[News] Detained al-Qaeda Suspects "Disappeared"

[News at freedomarchives.org]

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/12/usint9463.htm

U.S.: Detained al-Qaeda Suspects "Disappeared"

(New York, October 12, 2004) - At least 11 al-Qaeda suspects have
"disappeared" in U.S. custody, Human Rights Watch said in a report
released today. U.S. officials are holding the detainees in undisclosed
locations, where some have reportedly been tortured.

The 46-page report, "The United States' 'Disappeared': The CIA's Long-
Term 'Ghost Detainees,'" describes how the Central Intelligence Agency
is holding al-Qaeda suspects in "secret locations," reportedly outside
the
United States, with no notification to their families, no access to the
International Committee of the Red Cross or oversight of any sort of
their
treatment, and in some cases, no acknowledgement that they are even
being held.

"'Disappearances' were a trademark abuse of Latin American military
dictatorships in their 'dirty war' on alleged subversion," said Reed
Brody,
special counsel with Human Rights Watch. "Now they have become a United
States tactic in its conflict with al-Qaeda."

Under international law, enforced disappearances occur when persons are
deprived of their liberty and the detaining authority refuses to
disclose
their fate or whereabouts or refuses to acknowledge their detention,
which
places the detainees outside the protection of the law.

The report profiles 11 such "disappeared" prisoners. They include Khalid

Shaikh Muhammed, the alleged principal architect of the September 11
attacks; Abu Zubayda, reputedly a close aide of Osama bin Laden; Ramzi
bin al-Shibh, who but for his failure to get a U.S. visa might have been
one
of the 9/11 hijackers; and Hambali, an alleged key al-Qaeda ally in
Southeast Asia. Some, such as Khalid Shaikh Muhammed, are reported to
have been tortured in custody.

U.S. officials have said that many of those held have provided valuable
intelligence that has foiled planned terrorist acts. There are also
reports
that some detainees have lied under duress to please their captors. For
instance, ghost detainee Ibn al-Shaikh al-Libi apparently fabricated the

claim, then relayed by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United
Nations, that Iraq had provided training in "poisons and deadly gases"
for
al-Qaeda.

International treaties ratified by the United States prohibit
incommunicado
detention of persons in secret locations.  The Geneva Conventions
require
that the International Committee of the Red Cross have access to all
detainees and that information on those detained be provided to their
relatives. Under international human rights law, detainees must be held
in
recognized places of detention and be able to communicate with lawyers
and family members.

Human Rights Watch called on the United States to bring all detainees,
wherever they are being held, under the protection of the law. In
particular, it demanded that the government grant unrestricted access to
the
International Committee of the Red Cross to all detainees held pursuant
to
anti-terrorist operations.

"Those guilty of serious crimes must be brought to justice before fair
trials," said Brody. "If the United States embraces the torture and
'disappearance' of its opponents, it abandons its ideals and
international
obligations and becomes a lesser nation."




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