Thai Prime Minister denies having secret CIA prisons

04 Nov, 2005

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday denied that Thailand had hosted secret CIA prisons or allowed terror suspects to be held in the country. "We have no involvement at all," Thaksin told a press conference. "We don't have any detention (sites) or secret jails or whatever."
The Washington Post on Wednesday said the US Central Intelligence Agency was holding top al Qaeda suspects in secret detention prisons, known as "black sites", in Thailand, Afghanistan and several other countries.
The report said important al Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaida and Ramzi bin Alshibh had been detained in Thailand after being arrested in Pakistan in 2002.
The Post said that Thailand had insisted that the CIA shut down the site after published reports revealed its existence in June 2003.
White House officials have refused to confirm or deny the Post report.
Thaksin said the only terror suspect wanted by the United States ever held in Thailand was Hambali, a key Indonesian member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network, in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok in August 2003.

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