Bush admits CIA runs secret jails

[KashifAsrar]

Bush admits CIA runs secret jails

9/11 Mastermind Among 14 Suspects Sent To Gitmo


Washington: US president Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.
Bush said 14 suspects — including the mastermind of the September 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania — had been turned over to the defence department and moved to the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial. “This programme has been, and remains, one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists,” Bush said.
“Were it not for this programme, our intelligence community believes Al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.”
Releasing information declassified just hours earlier, Bush said the capture of one terrorist just months after the September 11 attacks had led to the capture of another and then another, and had revealed planning for attacks using airplanes, car bombs and anthrax.
Nearing the fifth anniversary of September 11, Bush pressed Congress to quickly pass administration-drafted legislation authorising the use of military commissions for trials of terror suspects.
The president's speech, his third in a recent series about the war on terror, gave him an opportunity to shore up his administration's credentials on national security two months before congressional elections at a time when Americans are growing weary of the war in Iraq.
With the transfer of the 14 men to Guantanamo, there currently are no detainees being held by the CIA, Bush said. A senior administration official said the CIA had detained fewer than 100 suspected terrorists in the history of the program. Still, Bush said that “having a CIA programme for questioning terrorists will continue to be crucial to getting lifesaving information.” The president declined to disclose the location or details of the detainees’ confinement or the interrogation techniques. “I cannot describe the specific methods used — I think you understand why,” Bush said in the East Room, where families of some of those who died in the September 11 attacks heartily applauded him when he promised to finally bring the perpetrators to justice.
“If I did, it would help the terrorists learn how to resist questioning and to keep information from us that we need to prevent new attacks on our country. But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe and lawful and necessary.” Bush insisted that the detainees were not tortured.
Bush said the information from terrorists in CIA custody has played a role in the capture or questioning of nearly every senior Al Qaida member or associate detained by the US and its allies since the programme began.
He said they include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused September 11 mastermind, as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be 9/11 hijacker, and Abu Zubaydah, who was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and many al-Qaida cells. REUTERS

CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG



EU lawmakers seek CIA jails info


Strasbourg (France): European lawmakers demanded on Thursday that their governments reveal the location of secret CIA prisons after US president George Bush admitted Washington held terror suspects in jails abroad.
Bush said on Wednesday the CIA had interrogated dozens of suspects at undisclosed overseas locations. A leader of Europe’s chief human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, said the revelation vindicated the exhaustive investigation the body had conducted on secret prisons and CIA flights moving suspects around Europe.
“Our work has helped to flush out the dirty nature of this secret war, which — we learn at last — has been carried out completely beyond any legal framework,” said Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly president Rene van der Linden.
“The location of these prison camps must be made public,” said German lawmaker Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, a member of the European Parliament committee investigating the allegations. “We need to know if there has been any complicity in illegal acts by governments of EU countries or states seeking EU membership,” he said. REUTERS





Pentagon bans abusive interrogation methods


Washington: Forced nudity, hooding, using dogs, conducting mock executions or simulated drownings were among eight abusive interrogation practices banned under new rules unveiled by the US military on Wednesday.
The Pentagon, still facing international criticism over the treatment of Guantanamo prisoners two years after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, unveiled long-awaited changes to the 1992 Army Field Manual governing interrogation of detainees held by the military.
The manual explicitly prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. But it keeps 16 longstanding interrogation techniques and adds three new ones, said Lt Gen John Kimmons, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence.
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices,” he said. Intelligence obtained under duress, he added, would have “questionable credibility” and do more harm than good when the abuse inevitably became public.
Practices still permitted include rewarding detainees for cooperation, flattery and instilling fear. Two of the new techniques were the use of a good-cop, bad-cop approach and allowing interrogators to portray themselves as someone other than a US interrogator. REUTERS