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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: secret prisons

secret prisons stories: 17 news summaries

 CIA Refuses 
 to Hand Over 
 Interrogation 
 Records 

Agency says releasing Bush-era documents will undermine national security

Sep 2, 09 1:22 AM CDT
(Newser) - The CIA has refused to hand over any more documents relating to its Bush-era interrogation and detention programs, the New York Times reports. The agency told a federal judge that dozens of documents, including communications from secret prisons and agency assessments of the programs' legality, must remain secret in the... More »

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national security • CIA • ACLU • secret prisons • interrogations • Central Intelligence Agency

(Newser) - After being waterboarded 183 times and deprived of sleep for a week, self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Kalid Sheikh Mohammed transformed from an avowed enemy of the US into a sort of CIA guest lecturer, the Washington Post reports. Two anonymous sources, looking to build the case that harsh interrogation worked,... More »

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CIA • torture • secret prisons • September 11 • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • waterboarding • al-Qaeda • enhanced interrogation techniques • Central Intelligence Agency • KSM

ANALYSIS

CIA Manipulated Every Detail
of Interrogation Sessions

Top-level approval of interrogation techniques could complicate Justice probe

Aug 26, 09 1:41 AM CDT
(Newser) - As the CIA discloses internal reports concerning “enhanced” interrogation techniques on detainees at secret prisons, the ugliest details—threats of execution and harm with a power drill—have grabbed headlines. But the documents also reveal an intriguing level of control that the CIA and Department of Justice maintained over... More »

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Bush administration • CIA • torture • Department of Justice • secret prisons • interrogation • black sites • enhanced interrogation techniques

(Newser) - When CIA officials decided to build a series of secret prisons, they immediately contacted the chief of the agency's European supply base, a Frankfurt-based logistical whiz. “It was too sensitive to be handled by headquarters,” Kyle “Dusty” Foggo tells the New York Times. He called a... More »

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CIA • Eastern Europe • Morocco • secret prisons • interrogation • Romania • Kyle Foggo • enhanced interrogation techniques

(Newser) - The Obama administration is fighting to keep details secret in the case of a former Guantanamo detainee who says he was tortured, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A San Francisco court has ruled Binyam Mohamed and four others can sue the company they allege flew them to secret CIA prisons—... More »

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CIA • rendition • torture • secret prisons • Guantanamo Bay • Guantanamo prisoners • Binyam Mohamed

(Newser) - The Bush-era CIA memos made public last week revealed that an al-Qaeda suspect, Hassan Ghul, had been held in one of the agency’s secret jails. But the inadvertent disclosure of one name merely highlights how much the public still doesn’t know about the network of secret detention facilities,... More »

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CIA • secret prisons • Guantanamo Bay • interrogation • Human Rights Watch • harsh interrogation • Obama administration • memo

US Readied Waterboarding as Early as 2001

Harsh tactics were readied even before suspects captured

Apr 22, 09 6:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Bush administration prepared to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics widely considered to be torture 8 months before the Justice Department approved them, and even before capturing a high-level terrorist suspect, the Washington Post reports. A Senate investigation reveals these brutal interrogation methods were approved despite warnings that they... More »

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Bush administration • CIA • torture • secret prisons • Carl Levin • waterboarding • harsh interrogation • Senate Armed Services Committee

 CIA Shuts Secret Prisons, 
 Bans Outside Interrogators  

Panetta also bans outside contractors from conducting interrogations

Apr 9, 09 7:51 PM CDT
(Newser) - The CIA is permanently shutting down its secret overseas prisons and will forbid outside contractors from conducting any future interrogations, the New York Times reports. CIA chief Leon Panetta said the so-called "black sites"—thought to be in places such as Afghanistan, Thailand, and Poland—haven't been used... More »

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secret prisons

 Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA 

Inquiry to focus on controversial interrogation and detention program

Feb 27, 09 4:22 AM CST
(Newser) - The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a sweeping investigation into the CIA's actions under President Bush, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials say the probe is a fact-finding mission rather than an investigation into whether laws were broken, but the inquiry is certain to put the spotlight back on the agency's... More »

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Bush administration • War on Terror • CIA • secret prisons • Senate Intelligence Committee • counterterrorism • interrogation • waterboarding • harsh interrogation • Leon Panetta

