U.N. Calls On Bush To Abolish Secret Prisons
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Geneva, Switzerland (AHN) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Thursday called on U.S. President George Bush to abolish its secret prisons following the Bush's admission that Washington was secretly holding terror suspects in several countries. Jose Diaz, spokesman for Arbour said Bush's acknowledgment of the secret prisons was "significant." He says, "However, she urges that the program of secret detention be completely abolished." The President on Wednesday admitted that the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks on U.S. soil Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 13 other suspected al-Qaeda members had been transferred from a secret Central Intelligence Agency custody to the U.S. military detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for trial. The President has defended his government's policy of detaining terror suspects in secret prisons overseas including the "tough" interrogation procedures which some sectors has described as torture. Diaz adds, "The high commissioner recalls that secret and incommunicado detention in themselves infringe on international standards and additionally can create an environment ripe for other abusive conduct." He continues "However, the 'alternative set of procedures' that the CIA uses in interrogations is still secret, so that one is unable to verify the compliance of those te |
