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Secret “War on Terror” Prison on Diego Garcia Confirmed
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Andy Worthington
Huffington Post
August 1, 2008
The existence of a secret, CIA-run prison on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean has long been a leaky secret in the "War on Terror," and recent revelations in TIME — based on disclosures by a "senior American official," who was "a frequent participant in White House Situation Room meetings" after the 9/11 attacks, and who reported that "a CIA counter-terrorism official twice said that a high-value prisoner or prisoners were being interrogated on the island" — will come as no surprise to those who have been studying the story closely.
The news will, however, be an embarrassment to the US government, which has persistently denied claims that it operated a secret "War on Terror" prison on Diego Garcia, and will be a source of even more consternation to the British government, which is more closely bound than its law-shredding Transatlantic neighbor to international laws and treaties preventing any kind of involvement whatsoever in kidnapping, "extraordinary rendition" and the practice of torture.
This is not the first time that TIME has exposed the existence of a secret prison on Diego Garcia. In 2003, the magazine broke the story that Hambali, one of 14 "high-value detainees" transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006, was being held there, and in the years since confirmation has also come from other sources. Twice, in 2004 and 2006, Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star US general, who is now professor of international security studies at the West Point military academy, revealed the prison’s existence. In May 2004, he blithely declared on MSNBC’s Deborah Norville Tonight, "We’re probably holding around 3,000 people, you know, Bagram air field, Diego Garcia, Guantánamo, 16 camps throughout Iraq," and in December 2006 he spoke out again, saying, in an NPR interview with Robert Siegel, "They’re behind bars … we’ve got them on Diego Garcia, in Bagram air field, in Guantánamo."
The prison’s existence was also confirmed by Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who produced a detailed report on "extraordinary rendition" for the Council of Europe in June 2007 (PDF) and by Manfred Novak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, in March this year. Having spoken to senior CIA officers during his research, Marty told the European Parliament, "We have received concurring confirmations that United States agencies have used Diego Garcia, which is the international legal responsibility of the UK, in the ‘processing’ of high-value detainees," and Manfred Novak explained to the Observer that "he had received credible evidence from well-placed sources familiar with the situation on the island that detainees were held on Diego Garcia between 2002 and 2003."
The penultimate piece of the jigsaw puzzle came in May, when the Spanish newspaper El Pais broke the story that "ghost prisoner" Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, whose current whereabouts are unknown, was imprisoned on the island in 2005, shortly after his capture in Pakistan — although the English-speaking press failed to notice.
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Despite these previous disclosures, TIME’s new article, by Adam Zagorin, is particularly striking because of the high-level nature of the source, and his admission that "the CIA officer surprised attendees by volunteering the information, apparently to demonstrate that the agency was doing its best to obtain valuable intelligence." In addition, the source noted that "the US may also have kept prisoners on ships within Diego Garcia’s territorial waters, a contention the US has long denied."
Zagorin also spoke to Richard Clarke (at the time the National Security Council’s Special Advisor to President Bush regarding counter-terrorism), who explained, "In my presence, in the White House, the possibility of using Diego Garcia for detaining high value targets was discussed." Although Clarke "did not witness a final resolution of the issue," he added, "Given everything that we know about the administration’s approach to the law on these matters, I find the report that the US did use the island for detention or interrogation entirely credible," and he also pointed out that using the island for interrogations or detentions without British permission "is a violation of UK law, as well as of the bi-lateral agreement governing the island."
Zagorin’s source did not name the prisoners, but it seems clear that the period he was referring to ("2002 and possibly 2003") was when three particular "high-value detainees" — Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh — are reported to have been held on the island, and it seems entirely plausible, therefore, that after these three were transferred to another secret CIA facility in Poland, the prison was used not only to hold Hambali, but also to hold the two other "high-value detainees" captured with him — Mohammed bin Lep (aka Lillie) and Mohd Farik bin Amin (aka Zubair). The addition of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, who, it seems, may have been held into 2006, not only confirms that a secret prison existed, but that it was possibly in use for four years straight.
These damaging revelations seal Diego Garcia’s reputation as a quagmire of injustice. A British sovereign territory — albeit one that was leased to the United States nearly 40 years ago, when the islanders were shamefully discarded by the British government and exiled to face destitution and death by misery in Mauritius — Diego Garcia has long been a source of shame to opponents of modern colonial activity.
Until now, however, the only admission that any activities connected with the "War on Terror" had taken place on the island came in February, when, after years of denials on the part of the British government, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, finally conceded that requests for information from his US counterparts had revealed that, in 2002, two rendition flights had refuelled on the island. "In both cases," Miliband stated with confidence, "a US plane with a single detainee on board refuelled at the US facility in Diego Garcia. The detainees did not leave the plane, and the US Government has assured us that no US detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia."
