Lithuania intel chief resigns in CIA probe

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Lithuania's intelligence chief has resigned following an ABC News report the CIA ran a secret prison for al-Qaida suspects in the country, the broadcaster said.

The exclusive ABC report said the secret prison operated in 2004 and 2005.

ABC News revealed the location of the secret prison in a Nov. 18 broadcast. The report said harsh interrogation techniques allegedly were used on al-Qaida suspects in a facility northeast of Vilnius. A CIA official and a Lithuanian official told ABC the U.S. agency built a hidden concrete structure to hold up to eight "high value detainees" at a time.

ABC said Povilas Malakauskas, chief of Lithuania's State Security department, stepped down without warning Monday after running the agency for two years. But Arydas Anusauskas, head of a parliamentary committee investigating the prison, said Malakauskas resigned because of the government's investigation of the CIA facility, Lithuanian media reported.

Anusauskas told LNK TV if the intelligence chief had told the truth from the beginning about his department's involvement in the CIA program, much of the government's investigation would not have been needed.