C.I.A. Held Qaeda Leader in Secret Prison for Months

[cal04]

Source: MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID S. CLOUD

The Central Intelligence Agency held a captured Qaeda leader in a secret prison since last fall and transferred him last week to the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Friday.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd who is said to have joined Al Qaeda in the late 1990s and ascended to become a top aide to Osama bin Laden, is the first terrorism suspect known to have been held in secret C.I.A. jails since President Bush announced the transfer of 14 captives to Guantánamo Bay last September.

The Pentagon announced the transfer, giving few details about his arrest or confinement.

Mr. Iraqi’s case suggests that the C.I.A. may have adopted a new model for handling prisoners held secretly — a practice that Mr. Bush said could resume and that Congress permitted when it passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/washington/28prisoner...

---

Unlike past C.I.A. detainees, including the Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was held by the agency for several years after being seized in Pakistan in 2003, Mr. Iraqi was turned over to the Pentagon after a few months of interrogation. He appears to have been taken into C.I.A. custody just weeks after Mr. Bush declared C.I.A. jails empty.

[fed-up]

1. they don't release info until they need a diversion nt

[noel adamson]

2. And who would believe their politically convenient "news" releases?

[armodem08]

3. Not to mention the convenience of his name.

Mr. Iraqi, the al Qaeda operative! Who needs Cheney to link Iraq to Al Qaeda anymore?

[Up2Late]

4. I'm going to guess he's another #3?

Or are they not rating them anymore?

[Ian David]

5. CIA Held Al-Qaeda Suspect Secretly. Officials Disclose That Use of Overseas Prisons Resumed

Source: The Washington Post

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 28, 2007; Page A16

An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaeda was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September.

The disclosure revealed that the Bush administration reopened its detention program within three months of announcing that no secret prisoners remained in the CIA's custody. The program has been criticized by human rights organizations and U.S. allies.

In a statement yesterday, the Defense Department described Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, as "one of al-Qaeda's highest-ranking and experienced senior operatives" and announced that he has been sent to the Pentagon-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush acknowledged the CIA's detention program last September and transferred all 14 of its senior al-Qaeda suspects to Guantanamo Bay. One intelligence official said al-Iraqi was the first person held by the CIA since Bush made the acknowledgment, but the official would not say whether other people have been held since al-Iraqi was handed over to the agency earlier this year.


This is a still released Friday April 27 2007 by the US State Department, date and location unknown, which shows alleged senior al-Qaida operative Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who is in US detention. The US Defence Department on Friday announced the capture of one of al-Qaida's most senior and most experienced operatives, an Iraqi who was trying to return to his native country when he was captured. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, identified the captive as Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi. He was transferred to Defence Department custody this week from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Whitman said, but would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom. (AP Photo / US State Department, HO via APTN) (AP)

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Joanne98]

6. The US is turning the whole planet into a prison.