Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has kept Israel out of a program for
the secret detention of Al Qaida operatives, a report said.

The Open Society Foundations said the CIA has worked with 54 countries
in a secret program to detain and interrogate Al Qaida operatives. In a
report, the group said at least 136 people were tortured in detention
facilities throughout the Middle East in the aftermath of Al Qaida’s suicide
air strikes on New York and Washington in 2001.

“The human rights violations associated with CIA secret detention and
extraordinary rendition operations were significant and systemic,” the
report, titled “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition,” said. “But the United States and most of its partner governments have yet to meaningfully acknowledge their role in perpetrating these
violations or provide appropriate redress to the victims.”

The New York-based group said President Barack Obama has failed to
repudiate extraordinary rendition, or the secret transfer and detention of
suspected Al Qaida members. In 2009, Obama ordered the closure of CIA
detention facilities, but the report said this did not apply to short-term
detention.

The report was issued on Feb. 4 in wake of a ban on Israel by a new
U.S.-sponsored counter-insurgency forum. Officials acknowledged that
opposition by Muslim states, particularly Turkey, prevented the attendance
of Israel.

As many as 54 foreign governments are said to have participated in the
CIA program against Al Qaida. The report said this included hosting CIA
prisons as well as torturing suspected Islamist insurgents.

The report said most of the Arab League states worked with the CIA. They
included Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Several NATO members, including
Britain, Greece, Italy and Turkey, were also involved in the secret
detention program.

“Secret detention and extraordinary rendition would not have been
possible without the active participation of numerous foreign governments,”
the report said. “These participating governments must also be held
accountable.”

  CIA, Open Society Foundations, Rendition, U.S. excluded Israel from secret CIA terror interrogation program