WASHINGTON, 2 December 2007 — Terror suspects were reportedly held in custody by a Jordanian spy agency working covertly with the US CIA that used its ties with its Jordanian counterparts to detain and interrogate at least 12 terrorism suspects in Jordan.
Citing unnamed documents, The Washington Post reported yesterday that former prisoners and human rights advocates said that for the past seven years a secret detention center located on the outskirts of Amman was mostly used as a covert transit point for CIA prisoners captured elsewhere.
The building is the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department, or GID, Jordan’s powerful spy and security agency, The Post said.
“The GID has received money, training and equipment from the CIA for decades and even has a public English-language website.
“The relationship has deepened in recent years, with US officials praising their Jordanian counterparts for the depth of their knowledge regarding Al-Qaeda and other radical networks,” the paper said.
After their detainment, the suspects could be hidden after being arrested and kept for a few days or several months before being moved on to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or CIA prisons elsewhere in the world.
Some suspects were arrested while transiting through Jordan, said The Post, including two detained during stopovers at Amman’s international airport. Another prisoner, a microbiology student captured in Pakistan in the weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has not been seen since he was flown out on a CIA plane six years ago.
Bush Administration officials have said they do not hand over terrorism suspects to countries that are likely to abuse them.
“In America, people will ask about any breach of the law,” Younis Arab, a lawyer who has represented a CIA prisoner brought to Jordan, told The Post. “Here in Jordan, nobody asks.”
Officials with the GID did not respond to a letter from The Post seeking an interview for its article. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also did not respond to interview requests.
The CIA also declined The Post’s request to comment on its relationship with the GID but defended in general the covert transfer of terrorism suspects to other countries, a practice known as rendition.
“The United States does not transfer individuals to any country if it believes they will be abused there,” said Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman.
“Setting aside the myths, rendition is, in fact, a lawful, effective tool that has been used over the years on a very limited scale, and is designed to take terrorists off the street.”
