Toronto Star : Bush defends secret prisons

Bush defends secret prisons

Acknowledges CIA operation for the first time
President pushes for creation of military tribunals

TIM HARPER | WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF | September 7, 2006

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush has acknowledged for the first time the existence of secret CIA prisons outside the U.S., announcing that he has sent 14 top terrorism suspects from those detention sites to face trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The American president made the announcement as he pressed congress to work quickly to pass legislation creating military tribunals at the Cuban prison, a requirement imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court when it struck down the tribunals last June.

If Bush can get the congressional go-ahead, trials — including the murder trial of 19-year-old Omar Khadr of Toronto — could get underway early next year, the U.S. military says.

Bush is expected to face opposition over his determination that classified information not be revealed to the accused as the government lays out its case and over his refusal to bar information that may have been obtained under coercion.

But by pledging justice for 14 men whom he said were dangerous and wanted to kill Americans, he is daring legislators to deny a day in court for families who lost loved ones in the terror attacks almost five years ago.

"The families of those murdered that day have waited patiently for justice,'' Bush said.

"They should have to wait no longer.''

In advance of Bush's speech, the Pentagon released an updated interrogation manual that outlaws a number of degrading and dehumanizing practices and compels military interrogators to accord all prisoners rights under the Geneva Conventions.

The new rules do not apply to the CIA, but Bush said the treatment of the prisoners by interrogators at the secret prisons was "tough, and they were safe and lawful and necessary.

"I want to be absolutely clear with our people and the world. The United States does not torture.

"It's against our laws and it's against our values. I have not authorized it and I will not authorize it."

Bush yanked some of the most notorious terror names out of the shadows in his speech yesterday.

Among those who have been transferred, he said, were Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Abu Zubaydah, a senior Al Qaeda planner and allegedly a close associate of Osama bin Laden, Ramzi bin al Shaibah, alleged to have been plotting to hijack aircraft and crash them into London's Heathrow Airport and Walid bin Attash, believed to be behind the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Bush went into unprecedented detail on what the U.S. intelligence community was able to glean from interrogation of these and other detainees.

"These are dangerous men, with unparalleled knowledge about terrorist networks and their plans of new attacks,'' Bush said.

"The security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know."

The president claimed that intelligence received from the "high-value'' suspects foiled another attack on the U.S. homeland.

When The Washington Post first revealed the so-called CIA black sites, the Bush administration reacted with anger and threatened to prosecute journalists who revealed classified information.

`These are dangerous men ... The security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know'

But it was careful to never confirm the existence of the prisons, even in the face of withering criticism from some European governments.

A senior administration official said later that fewer than 100 suspects were held at the secret prisons at various times.

None are being held right now, Bush said, but he made it clear that the prisons themselves would not be shut down.

He insisted the detainees have been treated humanely but declined to offer specifics on where they had been held. Europe's main human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, found that 20 countries, including Poland and Romania, helped to facilitate the CIA-run prisons.

"Information from terrorists in CIA custody has played a role in the capture or questioning of nearly every senior Al Qaeda member or associate detained by the U.S. and its allies since this program began," Bush said.

"This program has helped us to take potential mass murderers off the streets before they were able to kill."

He cited at least eight plots that were foiled, including a bid by Al Qaeda to obtain anthrax, to attack the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, and to attack U.S. marines in Djibouti using an explosive-laden tanker.

Mohammed also explained to interrogators how Al Qaeda would try to plant explosives in the upper floors of buildings to prevent victims from jumping out windows to safety.

Khadr is one of only 10 detainees formally charged at Guantanamo of the 460 held, but officials said there could be as many as 75 trials.

Bush said the U.S. had no interest in being the "world's jailers,'' but said a number of countries are refusing to take their nationals back, leaving them stuck at Guantanamo.

"We have in place a rigorous process to ensure those held at Guantanamo Bay belong at Guantanamo,'' Bush said.

"Those held at Guantanamo include suspected bomb makers, terrorist trainers, recruiters and facilitators, and potential suicide bombers.

"They are in our custody so that they cannot murder our people."

The new interrogation rules for the military come more than two years after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. They specifically rule out such degrading treatment as forcing detainees to be naked, to perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner, and to wear hoods over their head or duct tape over their eyes.

They also outlaw mock executions, the use of electrical shock, burning or the practice known as "water boarding'' in which suspects are made to believe they are drowning.

They would allow interrogators to use "good cop, bad cop'' methods, "false flag'' questioning in which interrogators portray themselves as someone else, and the physical separation of suspects.

"No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices,'' said Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the army's deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

"I think history tells us that."

With a file from Cox News Service