W O R L D

We have secret prisons outside USA: Bush
PRESIDENT George W. Bush on Wednesday for the first time acknowledged the presence of a controversial CIA programme under which terrorist suspects have been kept at secret foreign locations outside the U.S.

Blair to step down within a year
London, September 7
Faced with a string of resignations and bitter feuding in his Labour Party, embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today he would step down within a year, but refused to set a definite departure date.

Musharraf may order purge of army commanders
Quetta, September 7
President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly taken umbrage over senior army commanders unexpectedly questioning his motive in ordering a military operation against senior Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti that resulted in the latter's death on August 26.

India, Germany ink defence pact
Berlin, September 7
Paving the way for bilateral strategic and security cooperation, India and Germany have signed their first-ever defence pact encompassing joint training, technology transfers and co-production of hi-tech military hardware.

We have secret prisons outside USA: Bush
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

PRESIDENT George W. Bush on Wednesday for the first time acknowledged the presence of a controversial CIA programme under which terrorist suspects have been kept at secret foreign locations outside the U.S.

Speaking at the White House, Mr. Bush said 14 high-profile suspects had been transferred from these facilities to the U.S. military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay,Cuba.

He maintained, however, that these people were not tortured at the secret prisons. “I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world... The United States does not torture. It’s against our laws, and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it — and I will not authorize it,” Mr. Bush said.

But, he admitted, “alternative” interrogation methods are used to get information from the terror suspects.These procedures “were tough, and they were safe and lawful and necessary.”

Mr. Bush said in some cases “it has been necessary to move . . . individuals to an environment where they can be held secretly, questioned by experts and when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts.”

He said these secret prisons were located outside the United States but did not elaborate.

“In this new war, the most important source of information on where the terrorists are hiding and what they are planning is the terrorists themselves,” Mr. Bush said. “To win the war on terror, we must be able to detain, question and, when appropriate,prosecute terrorists captured here in America and on the battlefields around the world.”

Human Rights Watch said Mr. Bush's defence of abusing detainees betrayed basic American and global standards. “President Bush's speech was a full-throated defense of the CIA's detention program and of the 'alternative procedures' – read torture –that the CIA has used to extract information from detainees,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

“Although the president adamantly denied that the U.S. government uses torture, the United States has used practices such as waterboarding that can only be called torture.” Waterboarding is a technique that simulates drowning.

The Washington Post first reported in November that the CIA was holding terror suspects in secret prisons overseas. At the time the White House refused to confirm the report.

The 14 detainees whom Mr. Bush has ordered transferred include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. Mr. Bush said he wants to try these men before U.S. military panels under proposed new rules he has sent to Congress.

The 86-page draft on the new military courts that Mr. Bush sent to Congress on Wednesday would allow defendants to be prosecuted with evidence they are not permitted to see, as well as evidence obtained through coercive interrogations that fall short of torture.

Meanwhile, the Defence Department, responding to pressure from Congress and the Supreme Court, ruled out the military's use in future of interrogation tactics including the use of temperature extremes and waterboarding.

Blair to step down within a year
H.S. Rao

London, September 7
Faced with a string of resignations and bitter feuding in his Labour Party, embattled British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today he would step down within a year, but refused to set a definite departure date.

“The next (Labour) Party conference in a couple of weeks will be my last as party leader, the next TUC (Trades Union Congress) will be my last TUC, but I’m not going to set a precise date now” for leaving office, Blair said outside a London school.

Blair said the past week “has not been our finest hour, to be frank. I think what is important now is that we understand that it’s the interests of the country that come first and we move on”.

“I would have preferred to do this in my own way but it has been pretty obvious from what a lot of my Cabinet colleagues have said earlier in the week”.

The premier said he believed it was not right to set a precise date now. “I don’t think that’s right. I will do that at a future date and I’ll do it in the interests of the country and depending on the circumstances of the time.”

Seven members of Blair’s government resigned yesterday asking him to announce the date of his departure from office.

Junior Defence Minister Tom Watson had said Blair’s continuation was not “in the interests of the country or the ruling party.” — PTI

Musharraf may order purge of army commanders
Muhammad Anwer for ANI

Quetta, September 7
President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly taken umbrage over senior army commanders unexpectedly questioning his motive in ordering a military operation against senior Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti that resulted in the latter's death on August 26.

