It looks as a new media war erupting in the Lithuania’s media.  The war between so called group of ‘Statesmen’, which is rapidly loosing their position of influence in Lithuania, and a new group of so called ‘anti-statesmen’ or ‘pragmatists’, which is replacing them.

The article below (by Gabiele Vasiliauskaite of Alfa.lt) is considered as an attack from the former group against the Statesmen.  Some commentators pointed out that this article is a perfect example when secret information was leaked to media by one of other group for the media wars.

‘The individuals who were possibly involved in the CIA prison story – Mecys Laurinkus, [former State Security Department (VSD) director]; [former VSD director] Arvydas Pocius; Albinas Januska [former high-ranking Foreign Ministry official]; Edminas Bagdonas [former adviser to President Adamkus]; Mindaugas Ladiga [former adviser to President Adamkus]; [former VSD deputy director] Dainius Dabasinskas; and former President Valdas Adamkus – all speak in unison, saying that the CIA prison story could pose a threat to Lithuania’s good name in the international arena. If a CIA prison indeed existed in Lithuania – and the testimony of [former President] Rolandas Paksas and the president’s [Dalia Grybauskaite] words [that she has "indirect suspicions"] leave no room to doubt – it will be the sword of Damocles for the so-called “statesmen” clan.

If the parliamentary investigation proves that the CIA prison existed, Lithuania will have to admit the truth and apologize. The absolution the president has mentioned will be inevitable.

This is why the participants in this story will be doing all they can to emerge unscathed. After all, it is not good if Lithuania has to apologize and the “builders” of the CIA prison remain unpunished and keep representing Lithuania in the international arena. And what about Adamkus? If Laurinkus had asked Paksas about terrorists detained by the CIA, then perhaps he put the same question to Adamkus, who became president after Paksas’s impeachment and who was much more trustworthy.

All “statesmen” have found for themselves respected and cozy jobs, perhaps this was an award for some things they had done. Former VSD Chief Mecys Laurinkus has a post in the Lithuanian Embassy in Georgia. Former VSD Deputy Director Darius Jurgelevicius is close by; he now works as an adviser to the Georgian interior minister. Laurinkus’s successor, former VSD Director Arvydas Pocius, is a lawyer in an office of a Lietuvos Rytas shareholder. Former VSD Deputy Director Dainius Dabasinskas was delegated to serve as an attache in the Lithuanian Embassy to Ukraine. Edminas Bagdonas, former adviser to President Adamkus for foreign policy and one of the politicians involved in the Turniskes [property] scandal, has been appointed the Lithuanian ambassador to Minsk. Another Adamkus’s adviser, Mindaugas Ladiga, who was in charge of national security issues, is also working as an attache in the Lithuanian Embassy in Belarus. Albinas Januskas, former adviser to Adamkus and a former ! high-ranking Foreign Ministry official, is enjoying a signatory [to the Independence Act] annuity.

The majority of “statesmen” have occupied strategic posts and keep controlling the domain that they have always had under their control. And at the top of this pyramid is [VSD Director] Povilas Malakauskas, who was delegated to this post by Januska. Malakauskas has been actively safeguarding the 12 analytic reports prepared by the VSD and all other things the clan has done.

However, this time the danger to the “statesmen” is much more real than ever before. First of all, because it was American and not Lithuanian journalists who spoke up about the CIA prison. Even though the corrupt Lithuanian media and press were trying to discredit the ABC News journalist, presenting him as unreliable and trying to accuse him of creating conspiracy theories and disseminating disinformation, they did not manage to discredit him or the US media and press. The bad thing is that they cannot use their traditional line and accuse The Washington Post or ABC News of carrying out the orders from Gazprom of Russia in general, because nobody would ever believe that. The situation has become even more difficult because of [President] Dalia Grybauskaite. She is not an Adamkus. She does not stay in the background, she will not help them “kill” the cases they find troublesome.

The president has indirect proof that the CIA prison was in Lithuania. After Malakauskas testified before the parliamentary National Security and Defence Committee [NSGK], she expedited the signing of the amendment to the Criminal Code proposed by the Parliament, according to which false testimony given to the parliamentary committees and commissions will be penalized.

