The Hindu : International : We will not pay ransom: Bush

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

International

International

We will not pay ransom: Bush

WASHINGTON: President George Bush said on Tuesday that the United States would work for the return of captive Americans in Iraq, but would not submit to terrorist tactics. "We, of course, don't pay ransom for any hostages," he said.

Mr. Bush spoke on the same day that Al-Jazeera broadcast a video claiming insurgents kidnapped a U.S. security consultant, and the militants displayed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with hands tied behind his back. The video also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq and showed a U.S. passport and an identification card.

Speaking to reporters at the end of an Oval Office meeting with the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, he did not comment on reports that the U.S. ran secret prisons abroad. "I don't talk about secret programmes."

But, Mr. Bush said, the U.S. did not torture and would do everything in its legal power to protect Americans while abiding by U.S. law.

Human rights organisations and legal groups, both in the U.S. and abroad, have accused the U.S. of allowing a practice known as "rendition to torture," in which suspects are taken to countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia where harsh interrogation methods are used. The U.S. has denied that tactic, a denial Mr. Bush repeated on Tuesday.

"We do not render to countries that torture," he said.

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