"The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) appears to have used Bangkok's former Don Muang International Airport as a secret prison to torture a suspected Muslim terrorist, the first time a specific location has ever been described within Thailand, according to statements by the Libyan who was allegedly held there.
It was impossible to immediately confirm Abdel Hakim Belhaj's allegations of being "hung", "injected" and refrigerated with "ice" at the airport, but if true it is the first description of any site in Thailand pinpointed by a prisoner held by the CIA.
Thai officials in this Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian country have consistently denied knowledge of any CIA secret prison.
Thailand is one of the US's major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, a distinction it earned in 2003 through its cooperation with Washington's global "war on terror".
London's Guardian newspaper reported on September 5 that Britain's MI6 intelligence agency helped the CIA in March 2004 arrest Belhaj, who is now a powerful commander in Tripoli with the anti-Muammar Gaddafi transitional government.
"Belhaj was detained by the CIA in Thailand in 2004 following an MI6 tip-off, allegedly tortured, then flown to Tripoli, where he says he suffered years of abuse in one of Muammar Gaddafi's prisons," the Guardian reported.
London's Guardian newspaper reported on September 5 that Britain's MI6 intelligence agency helped the CIA in March 2004 arrest Belhaj, who is now a powerful commander in Tripoli with the anti-Muammar Gaddafi transitional government.
"Belhaj was detained by the CIA in Thailand in 2004 following an MI6 tip-off, allegedly tortured, then flown to Tripoli, where he says he suffered years of abuse in one of Muammar Gaddafi's prisons," the Guardian reported.
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