The British government had been provoked to action by critics within the UK, in particular the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, led by the Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, and the legal action charity Reprieve, which represents 30 prisoners in Guantánamo, but the story appeared to grind to a halt when Michael Hayden, the CIA’s director, stepped forward to deny that Diego Garcia had ever been used as a "War on Terror" prison.
"That is false," Gen. Hayden said when asked if a secret prison had existed on Diego Garcia, adding, as the New York Times put it, that "neither of the two detainees carried aboard the rendition flights that refuelled at Diego Garcia ‘was ever part of the CIA’s high-value terrorist interrogation program.’" He also explained that one of the detainees "was ultimately transferred to Guantánamo," while the other "was returned to his home country," which was identified by State Department officials as Morocco. "These were rendition operations," he added, "nothing more."
Four weeks ago, however, the story resurfaced once more, as David Miliband reported the results of his latest request for information from his US counterparts. This concerned a list of rendition flights, which, in the opinion of Reprieve and the All-Party Parliamentary Group, may also have passed through British territory, but the Foreign Secretary was confident that there was no further evidence to be mined, stating, "The United States Government confirmed that, with the exception of two cases related to Diego Garcia in 2002, there have been no other instances in which US intelligence flights landed in the United Kingdom, our Overseas Territories, or the Crown Dependencies, with a detainee on board since 11 September 2001."
Yet again, the assurances of his US colleagues did nothing to assuage the critics. Reprieve noted that the British government "intentionally failed to ask the right questions of the US, and accepted implausible US assurances at face value," and added, presciently, "This remains a transatlantic cover-up of epic proportions. While the British government seems content to accept whatever nonsense it is fed by its US allies, the sordid truth about Diego Garcia’s central role in the unjust rendition and detention of prisoners in the so-called ‘War on Terror’ cannot be hidden forever."
Just three days after David Miliband’s last attempt to draw a line under the story, the British Foreign Affairs Select Committee published its latest report on the British Overseas Territories (PDF), and was scathing about Diego Garcia, declaring that "it is deplorable that previous US assurances about rendition flights have turned out to be false. The failure of the United States Administration to tell the truth resulted in the UK Government inadvertently misleading our Select Committee and the House of Commons. We intend to examine further the extent of UK supervision of US activities on Diego Garcia, including all flights and ships serviced from Diego Garcia."
Of course, the latest revelations — from the heart of the White House war machine — leave the US administration looking like bald-faced liars and the British government looking like myopic dupes. Whether Michael Hayden was also duped is not known, but his strenuous denial, just five months ago, that a secret prison existed, which was manned by his own employees, will do nothing for the credibility of the US administration, which likes to pretend that it does not torture and has nothing to conceal, but is persistently discovered not only being economical with the truth, but also behaving exactly as though it has guilty secrets to hide.
Whether this scandal will awaken much indignation in the American public remains to be seen, but it is hugely damaging to the British government, which is legally responsible for the activities that take place on its territory, however much it likes to hide behind "assurances" from its leaseholders that they have done nothing wrong.
It scarcely seems possible, but Diego Garcia’s dark history has suddenly grown even darker.
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August 1st, 2008 at 6:38 pm
This could become scary and good at the same time.
Rhonda
August 1st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
we need to create a new Declaration of Independence. Use the same preamble and change the indictment section. It should be online and allow for signers… that would create a political force. It is coming together that they are afraid of. A unified force without race or religious or petty idealogical whining. enough is enough. This could create a political force.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I doubt this story even sees the light of day in the mainstream US media.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Sorry, this video is no longer available
August 1st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
The message of this story is quite moot,it matters not where a person is tortured by our govt.What matters is that it is happeneing at all!!!Don’t be distratced by the venue,concentrate on the crime……
August 1st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Mike…”and recent revelations in TIME”….I believe this so-called TIME is considered a part of the “mainstream” media. Just saying. You know? Trying to keep it real.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
They don’t need this story to embaress anyone.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
It wouldn’t hit mainstream media because the US is corrupt.
Alex already said it Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper are both CIA and have big shows
on CNN. The media has been filtered by our government and that’s why they don’t
like the internet. Free speech, unfiltered media and the ability to deliver it to tons of
people at very little cost.
It’s sheer hipocracy in this country!
August 1st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Ever wonderied how the US got its big B-52 base on Diego Garcia? Once again with complete disregard for human rights. What we want we take.
Find out here:
http://video.google.com/videop.....9758632511
August 1st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
i wondered why they changed the cost of anchoring at salomon island from 100 for 3 months to 750 per month = 2250 for 3 months.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Diego Garcia is more off the media radar than GTMO!!!! 99% of most Americans have no idea where the hell that’s at!!! Cheese and crackers people, read something!!! Indian Ocean??? Isn’t that in Nevada??????????????
