U.S. says sorry to UK on rendition flights

February 21, 2008
U.S. says sorry to UK on rendition flights

Miliband told Britain's parliament earlier on Thursday that contrary to earlier U.S. assurances, two planes used for "rendition flights" in 2002 had refueled at a U.S. base on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

The British government had previously insisted it was not aware of any British territory being used to transfer terrorism suspects outside normal extradition procedures since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001.

A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program

August 13, 2007
A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program

A surprising number of people close to the case are dubious of Mohammed's confession. A longtime friend of Pearl's, the former Journal reporter Asra Nomani, said, "The release of the confession came right in the midst of the U.S. Attorney scandal. There was a drumbeat for Gonzales's resignation. It seemed like a calculated strategy to change the subject. Why now? They'd had the confession for years." Mariane and Daniel Pearl were staying in Nomani's Karachi house at the time of his murder, and Nomani has followed the case meticulously; this fall, she plans to teach a course on the topic at Georgetown University. She said, "I don't think this confession resolves the case. You can't have justice from one person's confession, especially under such unusual circumstances. To me, it's not convincing." She added, "I called all the investigators. They weren't just skeptical—they didn't believe it."

Nevertheless, the SERE experts' theories were apparently put into practice with Zubaydah's interrogation. Zubaydah told the Red Cross that he was not only waterboarded, as has been previously reported; he was also kept for a prolonged period in a cage, known as a "dog box," which was so small that he could not stand. According to an eyewitness, one psychologist advising on the treatment of Zubaydah, James Mitchell, argued that he needed to be reduced to a state of "learned helplessness." (Mitchell disputes this characterization.)

Steve Kleinman, a reserve Air Force colonel and an experienced interrogator who has known Mitchell professionally for years, said that "learned helplessness was his whole paradigm." Mitchell, he said, "draws a diagram showing what he says is the whole cycle. It starts with isolation. Then they eliminate the prisoners' ability to forecast the future—when their next meal is, when they can go to the bathroom. It creates dread and dependency. It was the K.G.B. model. But the K.G.B. used it to get people who had turned against the state to confess falsely. The K.G.B. wasn't after intelligence."

EU states aware of CIA misdoings

January 26, 2007
EU states aware of CIA misdoings

Still digging for the truth about European governments' role in CIA activities... A special committee of the European Parliament has approved a report that presents a dark view of Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy and other EU states. It alleges that they were aware of American secret intelligence agency flights over Europe, and the abduction of suspected terrorists to detention centres.

The European Parliament committee has also upheld the complaint of Murat Kurnaz. The German-born Turkish national was arrested in Pakistan and imprisoned for four years in Guantanamo. The life-long resident of Germany was not said to represent any terrorist threat, and the Americans offered to send him back to Germany in 2002. Berlin turned down the offer. The case reflects badly on current Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, who is at the centre of suspicions that Germany tried to prevent the detainee from returning there. Kurnaz was eventually freed last summer.