The not-so-secret CIA facilities
President Bush revealed the existence of CIA facilities that had been widely speculated about in the media.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.
Bush said 14 suspects - including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania - had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial.
"This program has been, and remains, one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists," Bush said.
"Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al-Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland."
Releasing information declassified just hours earlier, Bush said the capture of one terrorist just months after the Sept. 11 attacks had led to the capture of another and then another, and had revealed planning for attacks using airplanes, car bombs and anthrax.
It will be interesting to see the reaction to this news. I'm sure some will claim the US is evil for doing this. I suppose a naive person might think that wars against the likes of al Qaeda are won with sunbeams and lollipops, but the US has been spying and counter-spying for decades, if not centuries.
I hope no one is silly enough to bring up the Constitution with regards to these criminals.
It appears that under President Bush we've been making a pretty decent cleanup against the people who have plotted major terrorist attacks against us for the past decade. What was that about being distracted?
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.
Bush said 14 suspects - including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania - had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial.
"This program has been, and remains, one of the most vital tools in our war against the terrorists," Bush said.
"Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al-Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland."
Releasing information declassified just hours earlier, Bush said the capture of one terrorist just months after the Sept. 11 attacks had led to the capture of another and then another, and had revealed planning for attacks using airplanes, car bombs and anthrax.
It will be interesting to see the reaction to this news. I'm sure some will claim the US is evil for doing this. I suppose a naive person might think that wars against the likes of al Qaeda are won with sunbeams and lollipops, but the US has been spying and counter-spying for decades, if not centuries.
I hope no one is silly enough to bring up the Constitution with regards to these criminals.
It appears that under President Bush we've been making a pretty decent cleanup against the people who have plotted major terrorist attacks against us for the past decade. What was that about being distracted?