 Prez to Shut Gitmo, 
 Secret CIA Prisons 

Orders directing sweeping detention, interrogation overhaul expected today

Jan 22, 09 2:35 AM CST
(Newser) - The president will sign orders today ordering the Guantanamo Bay detention center shut down within a year—and directing the CIA to dismantle its network of secret prisons overseas, government officials tell the New York Times. The CIA will still be allowed to detain terror suspects in foreign countries, but... More »

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CIA • secret prisons • Guantanamo Bay • Guantanamo prisoners • harsh interrogation • Obama administration • President Obama

ANALYSIS

Obama's In for an Awkward
CIA Transition

His tough campaign rhetoric sets tone as left looks for change

Dec 3, 08 12:08 PM CST
(Newser) - On the campaign trail, Barack Obama frequently railed against the CIA’s secret jails and harsh interrogation techniques. Now, he must lead the agency, and the transition’s already proving rocky, the New York Times reports. Liberal outcry derailed his rumored pick for director, John Brennan. Brennan was chief... More »

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Barack Obama • CIA • George Tenet • secret prisons • waterboarding • interrogation techniques • harsh interrogation • President Obama • John Brennan

Lawyers Declare Innocence of Waterboarding Victim

Gitmo detainee 'was never in al Qaeda'

Mar 18, 08 11:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah isn’t a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban, his lawyers contend, and he’s never tried to harm American citizens. Held in CIA secret prisons and waterboarded, Zubaydah wasn’t given anything “that would satisfy even the most basic notions of due process,... More »

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CIA • terrorism • secret prisons • Guantanamo Bay • Guantanamo prisoners • waterboarding • Abu Zubaydah

US 'Buried' Tortured Yemeni in Jail for Years: Rights Group

Prisoner finally freed without charge was hung upside down, beaten

Mar 14, 08 5:10 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Yemeni man was held by the US in secret prisons for nearly three years and subjected to torture after his capture in Iraq, a human rights group has charged in a condemnation of America's "cruel" defiance of international law. The man, Khaled al-Maqtari, was held in Baghdad's notorious... More »

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Iraq • War on Terror • CIA • torture • Abu Ghraib • secret prisons • Amnesty International • Yemen • George W. Bush

Military: Secret Prison Hidden at Gitmo

'High-value' suspects held in mystery prison within prison

Feb 7, 08 5:17 AM CST
(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay's top commander has confirmed the existence of a secret prison within the prison holding 15 "high-value" al-Qaeda detainees, AP reports. Prisoners at the mysterious Camp 7 include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The camp's exact location is a secret, even to many military officials. Commanders insist... More »

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secret prisons • Guantanamo Bay • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • Guantanamo prisoners • al-Qaeda

New Claims of Taped CIA Torture

Lawyers to present evidence to Senate panel

Feb 7, 08 4:38 AM CST
(Newser) - Evidence that another CIA detainee was videotaped allegedly being tortured by interrogators is expected to be presented to the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow, reports Time magazine. A former suburban Baltimore high school student underwent unspecified "systematic torture" that may have involved waterboarding in a secret CIA prison in 2003,... More »

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torture • Majid Khan • secret prisons • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • black sites • videotape • waterboarding • Abu Zubaydah • harsh interrogation • hunger strike

CIA Sat on Tapes of
Al Qaeda Questionings

Agency told court no recordings existed during trial of Moussaoui

Nov 14, 07 10:27 AM CST
(Newser) - Though it twice declared otherwise in court, the CIA has three video and audio recordings of high-level al Qaeda interrogations, federal prosecutors revealed yesterday. The defense team for convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui requested the tapes, but the CIA denied their existence. The tapes probably won’t undo Moussaoui’s conviction—... More »

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CIA • torture • secret prisons • terrorist • interrogation • interrogation techniques • Zacarias Moussaoui

CIA Finds No Escape From Secret Prisons

New report places 'black sites' first exposed in 2005 in Poland, Romania

Jan 1, 07 8:00 AM CST
(Newser) - The secret CIA prisons are back. The US cashed in on military alliances with an eager Poland and Romania to skirt civilian regulations on torture and tk, says a report by Europe's central human rights council released today. The report sheds new light on the so-called 'black sites,' which... More »

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Bush administration • NATO • CIA • human rights • secret prisons

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