US accused of handing captives to torturers

The US was today accused of handing al-Qaida suspects over to foreign intelligence agencies where they can been tortured.

“We don’t kick the **** out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the **** out of them,” one US official told the Washington Post.

“If you don’t violate someone’s human rights some of the time, you probably aren’t doing your job,” said another official who has supervised the capture and transfer of accused terrorists.

While in US custody in Afghanistan, al-Qaida suspects are kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles by their CIA interrogators, the newspaper said.

At times the prisoners at the Bagram base are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24 hour bombardment of lights – subject to what are known as stress and duress techniques.

The newspaper said the suspects are held in metal shipping containers protected by a triple layer of barbed wire at Bagram, near Kabul.

Those who cooperate are rewarded with creature comforts, interrogators whose methods include feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in some cases, money.

Some who do not cooperate are turned over to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the US government and human rights organisations, said the Post.

The Post says the US has another terrorist interrogation centre on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which is leased from Britain.

Sometimes, female officers conduct interrogations, a psychologically jarring experience for men reared in a conservative Muslim culture where women are never in control.

In other cases, usually involving lower-level captives, the CIA hands them to foreign intelligence services – notably those of Jordan, Egypt and Morocco - with a list of questions the agency wants answered.

The transfers done without resort to legal process and usually involve countries with security services known for using brutal means, said the Post.

Some countries are known to use mind-altering drugs such as sodium pentathol, said other officials involved in the process.

According to US officials, nearly 3,000 suspected al-Qaida members and their supporters have been detained worldwide since September 11 2001.

Abu Zubaida, who is believed to be the most important al-Qaida member in detention, was shot in the groin during his capture in Pakistan in March.

National security officials suggested to the Post that Zubaida’s painkillers were used selectively in the beginning of his captivity.

He is now said to be co-operating, and his information has led to the capture of other al-Qaida members.

The interrogations of Abu Zubaida drove me nuts at times,” said General Wayne Downing, deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism until he resigned in June.

“He and some of the others are very clever guys. At times I felt we were in a classic counter-interrogation class: They were telling us what they think we already knew. Then, what they thought we wanted to know.

“As they did that, they fabricated and weaved in threads that went nowhere. But, even with these ploys, we still get valuable information and they are off the street, unable to plot and co-ordinate future attacks.”

Other US government officials acknowledged that interrogators deprive some captives of sleep, a practice with ambiguous status in international law.