Thai Government Denies Hosting Secret CIA Prisoner Center

He has said that Thailand never hosted any secret prisons or interrogation complexes which included the torturing of subjects. He believes that the information has evolved from the internal issues of the United States authorities and caused misinterpretation through rumors.

However in a Bangkok Post article he is quoted of stating, whatever was mentioned in the report occurred many years back.

He has insisted that Thailand does not have any countries that are considered enemies and the government always upheld its sovereignty and abide by laws.

In the past the Thai government has repeatedly denied that the CIA operated a secret prison in Thailand, despite numerous international media reports over the past decade in which U.S. intelligence officials have identified the country as the host of a so-called black site.

“There have never been cases of bringing in these sort of prisoners. This is something that has been talked about for many years and we have never conducted any illegal activities with the U.S.,” said Suwaphan, a former chief of Thailand’s National Intelligence Agency.

The U.S. Senate report details the role of Thai authorities in capturing Indonesian militant leader Hambali in Ayutthaya, Thailand, in 2003.

Hambali was the head of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant group and is suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the bombing of a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali the following year in which more than 200 people were killed.

The capture of Hambali is often touted by the U.S. intelligence community as evidence that hard interrogation produces results, although the Senate report quotes the head of the Central Intelligence Agency as saying the agency “stumbled” upon Hambali.

Rather than CIA interrogation, the capture came through email monitoring, a tip off from a CIA source, and Thai investigative activities, the reports stated.

– Reuters, NNT