MAGYAR NEMZET AS NATIONAL SECURITY RISK

The parliamentary national security committee has heard in an open session András Tóth, state secretary responsible for intelligence services, initiated by the Socialists, about the secret CIA prisons. Mr Tóth said there had been no such prisons in Hungary, and there were not and would not be such in the future, either, there had been no requests from the part of the United States of America. He said, referring to Magyar Nemzet, that such news might be a national security risk, they might serve as orientation points for terrorists. (Magyar Nemzet published an article from the Italian press which alleged the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.)

László Kövér MP (Fidesz), chairman of the committee hinted at the old obsession of the state party to try to comply with the expectations of the greatest ally. András Tóth said to Magyar Nemzet he criticized the daily because it published the information of an extreme left Italian paper as a fact which established a national security risk. The Communist paper Il Manifesto published an interview with Cherif Bassiouni on November 9, Magyar Nemzet informed the readers about the allegations on November 12, along with the official Hungarians refutations. The Hungarian News Agency MTI quoted the article on this day, and on November 14 it published extracts from the original article, at 22.11 it published Bassiouni’s statement claiming he did not mention the existence of CIA prisons as a fact in the interview.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó