Gulf secret prisons for hire is John Kiriakou’s confirmation, and partial refusal, on the question of whether the CIA knew about detention and torture facilities run by Gulf ruling families.
The answer and the refusal
The question put to him covered black magic, underground torture facilities and secret prisons. Kiriakou separated the elements: black magic he does not know about, but underground facilities and torture, absolutely — one hundred per cent yes.[1]
Asked to go into detail, he refused, saying he would probably risk going to prison again if he did.[2] The refusal is characteristic; he has drawn the same line elsewhere on operational specifics he considers still classified.
Why those countries
What Kiriakou was willing to describe is the logic of the arrangement, which he presents as the whole reason the partnerships existed. This, he says, is exactly why the United States sought the help of those countries: they did not have parliaments to answer to, and they did not necessarily have a free press to answer to.[2]
The transaction itself he describes as simple. The CIA would go in and ask whether the partner could open up the secret prison for them. The partner would say yes. The CIA would hand over — in his illustrative figure — some ten million dollars, and everybody was happy.[2]
Placement in his account of the programme
The description belongs to the same period as the rendition and black-site arrangements Kiriakou has discussed at length, and to the broader pattern he sets out in CIA liaison relationships: partnerships entered into for short-term operational convenience, whose long-term costs the agency does not weigh.