British cops ask CIA for help

2005-08-02 14:54

London - Britain has asked the CIA to interrogate terror suspects held in secret detention centres to help hunt down the masterminds behind the London bombings, The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

British security forces think many of the "ghost prisoners" held by the United States Central Intelligence Agency "may have crucial information about the events in London," it said.

Some of the top figures in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network are being grilled on US warships or in underground gaols, out of reach from US or international law.

A top target is al-Qaeda commander Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who has not been seen since Pakistani authorities arrested him in May and handed him over to the United States.

"We obviously need to know what threat remains and we are asking all our international allies for help, even if the standards of their interrogation methods are not as scrupulous as our own," a senior officer close to the London investigation told The Times.

Human rights groups have slammed the US network of secret prisons. Some detainees were arrested in countries with records of practising torture before being turned over to the CIA.

Police are trying to track down the planners behind the July 7 attacks which killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and a bungled repeat on July 21 when the bombs failed to go off.

London's Metropolitan Police have noted the similarities between the July 7 and July 21 attacks, both claimed by al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.

However, thus far, no structured network behind the two waves of attacks has been uncovered in Britain or abroad.

- AFP