[Peace-discuss] Bush acknowledges secret CIA prisons

[Ricky Baldwin]

"questioned by experts", eh? "tough but not torture"? 
Glad to know it.

What a story!  What reporting!  No questions about
these "experts"?  No little background notes about how
the President might define torture conveniently? 
About the recent disputes with the White House about
what torture is?  Even just a word about the kind of
outrageous treatment that international humanitarian
agencies consider torture but the Bush Admin does not?
 No?

And "Bush also laid out his proposal for ... trials of
... key suspected terrorists ...", did he?  I guess
that's all we need to know.  If we knew any actual
information about this "proposal" we might get all
upset, after all.

And I love this one: "the president said the
questioning of these detainees has provided critical
intelligence information about terrorist activities
that have enabled officials to prevent attacks not
only in the United States, but Europe and other
countries."  I guess that makes it okay.

Reminds me of the old routine where the guy's hitting
two sticks together, says it's an elephant repellant
device.  "But there aren't any elephants around here,"
is the standard objection.  The quick reply: "Works,
doesn't it?"

How exactly can we *tell* if there are secret plots
that have been prevented in secret by secret info
gained by using secret "interrogation" techniques? 
But of course the president of the United States would
never lie.

After all, this program gets "potential mass murderers
off the streets before they have a chance to kill." 
But what about the potential man-slaughterers,
potential arsonists, potential rapists, potential
child-molesters, potential thieves, potential traffic
rule violators?  Shouldn't we be getting them off the
streets about now?  Oh, sorry, we're doing that.  It's
called racial profiling.  Sheesh!

And what about getting the ACTUAL killers out of the
White House?  Less interesting, apparently.  Man, I
don't know about you, but I'm glad we got us a free
press in this here country!

Ricky


Bush acknowledges secret CIA prisons
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Sept. 6,
2006 
WASHINGTON - 

President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged the existence
of previously secret CIA prisons around the world and
said 14 high-value terrorism suspects — including the
mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — have been
transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for
trials.
 
He said the "small number" of detainees that have been
kept in CIA custody include people responsible for the
bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998
attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in
addition to the 2001 attacks.

"The most important source of information on where the
terrorists are hiding and what they are planning is
the terrorists themselves," Bush said in a White House
speech with families of those killed in the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks making up part of the audience. "It has
been necessary to move these individuals to an
environment where they can be held in secret,
questioned by experts and, when appropriate,
prosecuted for terrorist acts."

The announcement from Bush is the first time the
administration has acknowledged the existence of CIA
prisons, which have been a source of friction between
Washington and some allies in Europe. The
administration has come under criticism for its
treatment of terrorism detainees.

European Union lawmakers said the CIA was conducting
clandestine flights in Europe to take terror suspects
to countries where they could face torture.

Bush said the CIA program has involved such suspected
terrorists as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, believed to be
the No. 3 al-Qaida leader before he was captured in
Pakistan in 2003; Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged
would-be Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker; Abu Zubaydah, who
was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and
many al-Qaida cells before he was also captured in
Pakistan, in March 2002.

The list also includes Riduan Isamuddin, known
additionally as Hambali, who was suspected of being
Jemaah Islamiyah's main link to al-Qaida and the
mastermind of a string of deadly bomb attacks in
Indonesia until his 2003 arrest in Thailand.
Defending the program, the president said the
questioning of these detainees has provided critical
intelligence information about terrorist activities
that have enabled officials to prevent attacks not
only in the United States, but Europe and other
countries. He said the program has been reviewed by
administration lawyers and been the subject of strict
oversight from within the CIA.

Bush would not detail the type of interrogation
techniques that are used through the program, saying
they are tough but do not constitute torture.
"This program has helped us to take potential mass
murderers off the streets before they have a chance to
kill," the president said. "It is invaluable to
America and our allies."

The president's announcement, which the White House
touted beforehand and asked to be televised live on
the networks, comes as Bush has sought with a series
of speeches to sharpen the focus on national security
two months before high-stakes congressional elections.
The president successfully emphasized the war on
terror in his re-election campaign in 2004 and is
trying to make it a winning issue again for
Republicans this year.

The president said the 14 key terrorist leaders,
including Mohammed, Binalshibh, and Zubaydah, that
have been transferred to the U.S. military-run prison
at Guantanamo Bay would be afforded some legal
protections consistent with the Geneva conventions.
"They will continue to be treated with the humanity
that they denied others," Bush said.

Bush also laid out his proposal for how trials of such
key suspected terrorists — those transferred to
Guantanamo and already there — should be conducted,
which must be approved by Congress. Bush's original
plan for the type of military trials used in the
aftermath of World War II was struck down in June by
the Supreme Court, which said the tribunals would
violate U.S. and international law.

Aides said the legislation being introduced on Bush's
behalf later Wednesday on Capitol Hill insists on
provisions covering military tribunals that would
permit evidence to be withheld from a defendant if
necessary to protect classified information.


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