CIA ‘Supervising’ West Bank Torturers

Role Increasingly Apparent as Human Rights Plummet in West Bank

A working relationship between the CIA and a pair of security agencies ostensibly part of the Palestinian Authority has gotten so close that the wings, the Preventive Security Organization (PSO) and General Intelligence (GI) service have become de facto arms of the American spy agency, according to Western officials.

The PSO in particular has a fearsome reputation as Fatah’s formal torture organization, numerous reports have them kidnapping suspected members of Hamas, torturing confessions out of them.

The two groups are holding hundreds of people in dubious conditions under this program, part of the reason the human rights situation in the West Bank has been deteriorating precipitously over the past several years.

The CIA confirmed “support” for the organizations (which other officials confirmed off-the-record was “supervisory”), and declined to detail what it does with the information it receives from these “interrogations.” They insisted, however, that it does not amount to control over the groups, and that it was perfectly legal.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.