Originally published January 2 2006
Bush persists in U.S. policy that says no ransom will be paid for hostages
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
After a video from Iraq's Islamic Army surfaced, showing pictures of a U.S. security consultant now held hostage, President Bush promised to use the intelligence network to try and locate the hostage but restated the U.S. policy that ransom will not be considered.
President Bush said Tuesday that the United States will work for the return of captive Americans in Iraq, but will not submit to terrorist tactics.
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 his hands tied behind his back.
The video, which authenticity could not be immediately confirmed, also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq and showed a U.S. passport and an identification card.
Bush, speaking to reporters at the end of an Oval Office meeting with the director-general of the World Health Organization, would not comment on reports that the United States runs secret prisons abroad.
Human rights organizations and legal groups, both in the U.S. and abroad, have accused the United States 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.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling in Europe, has faced tough questions about whether the United States houses suspected terrorists in secret prisons that violate European legal and human rights guarantees.
It gained new immediacy last month with a Washington Post report claiming the U.S. ran prisons in Thailand, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, and claims by Human Rights Watch that it had tracked CIA flights into Eastern Europe.
Asked about Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's comments that the United States won't win in Iraq, Bush dismissed him as a politician trying to "score points."
Bush said the best way to make Iraq a peaceful society is to continue to spread democracy.
"There are terrorists there who will kill innocent people and behead people and kill children, terrorists who have got desires to hurt the American people," he said.
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