The CIA no longer operates secret detention facilities outside the United States where terrorist suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, outside the reach of US law, CIA Director Leon E Panetta said on Thursday.

In a letter to agency employees, obtained by The Tribune, Panetta said the CIA’s "aggressive global pursuit of the Al-Qaida and its affiliates continues undiminished." But, as per a January order by President Barack Obama banning harsh interrogations and ordering the so-called "black sites" shut, Panetta said he had directed CIA personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process. "Agency officers are working tirelessly-and successfully-to disrupt operations in strict accord with the President’s Executive Order of January 22, 2009, concerning detention and interrogation," Panetta said.

Human rights groups had criticised former President George W. Bush's policy of feretting terrorism suspects to these "black sites" for interrogation. The CIA has acknowledged that three suspects - accused September 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Al-Qaida suspects Abu Zubayhda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nishiri - were subject to waterboarding at these sites.

Panetta said under Obama's Executive Order, "the CIA does not employ any of the enhanced interrogation techniques that were authorised by the Department of Justice from 2002 to 2009." He acknowledged the "continuing media and congressional interest in reviewing past rendition, detention, and interrogation activities that took place dating back to 2002."

On Thursday, he sent a letter to congressional oversight committees outlining the CIA's current policy regarding interrogation of captured terrorists, including the policy on the use of contractors in the process. While CIA officials will continue to conduct debriefings of suspects, Panetta said no CIA contractors will conduct interrogations. "CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behaviour or allegations of abuse," he wrote.

Washington, April 10
With the demand for jobs going down in a recession-hit economy, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS) has received only 42,000 applications for H-1B visas for skilled workers against the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap.

Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 applications from advanced degrees for the fiscal year 2010 programme beginning from October 1, the agency said yesterday. But it is continuing to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable.

The US Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

Last year, in the first five days the USCIS received 1,63,000 applications in both categories. In 2007, they filled the annual cap in two days. In a reversal of trend the advanced degree holders quota has filled before the general quota this year.

Besides recession, new restrictions on employing H-1B holders by bailed-out companies have also acted as a dampener on the visa application. US Senators Richard Durbin and Charles Grassley have sponsored a bill to further restrict the H1-B programme, which the Senate will soon take up.

Meanwhile, USCIS also announced plans to naturalise 200 new citizens from 56 countries, including India, at a special ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday as part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth. — IANS

Bangladesh said on Thursday that it would set up special war crime tribunals within two weeks to try individuals, including Pakistani military officials, accused of war crimes in the country’s Liberation War in 1971.

The UN will send its top legal experts to help out with the process as the government finalises the tribunal details.

The government is on the verge of appointing a prosecution team that would eventually lead the trials on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in 1971. “We have begun the process by deciding to appoint the investigating agency, prosecutors, investigation officers and form tribunals in two weeks,” law minister Shafiq Ahmed told reporters.

The war crimes trials, held off since the country’s independence 38 years ago, was one of major election promises made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina prior to polls held last December. The government has already barred suspected war criminals, including top leaders of the biggest Islamist party Jamaat-e Islami, from flying overseas.

State minister for Liberation War Affairs AB Tajul Islam told reporters earlier this week that the government would take the matter to the International Criminal Court to try members of the Pakistani military accused of war crimes. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari sent a special envoy in February asking Bangladesh not to go ahead with the war crimes trials, saying it could damage bilateral relations.

Peshawar, April 10
At least six oil tankers, used for supplying fuel to NATO troops in Afghanistan, were reportedly destroyed on Friday by suspected Taliban fighters in the Chamkani region here. According to The News, unidentified militants blasted an oil tanker loaded with highly inflammable fuels.

The blast triggered a massive blaze which engulfed six out the 35 tankers parked there. The fire was brought under control by the Pakistan Air Force fire tenders after local fire fighters failed to contain the flames. Special chemicals were used to extinguish the raging flames, a security official informed. Several NATO supply trucks have been destroyed in the recent past in similar incidents in the region. — ANI 

BRIEFLY

Holiday reduces chaos in Thailand
BANGKOK: The focus of anti-government protests in Thailand switched to a summit of Asian leaders in a resort town on Friday after the prime minister’s declaration of a public holiday helped ease disruption in the capital. Hoping it would be easier to control the demonstrations with fewer people in Bangkok, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced the holiday late on Thursday after taxi drivers began blocking major intersections here. Thailand already had a holiday scheduled from April 13-15, when many rural anti-government protesters who have flooded the city are expected to go home. — Reuters

US embassy suspends work in Pak
ISLAMABAD: The US Embassy here suspended visa and routine consular services on Friday due to “heightened security”, a spokesman said. The embassy will provide emergency consular services for Americans and the routine operations will resume on Monday. However, the consulates in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar were open on Friday, the spokesman said. The move appeared to be linked to heightened security across Pakistan on the occasion of Good Friday. —PTI

Divorce by text message
DUBAI: In what is claimed to be the world’s first divorce by text message, a Saudi man has snapped nuptial ties with his wife by sending an SMS. The man was in Iraq when he set the legal precedent by sending an SMS to his wife writing “I divorce you” three times and followed up with phone calls to his two relatives, confirming the split, the ‘Arab News’ reported. A court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah finalised the split after summoning the two relatives to check whether they had received word of the husband’s intention. — PTI