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 am
first beast that received the deadly wound was indeed the Vatican.
beast rise up out of the sea = Vatican
Revelation 13:11-12, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. = USA
Revelation 12:12, “…Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
The trinity of hell …
The Dragon (Satan)
The beast rising from the sea (Vatican)
The beast rising from the earth (USA)
The devil will persecute the people controlled by the Vatican as well as the United States in these last days. Satan will actually use the Vatican inhabitants (sea) and Americans (earth) to enforce the mark of the beast on their own people! Fact is, that actually entails ALL of mankind! The Vatican does have it’s controlling powers in almost every nation, just as the United States has theirs.
Revelation 13:1-2, 11,12 “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, … and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast…”
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 am
I would love for a tsunami to hit that island and wipe out billions of dollars worth of aircraft!
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
people, it’s plain as day on google earth. military shipyards, military aircraft with loading buses, detention barracks on the north of the island. go see for yourself, it’s just south of the maldives in the indian ocean. this facility looks like it could hold, just in the detention barracks, about 500 prisoners. GO SEE FOR YOURSELF! gotta love google earth taking those detailed satellite pictures for us. doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
i’m sorry, i stand corrected. the detention facility is actually on the SOUTH end of the island near the airfield and looks like a comfortable accommodation for about 3000 people.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I was depoyed to Diego Garcia in 04. The BEQ’s in question (south side) are used for Navy, Air Force and B.I.O.T. MP’s. I was a Seabee with NMCB 133 in charge of building and maintaining some of the BEQ’s on the island. It is odd since Seabees used to be in charge of all the building of BEQ’s.
I’m not saying this is untrue, but I didn’t see much out of the ordinary there in my limited experience from Mar.04-Dec.-04
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
This news may be an embarrassment to the US government if it gets out? Holy s@%t! We can’t tolerate that happening. What ever you do, don’t tell anyone about this. I’m sure you’re embarrassed
enough. As far as a tsunami hitting this island. What about the Tsunami that hit Indonesia back in 04 I believe that Diego Garcia apparently was also in the path of this tsunami? The max level of this place is only 22ft only 5 miles wide with some pretty good size lagoons in and about. I wonder if HARRP may have had anything to do with this? Sorry. I gotta stop taking these drugs.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PXZjAieC3c
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
They’re just protecting us from the evil Muslims who want to steal our liberties and freedoms don’tcha know!? Lol what hogwash this is a great article further exposing the criminal activities and flouting of international law. Bush needs to be court martialed and the continuous lies and cover ups since WW II need to be made known and brought before the brainwashed public. Although some will still think that the US government is a bastion of honour staffed by servants of Christ. Look at what Jesus preached and look at what the US government and Bush preaches. Do you see any similarities? I sure as hell don’t. Rise up and spread the knowledge that our governments fear!!!!!!!
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
oh, this all gets so confusing…
so is TIME magazine part of the NWO or not!!?
hah
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
by the way, my last comment wasn’t intended to come off like i was making fun of you guys or anything.
it’s just funny that certain media outlets are deemed to be puppets or propaganda peddlers, but then… when they write, publish or print a story that backs up some of “our” beliefs.. well, all of the sudden they become credible again.
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Balasz: When enough volume of citizenry know a fact in an issue that is not enough to drop the house of cards, the media has (usually) no option but to agree it is happening.
I hope this helps.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The story of Diego Garcia includes a brutal ORDER IN COUNCIL, signed by
the Queen, that over-rules mere Acts Of Parliament or any judgements made
in British Courts. see http://www.sxolsout.110mb.com/98.html
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Ahhhh Papillon…we hardly knew ye.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 am
PAT KELLY
You’re completly correct Pat I watched a program about what the artical eluded to.
About the islanders being first tricked off the island but when they won their appeal at the court of human rights the brittish govament just took it to the queen who gave the govament her royal seal of aproval.
Becouse of her intervention there is now no athoraty anywhere on earth that can overturn her decision.
I have a hard time beleiving she did not know what she was apart of then and espcialy now these questions have been asked,Which puts her in this thing hip fucking deep.
Well the games up this includes the intelligence agencies all the preveious goverments involved the current elligal unellected goverment and yes my dear you the queen it’s time for some citizen arrests come out with you’re hands up.
Now for god sake fellow brits wake up and stop this sick madness from taking over our country and it is ours we live we deserve freedom and peace AND PEACE IS ALL WE WANT.
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
This is from 3 days of the condor. It’s a film starring Robert Redford. Rings true today. The film was made over 30 years ago.
Turner: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Higgins: No. It’s simple economics. Today it’s oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. And maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?
Turner: Ask Them.
