Terrorist detention 'a benefit'
2005-11-29 14:59
Washington - United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the unlimited detention of suspected terrorists saying, in an interview published on Tuesday, that it benefited the United States and the entire world.
"You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them, because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die," she told the USA Today daily.
"We have never fought a war like this before," she said referring to the global war on terrorism.
Rice, however, neither confirmed or denied the existence of secret CIA prisons abroad, the newspaper said referring to a report by the Washington Post last month that touched off investigations in several countries.
European Union Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini on Monday threatened sanctions for any EU nation found to have allowed secret CIA prison camps to operate on its soil.
On Iraq, Rice reiterated the US government's position that any withdrawal of US troops would depend on the wishes of the Iraqi government elected next month and on how prepared Iraqi forces were to take on insurgents.
"The (Iraqi) president will take from his commanders their assessment of what conditions permit," the secretary of state said.
Rice acknowledged that US policy in Iraq was not free of mistakes, but rejected the idea that ousting Saddam Hussein had made the Middle East less stable.
"I will be the first to say I am sure there were many things that could have been done better," Rice said about the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
History, she added, will show "things that look like mistakes that will turn out to be great successes and things that look like great successes that will turn out to be mistakes".
Rice denied having any political ambitions and said she was looking forward to returning to Stanford University when her stint in President George W Bush's cabinet is over in January 2009.