CIA Runs Secret Terrorism Prisons Abroad: Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The CIA has been holding and interrogating al Qaeda captives at a
secret facility in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison system established after
the September 11, 2001, attacks, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The logo of the Central Intelligence Agency is swept clean prior in the lobby of the
CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The CIA has been holding and interrogating
al Qaeda captives at a secret facility in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison
system established after the September 11, 2001, attacks, The Washington Post
reported on Wednesday. REUTERS/Jason Reed
The Soviet-era compound is part of a network that has included sites in eight
countries, including Thailand and Afghanistan, the newspaper reported, citing U.S.
and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
Thailand denied it was host to such a facility.
"There is no fact in the unfounded claims," government spokesman Surapong
Suebwonglee said.
The newspaper said the existence and locations of the facilities were known only to
a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a
few top intelligence officers in each host country.
The CIA has not acknowledged the existence of a secret prison network, the Post
said. A CIA spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The prisons are referred to as "black sites" in classified U.S. 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, the report said.
About 30 major terrorism suspects have 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 paper said, citing U.S. and
foreign intelligence sources.
The top 30 al Qaeda prisoners are isolated from the outside world, they have no
recognized legal rights and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or see
them, the sources told the newspaper.
The paper, citing several former and current intelligence and other U.S. government
officials, said the CIA used such detention centers abroad because in the United
States it is illegal to hold prisoners in such isolation.
The Washington Post said it was not publishing the names of the Eastern
European countries involved in the covert program at the request of senior U.S.
officials.
The officials argued that disclosure could disrupt counterterrorism efforts or make
the host countries targets for retaliation, the newspaper said.
The secret detention system was conceived shortly after the September 11 attacks
on New York and Washington, when the working assumption was that another
strike was imminent, the report said.
Surapong, the Thai government spokesman, said Bangkok was probably mentioned
because it helped catch Hambali, an Indonesian accused of being Osma bin Laden's
key link to Southeast Asia, in 2003.
Thailand's security cooperation with the United States would have to be done "in an
open and legitimate manner", he said.
