer: Philip Ó Ceallaigh] ''Vivid'', 27/03/2006.
[[Category:Extraordinary rendition]][[Category:Military]][[Category:Romania]][[Category:RomaniaUnited States]]