Intelligence

Terror suspects held in secret CIA prisons

Scotsman.com News - International - Terror suspects held in secret CIA prisons

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT

SENIOR al-Qaeda members are being held in top-secret CIA- operated "black site" prisons across the world, it has emerged.

According to anonymous CIA sources quoted by the Washington Post, the agency has been transporting the captives to secret facilities in a number of countries for interrogation.

The covert prisons - of which up to eight have been used - are referred to as "black sites" in classified United States documents and virtually nothing is known about who the detainees are, how they are interrogated or about decisions on how long they will be held.

Interrogators at the black sites are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques". They include tactics such as "waterboarding" in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning.

The covert global prison system was reportedly set up after the attacks on the United States on 11 September, 2001. "Several democracies in Eastern Europe" as well as Thailand and Afghanistan and a small centre at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba were involved.

The CIA has not acknowledged the existence of the secret network and White House spokesman Scott McClellan would neither confirm nor deny the story. "I'm not going to get into specific intelligence activities. I will say that the president's most important responsibility is to protect the American people," he said.

Alberto Gonzales, the US attorney-general, was also evasive when asked about the report. "I'm not going to confirm or deny ... the existence of this programme. We normally do not talk about intelligence activities," he said.

"What I can say ... is the president has charged the administration to be doing what we can to protect America against another domestic attack and to protect our allies and those who are working with America but to do so in a way that is consistent with our legal obligations both domestically and internationally."

Russia and Bulgaria immediately denied that such a prison was located on their territory and Thailand also denied it was a host. But Amnesty International suggested that a recent report in which Yemeni detainees claimed to have been held by the US in a secret location four hours flying time from Jordan was compatible with the allegations.

Kate Allen, Amnesty's UK director, said: "We've long been concerned that the US could be running a totally secret network of 'war on terror' prisons and these fresh claims need to be urgently investigated.

"No country in Europe or elsewhere should be colluding in the illegal detention of prisoners and any state involved in this should be held partly responsible for human rights abuses occurring in these facilities."

The Bush administration was already facing intense criticism over its treatment of prisoners in its declared war on terrorism since the 2001 attacks.

Inmate abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison was strongly condemned in the Muslim world and among US allies, while many have called for more openness about those being held at Guantanamo Bay.

On Tuesday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, spurned a request by UN human rights investigators and denied them the opportunity to meet detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The newspaper, which said its report was based on information from US and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement, said the existence and locations of the prisons were known only to a handful of officials in the US and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.

It reported that about 30 major terrorism suspects had been held at black sites while more than 70 other detainees, considered less important, were delivered to foreign intelligence services under a process known as "rendition".

The system is said to depend on the co-operation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

The CIA is already known to use Glasgow and Prestwick airports to stop off en route to other destinations when transporting prisoners who have been snatched under its programme of "extraordinary rendition". The US is understood to use the programme to transport prisoners to countries which are prepared to use unconventional methods, including torture, to extract information.

US planes have landed at a number of UK airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, but Prestwick - with 75 recorded flights - and Glasgow - with 74 - are among the most popular stopping-off points.

Other airports around the world are known to be used for rendition.

The top 30 al-Qaeda prisoners held at the black sites are isolated from the outside world, have no recognised legal rights and no-one outside the CIA is allowed to talk to or see them, the sources said.

They added that the CIA used such detention centres abroad because in the US it is illegal to hold prisoners in such isolation.

Senior US officials were reported to have requested that the names of the East European countries be withheld because disclosure could disrupt counter-terrorism efforts or make the host countries targets for retaliation.

But there is understood to be a debate inside the agency about the effectiveness of the scheme.

November 2, 2005 at 09:38 PM in CIA | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home