In a radio interview today the former PM chastized the media, terming the major newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza “useful idiots” for publishing evidence and prosecution documentations related to the facility. He also predicted that the UEFA’s 2012 cup, which is being held in Poland, would lead to an al-Qaeda attack and that media reports were only encouraging such a move.

Which of course means Miller believes that the prison itself was a major enough crime to attract the attention of al-Qaeda. Whether this is the case or not, it is unfathomable to think that keeping the facility out of the papers would forestall a reaction.

Miller has always denied any knowledge of the CIA facility, but a current Polish MEP reported that there is a document regulating the center which includes Miller’s signature at the bottom. The European Union and Poland have been investigating the site for years. The Obama Administration has refused to participate in such investigations.

According to officials the US refused to participate in the investigation because they “consider the matter to be closed.” Polish officials denied having any knowledge of the secret CIA site but records show CIA flights heading into a seldom used military air base in northern Poland.

Evidence released in 2007 showed that the CIA operated the facility inside a Polish intelligence training school, and claimed then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller was informed but told to keep the information from Polish officials. The revelation was part of a flurry of evidence prompting investigations by Polish officials into the scheme.

President Obama formally ordered the closure of all black sites in early 2009, and also insisted that he has fully banned the use of torture. His administration’s lack of cooperation with the investigations into the crimes, however, are leaving many doubting if they are indeed a “closed” matter or just covered up in a different way.

Blowing up civilian homes is quite obviously a violation of the Geneva Convention and a potential war crime. The general in charge of the unit insisted that he was never consulted about the destruction, and that they had only “blown up a cave full of explosives.” The video clearly shows a home, however, not a cave.

The Polish Army is said to be investigating the attack, and has come under criticism both from humanitarian groups complaining about the legality of the attack and a retired Army commander who noted that the shells used are quite expensive, costing several hundred dollars each.

Reports suggest that Polish soldiers may have done this fairly regularly, and that blowing up huts in rural Afghanistan was a popular passtime for this unit. Poland has around 2,600 troops in Afghanistan at the moment, its largest foreign deployment.

“It’s not clear why they need this,” said a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, “this is an anti-aircraft system. There’s an element of anti- missile defense, but not very big.”

Officially, the Obama Administration claims the missiles are to defend Europe from an Iranian attack, but Iran has no missiles with a maximum range of the US battery, and it is unimaginable that Iran would launch an attack against Eastern Poland at any rate.

Ultimately the missiles seem to be there for political and not strategic reasons. Poland’s voters have expressed opposition to the missiles but their government was furious when the Obama Administration anandoned a previous missile battery plan, and has cheered the latest deployment as a symbol of growing US influence in the region.

Likewise the missiles don’t appear to be any serious threat to Russia’s security plans for the region, but the deployment so close to their border seems designed specifically to spite the Medvedev government, which feels obliged to respond.

The US had originally planned for a missile defense base in Poland, sparking Russian ire and a threat of a retaliatory build-up in neighboring Kaliningrad. The base was scrapped, however, and the Obama Administration only later promised a Patriot missile commitment to Poland.

Both missile defense systems were ostensibly aimed at a missile threat from Iran, even though Iran’s best missiles have a maximum range well short of Poland. Russia has long suspected the systems were actually aimed at them, and the Polish decision to deploy them even closer to the border will likely reinforce that belief.

Shortly after the announcement, the Russian Navy announced that it is going to considerably upgrade its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad, adding a new class of warships with cruise missiles to the fleet.

President Obama insists the new shield will provide actual defensive capabilities much sooner than the 2007 deal, which would have put a radar base in the Czech Republic and a handful of missiles in Poland at some point in the next decade.

Though the shield was opposed by a significant majority of voters in both Poland and the Czech Republic, their respective governments were outspoken in their support and will likely be irked by the plan’s abandonment. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, long unhappy with US plans to put missiles along his country’s western frontier, has praised the move.

Republican Congressman John Boehner angrily condemned the move, saying it proved that Obama was ignoring the threat posed by some of the world’s most dangerous regimes, and that it would ultimately “empower Russia”

The Obama Administration, and the Bush Administration before them, long maintained that despite being deployed far from Iran and right next to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, the shield was a move against Iran and had nothing to do with Russia.

The new plan will be to deploy smaller missile defense batteries off-shore in the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually it is expected that those missiles will be moved to some location in the Balkans or Turkey.

The enormous program would have cost billions of dollars and put a handful of defensive missiles near the Russian frontier. The Bush Administration, which originally concocted the plan, insisted the deployment was aimed at Iran, though it was and remains well outside the range of the best Iranian missiles. The plan caused major tensions with Russia, which threatened to target the cities where the shield is located with nuclear weapons in the event of a war, and threatened to deploy extra missiles to the exclave of Kaliningrad to counter the shield.

Since taking office the Obama Administration has wavered on the shield, citing its considerable cost and dubious effectiveness. The Polish government expressed outrage at the notion the project might be abandoned, which prompted the administration to promise a “commitment.” More recently the president has sought to trade the shield to the Russian government in return for Russian support for harsh measures against Iran.

The new sites being considered are reportedly in the Balkans, as well as Israel and Turkey. The Pentagon emphasized after the release of the rumors that no final decision had been made yet to scrap the current program or to relocate it anyplace specifically.

“I want us to work together on a missile defence architecture that makes us all safer. But if the threat from Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes is eliminated, the driving force for missile defence in Europe will be eliminated. That is in our mutual interest,” Obama insisted.

Reports to this effect have endured for months, but this is the first time President Obama has so directly offered to trade the shield, which is well outside of the range of any Iranian missiles but quite close to Russian territory, for anti-Iran moves.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski had previously expressed anger at the rumor. The deployment of US missiles on Polish territory to combat the largely illusory Iranian “threat” means very little, and Kaczynski was quite willing to concede this, but he insisted the move would be an “unfriendly gesture” toward Poland. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then pledged that the US commitment to Poland would continue.

The Iranian government has an active civilian nuclear program, and Russia is constructing a nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Despite repeated US accusations, however, the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed that there is no evidence Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

“We have a very long and deep relationship with Poland and the Polish government and the Polish people,” Clinton told reporters today, adding “as members of NATO we take seriously our alliance commitment.”

The Polish government has repeatedly warned the Obama Administration not to abandon the deal, warning it could damage US-Polish ties. Yesterday, Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski cited the threat of Russian missiles as a reason the controversial system would have to stay, though ostensibly the base was directed at Iran and not Russia.

Yet as officials scramble to placate the Polish administration’s outrage at the potential “broken promise,” Polish news agency PAP issued a poll showing that Poles weren’t so hot on the whole missile base idea to begin with. The poll showed only 22 percent in favor of installing elements of the shield in Poland.

The Obama Administration has been under increasing pressure to abandon the system, given the serious damage it has done to US-Russian relations and considering reports that the multi-billion dollar system probably wouldn’t work at any rate.

Yet perhaps the most telling aspect of the FM’s comments was that nowhere was Iran, the ostensible “threat” the defense shield was directed at, mentioned. Instead, Sikorski cited the threat of Russian medium range missiles. The United States had attempted to persuade Russia that the base was targeted at Iran, in spite of being far outside the maximum range of Iran’s best missiles. It seems Poland views it the same way Russia does: as a direct deployment against Russia near its western border.