May 24, 2009
U.S. Relies More on Aid of Allies in Terror Cases
By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
New York Times
WASHINGTON — The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and former American government officials.
The change represents a significant loosening of the reins for the United States, which has worked closely with allies to combat violent extremism since the 9/11 attacks but is now pushing that cooperation to new limits.
In the past 10 months, for example, about a half-dozen midlevel financiers and logistics experts working with Al Qaeda have been captured and are being held by intelligence services in four Middle Eastern countries after the United States provided information that led to their arrests by local security services, a former American counterterrorism official said.
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The current approach, which began in the last two years of the Bush administration and has gained momentum under Mr. Obama, is driven in part by court rulings and policy changes that have closed the secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency, and all but ended the transfer of prisoners from outside Iraq and Afghanistan to American military prisons.
Human rights advocates say that relying on foreign governments to hold and question terrorist suspects could carry significant risks. It could increase the potential for abuse at the hands of foreign interrogators and could also yield bad intelligence, they say.
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This is a very complicated matter that I've probably misunderstood. Should I hold my breath and wait for the movie? Michael Moore as writer and director, with Jamie Foxx as the power-mad (but articulate) U.S. President who tramples the Constitution in pursuit of mythical enemies and personal power. Should production begin today, the opening could coincidentally be just in time for the 2010 elections.