CIA 'held al-Qaida suspects under water'

The CIA has used harsh interrogation techniques against high-level al-Qaida figures, including forcibly submerging them under water until they fear they will drown, it was reported today.

The secret methods of extracting information from al-Qaida leaders and top operatives were endorsed by the US Justice Department and the CIA after September 11, the New York Times reported.

According to the report, FBI officials have been ordered to stay out of al-Qaida interrogations because of concerns over the methods used.

One CIA agent has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during an interrogation, former and current counter-terrorism officials told the newspaper.

The harsh methods were used against alleged September 11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The officials said he was strapped to a board and pushed under water until he feared he would drown. The technique is called “water boarding”.

The new rules for dealing with detainees were passed by the Bush administration in the aftermath of September 11.

Shortly after the devastating attacks on New York and Washington, President Bush authorised the CIA to conduct a secret war on al-Qaida, giving agents permission to kill senior members.

The spy agency also began to search for remote sites in friendly countries where detention facilities could be established.

“There was a debate after 9/11 about how to make people disappear,” a former intelligence official said.

Counter-terrorism officials believe the rules set a new standard and culture in the intelligence world, with agents believing they had more autonomy over how to conduct interrogations.

But FBI agents have been told to stay out of many of the “interviews” because their presence there could compromise them in future criminal cases. The interrogation techniques would not be permitted in criminal investigations.

Al-Qaida suspects are held at various locations around the world, including at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Independent observers have been denied access to high-level detainees.

The whereabouts of some detainees are so secretive that one official told the New York Times that even President Bush had said he did not want to know where the captives were.

According to the newspaper, detainees have been sent to other countries where they believe they will be executed. In some cases the captives were simply tricked into believing that they had been taken to such countries.

Some CIA officers have feared that a change in the post-September 11 attitude in the US could eventually lead to them being held to account for the harsh methods used against detainees.

“Some people involved in this have been concerned for quite a while that eventually there would be a new President, or the mood in the country would change, and they would be held accountable,” one intelligence source said.

“Now that’s happening faster than anybody expected.”

Methods of interrogation have come under close scrutiny in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, although there is no suggestion that such techniques have been used in Iraq.

While the approved methods will worry human rights groups, some government and intelligence officials believe that they have been instrumental in preventing another attack similar to September 11.

They cite the capture of senior al-Qaida figure Abu Zubaida in April 2002 and Jose Padilla, detained the following month in connection with an effort to build a dirty bomb.

However, there are concerns about the level and limitations of the approved interrogation techniques.

The CIA’s inspector general has begun an investigation into the deaths of three lower-level detainees held by the CIA in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Justice Department is also examining the deaths.