Wednesday 2 November 2005

Breaking News!
Leak of CIA Covert Prison System May Affect IPO, Franchising Rights

Early Heavy Investment Cools In Wake of Story; North Korea May Trade Nuke Program For Multiple Prisons

The bombshell story in today's 'Washington Post', about a network of covert prisons housing Al Qaeda terrorists that the Central Intelligence Agency has quietly built since September 11th, will only see a temporary bump in its' run-up to the IPO and franchising the agency has planned, say industry traders.

The 'Post' story says that the "hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services". The network of prisons, or "black sites" spans eight countries, including Thailand, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe.

Officially, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites.

The Bush Administration refused comment on the story, citing "National Security" but, according to a source close to the Vice President's office is contained in "classified documents", in the White House, CIA, Justice Department and "are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country."

"This is where Libby screwed up," said the senior administration source. "There's plausible deniability now with the Post leak. The Vice President, President, all of them can say they first learned of this from reporters. Libby got his scandals mixed up."

Harold "Ace" Larson, an analyst for the counterintelligence think tank, 'Book'em and Beat'em', said that this was an "new, innovative venture" for the CIA.

"They initially funded these hellholes with Homeland Security funds - you know how they can bury things in those kind of budgets. But the plan, from the beginning was, after getting them established, they would launch an IPO, to continue the funding without any oversight, and offer new black sites on a franchise-basis."

The Washington Post reports in the story that an estimated $100 million was tucked inside the classified annex of the first supplemental Afghanistan appropriation to set up the secret prison network.

Larson said that the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay "almost blew this program open" but that the CIA, and the Administration worked to create a diversion.

"This is where the Wilson's enter," said Larson.

"Sacrificing Wilson and his wife, stonewalling the investigation, not only gave Bush the 2004 election, but it saved the black sites as well."

To make the IPO and Franchising more attractive, says Larson, is why, last month, Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Porter J. Goss asked Congress to exempt CIA employees from legislation already endorsed by 90 senators that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoner in US custody.

"Just trying to sweeten the offer," said Larson.

Franchise packages for the covert prisons are priced with and without CIA trainers.

Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

CIA interrogators are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by US military law.

These tactics include "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning, sleep deprivation and putting prisoners in complete isolation from the outside world, often kept in dark cargo containers or underground cells. They have no recognized legal rights

An undisclosed, private Washington D.C. bank is handling the IPO, "likely a CIA front company" said Larson.

"It has the blessing of the Bush Administration. They consider it an element of the privatization philosphy. If you can privatize Social Security, education, other entitlements and government programs, why not privatize torture?"

The leaking of the story to the 'Washington Post' has shown some "slowing" of investors in the upcoming IPO release but Larson indicated that it should only be a "temporary bump".

One of the early investors, and potential franchise owner, is North Korea.

According to the senior administration source, there have been back-channel discussions, throught Vice President Cheney's office and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that a deal could be reached that would give the North Koreans "multiple covert prisons".

"If breaking news hits in the next few weeks or months," said the source, "that North Korea is giving up their Nuclear Program, then you know the black site deal with through."

Former Senator Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission, reacts to the news of the secret CIA Prison Systems and calls that the Commission redo its' report from scratch.