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CIA’s detention cells active,
admits US
WSN Network
Washington: A
secret CIA overseas detention program revealed by President George
Bush last year remains active and has held at least one Al-Qaida
militant since then, a US official said on Thursday.
The official
confirmed the detention as the White House skirted the question of
whether the agency had resumed holding prisoners at secret sites and
insisted that the United States
does not torture.
The New York
Times reported on Thursday that the CIA was again holding prisoners
at “black sites” overseas, and that the justice department under
then-attorney General Alberto Gonzales had issued a secret opinion
in 2005 that endorsed the harshest interrogation techniques ever
used by the CIA. “The ongoing existence of the CIA program is
extremely troubling,” especially in light of the reported justice
department opinion, said Elisa Massimino, Washington
director of the advocacy group Human Rights First.
The detention
and interrogation program, first revealed by The Washington Post in
late 2005 and then acknowledged by Bush in September 2006, has
provoked an international outcry, with critics accusing the
administration of secretly using torture.
10 October, 2007
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