Is Osama Bin Laden in a Secret US Prison?

We now know that the CIA under the Bush Administration is holding secret prisoners in secret prisons located in other countries. We also know this administration has advocated torture of prisoners related to terrorism. Cheney has asked that laws be drafted and passed to allow them to torture prisoners. We have seen the pictures from the prison in Iraq that were all blamed on low-level soldiers, who were most likely doing the bidding of their superior officers and of private contractors hired to do interrogations.

Bush doesn't believe these terror suspects have the right to access US Courts. I agree with him there. He calls the Iraq War a part of the War on Terrorism. If these are WARS, then any prisoners taken during them are Prisoners of War. That should be plain and simple to understand even for the staunchest Bush supporters.

But Bush has also chosen to not call them prisoners of war and has made up a new category called Enemy Combatants. He doesn't believe they fall under the Geneva Convention. He believes that international law does not apply to what he is doing. He believes that torturing these prisoners is his right. Nevermind the FACT that torture is an unreliable means of information gathering. People will tell you anything to keep you from drowning them, which is a tactic they have admitted to and they also said is not really torture.

I don't feel sorry for terrorists who get tortured. I don't care if they are killed. But I do care that our president advocates torture and believes he is above the law. I do care that he has increased the hatred other countries have for the US, which leads to more terrorism.

The question I put to you, is if the CIA is holding secret prisoners, is Osama Bin Laden one of those prisoners. Think about it. W#ho benefits if it is know that bin laden is dead or captured? There is no benefit for the terrorists to admit his death or capture. A live spiritual figurehead, even if he isn't seen, is more motivating than a dead or caprtured martyr.

The bush administration doesn't gain anything by announcing his death or capture. They might get a quick rise in the polls, but it would be short-lived. But as long as bin laden is "out there" somewhere, supposedly plotting his next attack on the US, the bush administration can continue to use him to play on american citizen's fears. That fear is the only thing keeping his approval rating at 37%. Without the bin laden threat, his numbers might dip into the teens.

Below is the story from the NY Times about secret prisons in europe;

Rights Group Lists 26 It Says U.S. Is Holding in Secret Abroad

By IAN FISHER
Published: December 2, 2005

ROME, Dec. 1 - Human Rights Watch has released a list of 26 "ghost detainees" it says are being held incommunicado by the United States at secret foreign prisons.

Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for the rights group, said the list was the most complete possible, based on news media reports and government documents, of the number of people arrested and held without due process outside the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The list, released late Wednesday, includes many of the top suspects arrested in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, the bombing of the destroyer Cole in 2000 and the nightclubs in Bali in 2002. "One thing I want to make clear is we are talking about some really bad guys," Mr. Garlasco said. "These are criminals who need to be brought to justice. One of our main problems with the U.S. is that justice is not being served by having these people held incognito."

The list was released amid heightened debate in the United States over possible torture of American-held detainees overseas and rising anger in Europe about possible secret American jails on the Continent, kidnappings of suspects and transfers of ghost prisoners on European soil.

The Bush administration has said it will respond to inquiries from European nations about the transfer and detention of terror suspects, insisting that American actions have complied with international law. Mr. Garlasco said, "Our concern is that if illegal methods such as torture are being used against them," trials may "either be impossible or questionable under international standards of jurisprudence."

About 100 people are being held without charges in prisons outside the United States, experts estimate. The Human Rights Watch list includes Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and suspected of being a top operative in Al Qaeda behind the Sept. 11 attacks; and Hassan Ghul, alleged to have been a courier for Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant in Iraq.

More things that just piss me off