Higgins: Not now — then! Ask ‘em when they’re running out. Ask ‘em when there’s no heat in their homes and they’re cold. Ask ‘em when their engines stop. Ask ‘em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won’t want us to ask ‘em. They’ll just want us to get it for ‘em!
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Done_Dusted…understanding manufactured scarcity and exacerbated scarcity is the key to thwarting that little mind virus you posted.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Well it shouldnt supprise anybody!!!!!
When have they EVER told the truth?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
When it is all said and done, and history is properly written we will be calling places like this Concentration camps, and torture chambers. God help us all to help ourselves.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Malik it is very sad, but yes i agree very true…. /cry
August 4th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Where do I start? Well let me try to see if this will get your attention.
You are safe in your house and thinking all is well, well almost all. The unemployment rate is way up and you don’t know if you will have work tomorrow. Food is higher than a cats back, and don’t even mention the cost of fuel or electricity. Well your money is in the bank and that might get you through a month of hard times if you lose your job. But no worries, there is always food stamps, un-employment, welfare, HUD, and a few more that can help, right? The candidates are promising all will get better after they are elected.
Then you see that Israel and the USA have attacked Iran and things are looking bad. Well it will take a while for everybody to get oriented to what has just happened. Then you think it will never reach us here. After all they are just two little countries half way around the world. WW3 has begun.
But you forgot that some general in Russia has been saber rattling and saying things like “we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons to defend ourselves and our allies from aggressors”. Did you know that Russia has allied itself with Iran? As if that wasn’t enough, the USA wants to deploy a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Well Russia says if we deploy that they will deploy bombers to Cuba. Well if that’s the case, then we would have nukes on our back porch. They would never think about nuking us or anything like that? Right? After all Vladimir Putin was hanging out with Bush at his ranch in Texas. They are buddies right?
Well maybe they are but they don’t give a darn about us, the people. All of them are freemasons and have an agenda to follow. Set out by the Illuminati they want to reduce the population of the world. And that means you if you are not one of them. Well they can’t just do that. There is no way that they would betray our confidence. Well just keep on believing that. So in the mean time what are we doing? Sitting on our asses while the cowards in congress are scratching their asses. They don’t want to test Bush to see if he would do what he threatened, attack Iran, declare martial law, suspend congress and the election, and turn F.E.M.A. loose on us with concentration camps, hire civilian security like Blackwater to patrol the streets and help roundup all dissidents. Does this sound like a plan?
Well it gets better. Russia will bomb the heck out of us and those that don’t die from the blasts or radiation poisoning, will be left in the stone ages. We won’t have any electricity, gasoline, diesel, food, medicine, and most cars and electronics won’t work because the circuitry is fried from the EMP {electro-magnetic pulse}. That’s a gift to you from the FCC and you didn’t even notice the warning on the back of your electronic devices. This device conforms to the FCC rules part 15. That means that in any type of nuke explosion the EMP will kill your devices. Does it ever occur to you that all new cars have an extensive computer system and the only way for them to work is that they must be in the most optimum conditions? And the states have passed laws against antique cars, because points and condensers can most likely be fixed rather quickly. Old style alternators and generators may function. But that would give someone the unfair advantage. But regardless, how far will you go on a limited amount of fuel, because the gas stations will not have electricity to dispense fuel.
Starting to get the picture? That’s just the start. That is if you weren’t already rounded up by the “law” and loaded on a FEMA train to hell. Ever read Corrie ten Boom The Hiding Place? Well it’s going to get like that. Well that’s just the layman’s version. It’s going to get bad.
Have you read that the president’s lawyers were interrogated by congress about whether or not the president can legally torture detainee’s children in front of their parents? Have you watched the videos about the rendition flights? How about the other atrocities that the uSA is doing in the name of peace and safety. Just imagine how we would react if we were being attacked like Iraq? When you get the idea that they will do anything that they want, and their mind is so gone that they can’t even distinguish between Jack Bauer, the fictitious character on the TV show 24, and reality.
Read Mathew chapter 24, Revelations, Daniel. Do I think that we have a possibility to escape? Can’t answer that right now. But the important thing is how you are with God? Are you born again? Are you ready to meet God face to face? Is your family born again? Have you evangelized all of your family and friends? Can you resist till the end?
August 4th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Jimmy…
just how many keyboards have you melted so far?
Is there still skin on your fingertips?
You are posting evreywhere, ain’tcha?
Go back and read Revelation again.
“Brother will rise up against brother…”
…Caused by EVANGELIZING YOUR FAMILY.
Then go back and read the story of Daniel again, which is a good example of WHEN TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT and HOW TO LEAD BY YOUR ACTIONS.
And you are not remebering WHO is doing the talking in Matthew 24.