Report: CIA Holds Top Al Qaeda Suspects in Jordan

[seemslikeadream]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is holding top al Qaeda suspects in a secret Jordanian jail where they are subjected to interrogation methods banned in the United States, an Israeli newspaper said Wednesday.
Haaretz daily said at least 11 men held incommunicado in Jordan include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, and Hambali, accused of being al Qaeda's ally in southeast Asia.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials or Jordan, which is seen as a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror.

Haaretz, citing international intelligence sources, said: "Their detention outside the U.S. enables CIA interrogators to apply interrogation methods that are banned by U.S. law, and to do so in a country where cooperation with the Americans is particularly close, thereby reducing the danger of leaks."

more
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6485725

[Arancaytar]

1. What are examples for

Interrogation methods so horrible that even the US banned them? Pulling out toe nails, quartering, water-torture?

[cal04]

2. CIA holding Al-Qaida suspects in secret Jordanian lockup

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the CIA was granted special permission by the U.S. law enforcement authorities to operate "other laws" at the secret facility with regard to interrogation methods. Detainees are subjected to physical and psychological pressure that includes the use of simulated drowning, loud music, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation. Some of these methods were exposed with the revelation of torture techniques used by American interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The CIA's prisoners at the facility in Jordan include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered Al-Qaida's head of operations and number three in the Al-Qaida hierarchy after Osama bin Laden and Aiman al-Zawahiri, who have eluded capture. Mohammed, of Kuwaiti origin, was captured in a safe house in Pakistan in 2002, along with the Yemeni Ramzi bin al-Shibh, considered a close bin Laden associate who was kept from being one of the 9/11 pilots because he was denied a U.S. visa. The two men were interrogated for awhile in Pakistan by Pakistanis and Americans and later flown to the undisclosed facility.

The 46-page Human Rights Watch report levels harsh criticism at the U.S. administration for using "undisclosed locations" and "disappearing" prisoners. The report charges that the U.S. thereby is in breach of all international conventions, including the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war, by refusing prisoners access to the Red Cross or their families.

The report contends that American operatives detained Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children to serve as "hostages" through which to pressure their father into cooperating.The prisoners were subjected to severe torture, the report states.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488039.html

[demnan]

4. Something about this puzzles me

If Bush were to bring the number 3 guy from Al Quaida over to the states for a well publized trial, wouldn't it help him now?

Three things:

Is the CIA holding these men so Bush cannot benefit politically?

Is the CIA torturing these people so they will talk

Or so they won't talk to incriminate Bush as complicit in 9/11?

Just wondering.

[emad]

3. "Ghost prisoners"

'CIA secretly holds 11 of bin Laden's lieutenants'


The Times
By Daniel McGrory

A SAUDI militant accused of financing the September 11 hijackings is among a group of al-Qaeda suspects being held in secret by the CIA, it emerged yesterday. Mustafa al-Hawsawi is said to have told agents how al-Qaeda funds its operations.

Human rights campaigners named the 36-year-old computer expert as one of 11 “ghost prisoners” held at secret detention centres around the world. President Bush said that he has not been told where these suspects are. Human Rights Watch, which named the 11, said that the Red Cross had not been allowed to see them and their families had not been told that they were alive. Some have been held for more than three years.

The US-based campaign group claimed that some had been tortured into giving evidence used by the White House in the run-up to the war in Iraq to make the case that Saddam Hussein had links with al-Qaeda. But the group claimed that the CIA had now admitted that some detainees lied under pressure. The CIA and the Pentagon refused to comment.

Reed Brody, special counsel with Human Rights Watch, said that by refusing to admit the detentions, the US had violated international law and the Geneva Convention. “The US demeans itself when it adopts the philosophy that the ends justify the means in the fight against terror,” he said.
More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1306783,0...

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=901014