Informed sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ANI on Thursday that Musharraf is likely to order a reshuffle, if not a purge of army commanders very soon, for their "temerity" in suggesting that there was no justification for the operation in the Bhambore Hills of Baluchistan's Kohlu area.

According to one source, President Musharraf failed to convince a majority of his Corps commanders, most of them of Lt-General rank, about the need for such a military operation when they met at the 98th Corps Commanders Conference at the general headquarters in Rawalpindi recently.

Attempts by Lt-Gen. Hamid Rab Nawaz, the Commander of the XII Corps, to give a detailed presentation about the prevailing situation in Baluchistan in the wake of Nawab Akbar Bugti's killing, failed to cut ice with the other commanders.

At least five of the nine commanders forthrightly expressed their dismay and concern over the latest developments in Baluchistan. They are believed to have said that the federal government had "kept them and other important personalities in the dark about the Kohlu operation" and warned that the killing of Bugti, a former provincial chief minister and federal minister, did not bode well for Baluchistan or the country.

The Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, is also said to have expressed grave reservations about the operation, in spite of Musharraf telling all participants that the overall situation in the country was satisfactory.

Meanwhile, the Musharraf regime has zeroed in on Changez Khan Marri, the son of Baluch tribal leader Kher Baksh Marri, or former Baluchistan Chief Minister Zulfiqar Magsi to take over as Governor of Baluchistan.

With the tense situation in Pakistan's largest province showing no signs of abating, the federal government is of the view that Governor's rule needs to be imposed.

Changez Khan Marri is a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid) and an important tribal personality. Islamabad believes that Marri's known closeness to Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti may help in bringing the situation in Baluchistan under control.

Having made an overall assessment of the politico-military situation in Baluchistan, and being aware of the opposition Balochistan National Party (BNP), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Awami National Party's (ANP) moves to resign from the provincial assembly and withdraw support, the federal government says that Governor's Rule is the only option left to it.

Sources said that if Governor's Rule is imposed, the impact of this action may affect the functioning of the National Assembly.

On Wednesday, Rauf Mengal, the lone member of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP) in the National Assembly, resigned over the Akbar Bugti killing issue.

In emotional 20-minute speech that was heard amid pin drop silence, Mengal said: "I am quitting in protest against the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in a military operation in Baluchistan and against the kidnapping of political workers by the agencies. That leaves me with no reason to continue as a member of this House."

Mengal was reacting to the Army and the Pakistani Rangers have taken over 500 BNP and Baluchistan Student Organisation (BSO) activists into custody.

India, Germany ink defence pact
A.K. Dhar

Berlin, September 7
Paving the way for bilateral strategic and security cooperation, India and Germany have signed their first-ever defence pact encompassing joint training, technology transfers and co-production of hi-tech military hardware.

The Indo-German defence cooperation agreement, which would help New Delhi broadbase its military equipment suppliers to make arms purchases more competitive, was signed late last night here by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.

Though both leaders refused to elaborate what areas of defence the agreement was aimed at, Jung said it would mostly cover exchange of cooperation in the field of Navy and in electronic and sureviellance systems, in which Germany recently had made big breakthroughs.

Answering a volley of queries from newsmen after the signing of the pact, Mr Mukherjee said the agreement, which comes into force immediately, provides for the setting up of a high defence committee which would work out the areas of cooperation between the two countries.

The two countries agreed to institute a strategic dialogue at the level of the Indian Defence Secretary and German Secretary of State and form sub committees focusing on strategic defence cooperation, technical cooperation and military-to-military cooperation.

Prior to the signing of the agreement, Mr Mukherjee held almost a marathon 80-minute one-to-one meeting with Jung during which, sources said, fast unfolding events in Lebanon, situation in South Asia as well as developing an exchange of information on global terrorism came up.

Under the agreement, top level defence officials from the two countries would meet once a year alternatively in Germany and India. — PTI

Panel to question Gyanendra

Kathmandu, September 7
An inquiry commission will question Nepal King Gyanendra for his role in suppressing the pro-democracy protests in April, the first time that a monarch will be probed in the history of Nepal.

The high-level commission probing the people’s uprising has already questioned over 200 persons, including members of the erstwhile Royal Cabinet, Army chief, King’s private secretary and his other advisers. “The commission has agreed in principle to question the King regarding his alleged involvement in crushing the popular uprising,” — PTI