Time to come clean on secret CIA prison

President Donald Trump's pick of the 61-year-old Russian specialist who spent her career in the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service, to take over the top position of the agency sparked a fierce debate ahead of Senate voting over Ms Haspel's role involving torture techniques she used for the interrogation of terror suspects in the post-9/11 era.She was confirmed by the Senate recently in a 54-45 vote, despite the deep reservations of some lawmakers about her past involvement in the torture.Some of the information raised during the Congress debate links to Thailand. In 2002, Ms Haspel ran a secret CIA detention facility in Thailand code-named "Cat's Eye" but better known as Detention Site Green. Two suspected members of the al Qaeda militant group were reportedly subjected to waterboarding, now classified as torture, and other harsh interrogation techniques at the facility.This information is widely known around the world and no one denies it, including Ms Haspel.But if there is anyone still coming out to deny the information, it is the Thai government.This is not the first time the US secret prison in Thailand has made headlines. The issue has been raised by both local and international media crews over the past decade but every Thai government denied it.In 2005, reporters and observers flocked to a remote Voice of America (VOA) relay station in Ban Dung district of Udon Thani province after The Washington Post reported the CIA was holding top al-Qaeda suspects in "black sites'' in Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland, Romania and other countries.The remoteness of the securely-fenced station sitting on a huge 3,200-rai land plot has aroused suspicion that the facility could harbour secret activities.The Thaksin Shinawatra government dismissed the rumours as baseless, insisting no such prison existed. The US embassy maintained there was nothing extraordinary going on there.The government also ordered the Thai ambassador to Washington to tell the newspaper that the report was damaging to the country's sovereignty.The issue re-emerged again in 2012 when US federal prosecutors revealed in documents submitted to a court in New York as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that suspected al-Qaeda operatives were flown in to be interrogated and allegedly tortured with the "waterboarding" technique at a secret jail in Thailand.The US prosecutors also revealed that 92 videotapes made and stored in Thailand of the waterboarding interrogation technique had been ordered destroyed by the then head of the CIA.The then Army chief Anupong Paojinda, under the Yingluck Shinawatra government, insisted the US had no secret jail in Thailand for captured terror suspects but he declined to comment on why the existence of the prison was confirmed in the US.At the time, it was speculated that the US secret jail might be either in the air force's 23rd Wing base in Udon Thani or the U-Tapao navy airport base in Rayong.Two years later, a partial US Senate report was made public, and also referred to CIA waterboarding of terrorists at the secret jail in Thailand.Following the report, the US State Department issued a warning to American citizens and interests in foreign countries, including Thailand, who might be affected by the report.Several ministers and the military top brass under the Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha administration came out to counter the report, saying they knew nothing about such prisons in Thailand.It is understandable Thai governments were worried about national security if they admitted to the existence of the US secret prison. It could put the governments under fire.But the appointment of Ms Haspel as CIA chief and the disclosure of her involvement in the secret jail in the kingdom is a slap in the face of the Thai government.If the government's denial about the secret jail was truthful, then, with subsequent US confirmation of the facility, it is embarrassing that Thailand was not aware of it. On the other hand, if Thai governments lied over the issue, they should feel shame now the US has told the world otherwise.Having the US's secret prison in Thailand does not mean Thailand supports torture or other inhumane activities conducted by the US agency.It is useless for the government to keep insisting on its version of facts that the world does not believe.After more than a decade of denial, it is time for the government to change its stance and tells the truth about the US secret jail in Thailand.

Time to come clean on secret CIA prison

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