'Rendition' takes toll on freed prisoners

WASHINGTON - Three Yemeni prisoners who were apparently seized and held in secret jails by the CIA for 18 months have spoken for the first time about their detention.

The trio have provided important new details about the systematic "rendition" of prisoners.

The three men, none of whom was ever charged with any terrorism-related offence, were seized in 2003 and then held in four secret locations by "black-masked ninja", United States operatives who made considerable efforts to ensure the prisoners did not know where they were being held. They were eventually released about a month ago.

While it remains unclear where exactly the men were held, human rights campaigners who interviewed them believe they were held in Djibouti, Afghanistan and somewhere in Eastern Europe.

It was alleged last year that the CIA had been operating covert "black site" prisons in Romania and Poland.

The three men - Muhammad Bashmilah, Salah Qaru and Muhammad al-Assad - are now struggling to rebuild their lives. Assad told Amnesty International, which has published the men's testimony in a new report: "For me now, it has to be a new life, because I will never recover the old one."

Bashmilah and Qaru were arrested in Jordan in October 2003 and handed over to the US authorities. Assad was arrested in Tanzania the same year.

They were eventually returned in May 2005 to the Yemeni authorities, who charged them with obtaining false travel documents. The men pleaded guilty but were released after the judge decided their time being held by the US was sufficient time served.

A human rights lawyer who has worked with detainees seized as part of the so-called "war on terror" said the Yemeni authorities were often very reluctant - for domestic political reasons - to be seen to be co-operating with the US on such rendition cases.

The Amnesty report details how the men's US guards removed all labels from the food and clothing they were given to make it difficult for them to know where they were. Campaigners narrowed down the likely location of their internment based on the length of their rendition flights, the changing position of the sun when the men were allowed outside to pray and the winter temperature.

"Labels were usually removed from their clothes and their bottles of water. They had some blankets and T-shirts made in Mexico, while their water cups, although made in China, had the name and telephone number of a US company embossed on the bottom," says the report.

Controversy over the rendition of suspects has been growing since it emerged last year that the CIA has been regularly seizing prisoners and flying them to third countries for interrogation. Sometimes the interrogations are carried out by foreign security personnel, sometimes by US operatives. There is no way for the suspects' families to have any idea what is going on. Some prisoners have said they were tortured while in custody.

European countries have been accused of complicity in the rendition process by allowing the CIA to use their airports to refuel and land. Human Rights Watch claimed last year that since the September 11 attacks, planes operated by the CIA for the transfer of prisoners had made at least 300 stops in European countries.

Where the US holds its prisoners, especially those considered "high value" targets, is unknown, though a number of possible locations have been identified by campaigners, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Morocco. The British Government has persistently denied reports that prisoners have been held on the Indian Ocean islands of Diego Garcia, which is home to a US air base.

A spokeswoman for the CIA said the agency had never commented on queries regarding rendition.

- INDEPENDENT