Bush Acknowledges Secret Jails

The United States has transferred 14 suspected top leaders of Al Qaeda from secret CIA prisons overseas to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to face justice before a proposed military commission, President Bush disclosed Wednesday.

Among those being held in the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington five years ago, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two of his alleged lieutenants.

Also dispatched to Guantanamo: two suspected senior aides to Osama bin Laden, nicknamed Abu Zubeida, and Hambali, and several suspected leaders of the deadly Al Qaeda attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 and on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000.

Bush’s speech was the first time that the administration had acknowledged the existence of the CIA facilities, which have drawn widespread condemnation for the presumed use of torture. It was also the first time that the White House had publicly broached the politically sensitive subject of what it plans to do with Al Qaeda operatives who have been held incommunicado since their capture -- in many cases for more than three years.

On Wednesday, Bush also called on Congress to immediately pass administration-drafted legislation under which those accused terrorists could be tried; the proposal would allow for the use of coerced statements and secret evidence.

In his speech at the White House, Bush described the 14 men sent to Guantanamo Bay as having committed “terrible crimes against the American people.”

“And we have a duty to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice,” Bush said. “So we intend to prosecute these men, as appropriate, for their crimes.”

Bush said that Mohammed and some of the other CIA detainees have provided invaluable information in the campaign against terrorism, at times helping the United States and its allies catch other terrorist leaders and disrupt Al Qaeda plots, some of which he said would have been launched on U.S. soil.

The detainees usually gave up such information unwillingly, and often after the CIA used “an alternative set of procedures” that, although tough, did not amount to torture, Bush said.

Mohammed and the others will be given defense lawyers, allowed visits by Red Cross inspectors and treated the same as the hundreds of other detainees at Guantanamo, albeit in more secure surroundings, Bush said.

The Defense Department took custody of the 14 CIA prisoners Monday at Guantanamo Bay, increasing the prison’s population to 455, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Whitman would not say whether Mohammed and the other detainees would be kept in solitary confinement.

“They will receive adequate food, shelter and clothing,” Whitman said, adding that the terrorism suspects also would be given medical and dental care and opportunities to exercise. “They will be afforded the opportunity to worship, to have access to the Koran in their native language and to have other prayer accessories.”

The 14 probably are being held at Guantanamo’s maximum-security Camp 5 facility, which can accommodate up to 100 prisoners in solitary confinement behind concrete walls and steel doors.

The men are not likely to face military justice any time soon.

The Supreme Court in June struck down the Guantanamo military tribunals as unconstitutional because the administration did not first gain the approval of Congress.

The proposed legislation detailed by Bush would authorize the creation of military commissions to try terrorism suspects for war crimes. Another proposal would allow the CIA to continue its interrogations of suspected Al Qaeda operatives at undisclosed locations overseas, which Bush said would eliminate the legal uncertainty surrounding the often-contentious process by specifically detailing what U.S. intelligence agents can and cannot do.

Trials could begin as soon as Congress passes a bill authorizing the military commissions, and the 14 detainees could face the death penalty. If the legislation does not pass, however, they could not be tried as war criminals, but they could still be held indefinitely.

The White House’s unexpected release of large amounts of previously classified information came during Bush’s third lengthy address on terrorism and the war in Iraq over the last week; he is scheduled to deliver a fourth today in Georgia. The speeches are tied to the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and lead up to an address he plans to deliver Sept. 19 to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

They also coincide with a critical period in the political season, with Congress facing an intense September before adjourning, and with the midterm elections two months away. Each speech serves as a block in the foundation the president is seeking to build for Republicans hoping to preserve their fragile majorities in the House and Senate by focusing on national security and the fight against terrorism.

The White House sought the maximum element of surprise, announcing Wednesday’s speech only the night before, and then indicating it would be about the plans for the tribunal legislation.

The president spoke in the White House East Room before an invited audience that included several members of Congress, relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden. Vice President Dick Cheney sat in the center of the front row, and left the room with the president after the 37-minute address.

Bush’s speech was criticized by Democrats, who sought to portray it as a political stunt designed to divert attention from the growing problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terrorism.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the administration’s decision to try men suspected of being Al Qaeda leaders was long overdue, and that the White House should have known that the tribunal process was doomed from the start.

“Unfortunately, President Bush ignored the advice of our uniformed military and set up a flawed system that failed to prosecute a single terrorist and was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Reid said.

Human rights advocates praised the administration for transferring the detainees out of CIA custody, but said it should have been done long ago. Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, described it as an important step toward achieving accountability.

“It is essential that any trial meet international standards of fairness -- including the right to be present at one’s own trial and the exclusion of evidence obtained through torture or other ill treatment or coercion,” Cox said in a statement. “At the same time, we are appalled that the Bush administration will further undermine its moral leadership by brazenly continuing to hold prisoners in secret sites in violation of international law.”

Bush emphasized in his speech that he wants the CIA to continue to play a central role in detaining and interrogating suspected Al Qaeda leaders, especially as new terrorism suspects are captured.

“Having a CIA program for questioning terrorists will continue to be crucial to getting life-saving information,” Bush said.

The CIA, however, has become increasingly uncomfortable in its role running secret overseas prisons; agency officers in some cases are wary of carrying out orders for fear their actions might leave them vulnerable to legal liability, if not criminal prosecution, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials.

“CIA personnel were being left hanging without appropriate legal protections,” said Robert Grenier, who ran the CIA’s counter-terrorism center before retiring this year. Grenier said there had been a “period of stock-taking” within the agency after Congress late last year passed a measure, introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), that placed new restrictions on the handling of detainees.

The legal uncertainty brought interrogation work to a halt in some cases. The operation of the secret facilities also became a strain on agency resources, even as the information obtained from the so-called high-value detainees -- including Mohammed -- slowed to a trickle.

In one of the more revealing passages of his speech, Bush essentially acknowledged that CIA interrogators had failed to get meaningful information from high-value detainees before they used more coercive methods.

“We knew that Zubeida had more information that could save innocent lives,” Bush said. “But he stopped talking.... And so the CIA used an alternative set of procedures.”

Bush didn’t elaborate on the methods the CIA employed, but other officials have confirmed that the tactics included “water boarding,” in which detainees are made to think they are drowning.

The use of such methods ceased, at least temporarily, after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004 created an international outcry over U.S. handling of detainees.

Separately, the Army on Wednesday issued its long-delayed interrogation field manual, which includes Geneva Convention protections for detainees and bans forms of harsh treatment such as long periods of solitary confinement.

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josh.meyer@latimes.com

greg.miller@latimes.com

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang and Julian E. Barnes in Washington and Carol J. Williams in Miami contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

‘High-value’ suspects

These men are among the 14 high-profile terrorism suspects who await trial at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba:

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

Raised in Kuwait, graduated from North Carolina A&T; State University in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Believed to have devoted most of his adult life to terrorist plotting, he was reputedly the driving force behind the Sept. 11 attacks as well as several subsequent plots against U.S. and Western targets worldwide.

Hambali

Operational chief for the Southeast Asia-based Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiah. Served as main link between that group and Al Qaeda from 2000 until his capture in 2003. Alleged to have helped plan the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, and to have facilitated Al Qaeda financing for the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta.

Ramzi Binalshibh

Reputed to be a key facilitator for the Sept. 11 attacks and a lead operative, until his capture in 2002, in the post-Sept. 11 plot allegedly conceived by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to hijack aircraft and crash them into London’s Heathrow Airport. Allegedly slated to be one of the Sept. 11 pilots but was unable to obtain a U.S. visa.

Source: The White House