WASHINGTON: The US military secretly has sent more than 200 foreign detainees captured in Iraq and Afghanistan to be interrogated in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries over the past few years, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The daily wrote that the program bears many similarities to one run since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by the Central Intelligence Agency. That program also secretly transferred people suspected of being militants back to their home countries to be jailed and questioned.
The Times cited as its source for the story interviews with more than a dozen current and former American military, intelligence and foreign policy officials, some of whom would speak only on condition of anonymity.
The daily wrote that many of the detainees are held secretly for weeks at a time at a camp in Iraq, or at one run by US Special Operations forces in Afghanistan.
The newspaper wrote however that prisoners can block their transfers to home countries and are interviewed by officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) before being returned to their home countries.
A Pentagon spokesman on Thursday confirmed the existence of the program, but refused to substantiate details of its operation contained in The Times article.
This is consistent with the United States government efforts to encourage countries to help us share the burden of keeping these dangerous people from engaging any combat, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
The United States has for a long time said that they are not interested in being the world s jailers. We work collaboratively with any number of countries that are partners on the global war on terror to help us share the burden of keeping dangerous individuals from engaging in these activities, he said, adding that Washington receives certain assurances that we always look for, that they are being treated humanely.
The Times wrote that military officials said the transfers represent an effort by the United States to find a better way to detain and interrogate the militants.
US officials said that language skills and cultural knowledge made the Saudis, Egyptians and others better suited to question the suspects, and better able to act on any intelligence gleaned from the interrogations. -AFP
