CIA questioning al Qaeda in Ethiopia prision?

Telegraph:

American intelligence agents are interrogating hundreds of al-Qa'eda suspects secretly imprisoned in Ethiopia, human rights organisations said yesterday.

The detainees, from 19 different countries, have allegedly been "illegally" deported to Ethiopia where they are being held in horrific conditions in crowded jails, notorious for torture and abuse.

They include women and children as young as seven months and were arrested in Somalia and Kenya as they fled December's rout of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) around Mogadishu.

"We fear that many of the detainees will face mistreatment and possibly torture or execution in Ethiopian custody," said Peter Takirambudde, the executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

"We have previously documented that Ethiopian forces routinely engage in torture of criminal, political and military detainees. All parties to the armed conflict in Somalia must abide by international law."

The New York-based organisation said that the governments of Kenya, Ethiopia and the US had "played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone".

Georgette Gagnon, HRW's deputy Africa director, said "Kenya has secretly expelled people, the Ethiopians have caused dozens to 'disappear' and US security agents have routinely interrogated people held incommunicado."

An estimated 85 of the prisoners were secretly flown from Nairobi to Somalia, where they were handed to Ethiopian state forces who have controlled their Horn of Africa neighbour since invading on Christmas Eve. From there, according to investigations by HRW and others including the Muslim Human Rights Foundation in Nairobi, they were transferred to prisons in Addis Ababa.

Conditions are said to be "horrific", with a dozen detainees sharing a single 10ft by 10ft cell with little food and rare access to exercise areas.

None has been allowed to see their lawyers and none has been charged, despite being held for up to two months, investigators claim.

The US government denies that it ordered three late-night charter flights that carried the prisoners from Nairobi to Baidoa, the former seat of Somalia's interim government.

...

The US has shipped some al Qaeda suspects back to the US and one has been indicted in Houston and is awaiting trial. Other suspects were sent back to the UK and were released. It could be that others captured by Ethiopia are being question to determine where they are from and what disposition is needed. Some may be interrogated to determine where al Qaeda suspects may have slipped off to. The "human rights" group appears to be operating on tghe basis of rumor and suspicion instead of fact.