CIA director: Agency to limit countries getting detainees

WASHINGTON -- President Obama may limit the countries to which the U.S. sends alleged terrorists to those with good human-rights records, and will be less inclined to hand prisoners over in general, to help make sure they are not tortured or abused, CIA director Leon Panetta said Wednesday.

"If it's someone we are interested in, there is no purpose to rendering anyone, particularly if it's a high-value target," Panetta said in his first on-the-record meeting with reporters since his confirmation two weeks ago.

Panetta said he believes prisoners should only be handed over to countries that would have a legal interest in them -- their home country or one where a prisoner has charges pending, for example.

Panetta made headlines during a congressional hearing earlier this month when he confirmed that Obama intended to continue rendering prisoners captured in the war on terrorism. He said the administration would get assurances first from the country that the prisoner would not be tortured or have his human rights violated.

That has long been U.S. policy. The Bush White House also said it required assurances of humane treatment from other governments. But some former prisoners subjected to the process during the Bush administration's anti-terror war contend they were tortured. Proving that in court is difficult because evidence they are trying to use has been protected by the president's state secret privilege.

Panetta said Wednesday the Obama administration would "make very sure" prisoners are not mistreated after they are rendered. Asked exactly how that would be done, Panetta was cryptic.

"[We will] make sure, first of all, the kind of countries that we render [to] will tell us an awful lot about that," he said. "No. 2, I think diplomatically we just have to make sure that we have a presence to ensure that that does not happen."

The so-called extraordinary rendition policy and program is currently under review at the White House.

Panetta also said he believes no additional prisoners will be sent to the jail at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base this year. Obama ordered the prison closed next year, but no decision has been made on what to do with the roughly 250 inmates now there. Only a handful have been charged with a crime. Those trials are on hold while the Obama administration reviews the detention program.

Panetta said the CIA has stepped up its collection and analysis of information related to the worldwide economic meltdown. It began Wednesday producing what will be a daily economic intelligence briefing for the administration.

The recession "is affecting the stability of the world and as an intelligence agency we have to pay attention to that because we have to know whether or not the economic impacts on China and Russia or anywhere else are in fact influencing the policies of those countries when it comes to foreign affair, when it comes to the issues that we care about," he said.

Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela are in dire economic straits and could be destabilized by the global economic crisis, he said.

On Pakistan, Panetta said he remains skeptical about Islamabad's effort to strike a peace deal with militants in the Swat valley, a resort area that has recently fallen under militant control. The initiative allows for the imposition of a version of Islamic law there.

At least two peace deals struck with Taliban militants in other parts of Pakistan have failed, he said.

However, he said Washington and Islamabad are coordinating their counterterrorism efforts, drawing up a list of mutual targets that pose a common threat.

On Iraq, Panetta said that when the U.S. pulls its combat forces out -- which will be August 2010 -- a large contingent of the residual forces left behind will be intelligence personnel to make sure al-Qaida in Iraq does not resurrect itself in the absence of U.S. troops.