According to Alfa.lt’s sources, Malakauskas, who on Monday [ 14 December] resigned from the VSD director post, told the president one truth, and then he told another truth to the NSGK. Moreover, Malakauskas’s and his subordinate’s versions do not match.

Suddenly, during his second testimony, Paksas decided to speak up. All other participants in the story keep silent or lie. When Alfa.lt asked Laurinkus for the first time whether a CIA prison was discussed in the spring of 2003, he first laughed, and then said that he did not know anything about that. There are no penalties for lying to journalists. However, the president has now banned lying to the NSGK.

Paksas said that yes, he was asked about the possibility of bringing terrorists detained by the CIA to Lithuania, and that this was a confidential question asked by the then VSD Director Laurinkus. Immediately after Paksas made this statement there were some weak attempts to accuse Paksas of trying to take his revenge on Laurinkus, because the latter “had leaked” the information that put an end to Paksas’s presidential career.

The key detail here is that there had been no written applications, just a conversation between Laurinkus and Paksas. However, it would be too risky to accuse Paksas of lying, because it could lead to a criminal investigation, during which many things could surface. This is why the “statesmen” have changed the tune.

If Paksas, who had previously testified that he did not know anything about any CIA prison, suddenly regained his memory, Laurinkus did not get scared of the amendment to the Criminal Code. The experienced diplomat weaseled out by saying that he had been just following world events and had asked the then president a question having in mind a “hypothetical situation.” The VSD has long been famous for its analytic abilities. But to forestall the events and to clarify the president’s position in advance takes a special type of insight. Perhaps he had forestalled the events in the same manner when, just in case, before asking for the president’s permission, the VSD had taken care of the construction of a building for the CIA prison, in case the Americans ask, and in case the Lithuanian president agrees.

The CIA prison scandal is a continuation of the story of [Vytautas] Pociunas’s death [in Belarus] and the 12 analytic reports the VSD has been hiding. Only this story is international, thus it will not be so easy to “kill” this investigation. It is not likely that Malakauskas, who has been actively defending the VSD boys, can get away with saying that the CIA prison is a state secret. Especially that one would like to believe that he is also unusually insightful and has already considered “the hypothetical situation” if the testimony about the existence of the CIA prison became known overseas. Then the “statesmen” and Lithuania’s name would suffer much more than it does from the discussions whether [the prison] existed or not. It is one thing to successfully complete an investigation, and another thing is to acknowledge the truth. It is an entirely another issue to procrastinate an investigation, to lie and to expect that the investigation will be forgotten. It is not likely that the things that work in Lithuania will work in the international domain. And, what is more, it is impossible to order ABC News or The Washington Post to write some dirty lies about certain persons and to find some woman’s coat in the closet. [When Pociunas died in Belarus, the daily Lietuvos Rytas newspaper published an article, in which it claimed that Pociunas had a lover and that her coat and other things were found in his apartment in Belarus].

The president was very strict about the investigation and the consequences of false testimony. She also promised to depoliticize the main actor in the CIA prison story – the VSD.

For now, even after Malakauskas’s resignation, nothing has changed in the VSD. Former Malakauskas’s deputy Dainius Dabasinskas keeps controlling the department from a distance – from Ukraine. His eyes and ears is Rytis Muraska, former adviser to Adamkus and “Turniskes neighbour” [was involved in the Turniskes property scandal]. Muraska, whose office is next to the VSD director’s office, has the task to control the documents coming from the Seimas and the Presidential Office to the VSD and the documents sent from the VSD. Not a single document can be sent without Muraska’s knowledge. Before each more or less important VSD meeting, he calls Dabasinskas “to receive consultation.” The president knows that. She also knows who has lied about the CIA prisoners in Lithuania; otherwise there would be no amendments to the Criminal Code on false testimony.

The president knows that the decision to remove from the VSD two individuals – Dabasinskas and Jurgelevicius – has not worked. Perhaps this is why, as far as Alfa.lt is informed, when the president visited the VSD in November, she gave a list of questions she expected to be answered by the New Year’s Eve.

This list, Paksas’s testimony, and the findings of the NSGK investigation should become the beginning of the VSD cleansing and de-politicization processes, something the president has promised, and, let us hope, it will be the end of it.

Alfa.lt