http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/28.Sep.1999/News/Article-3.html
State admits GSS instruct SLA interrogators
By DAN IZENBERG, Jerusalem Post, 09/28/1999
JERUSALEM (September 28) - Israel has acknowledged for the first time that
General Security Service interrogators instruct, and cooperate with, South
Lebanese Army interrogators at El Khiam prison and that IDF officers visit the
prison to pay the salaries of interrogators and jailers.
The admissions came in an affidavit signed by Maj.-Gen. Dan Halutz, head of
army operations, which was submitted last week to the High Court of Justice in
response to a petition on behalf of four El Khiam prisoners by the Association for
Civil Rights in Israel and Moked - the Center for the Defense of the Individual.
The petitioners asked the court to order the minister of defense to release the
prisoners immediately or to allow the two human rights organizations to visit the
prison and inspect the condition of the prisoners and the prison.
In its initial response, the state said Israel did not run El Khiam prison and was
not in control of southern Lebanon.
On April 27, Justices Shlomo Levin, Jacob Turkel, and Dorit Beinisch did not
accept the response and gave the state 45 days, later extended, to explain its
relationship with southern Lebanon.
In the affidavit submitted last week, the state provided details never before
acknowledged, of links between the GSS and the army and El Khiam prison.
"There is a relationship between the GSS and the SLA with regard to
intelligence information gathering and interrogations meant to foil attacks in the
security zone against IDF and SLA troops," wrote Halutz in the affidavit. "In this
context, GSS agents cooperate with SLA fighters and also help them with
professional guidance and instruction.
"However, GSS agents do not participate in the face-to-face interrogation of
prisoners. As I have been informed, GSS agents meet several times a year with
SLA interrogators at El Khiam prison. From January 1 until toward the end of
September, there were only three such meetings with GSS agents at the prison."
Regarding the salaries of El Khiam jailers and interrogators, Halutz wrote: "In its
earlier response to the petition, the state claimed that the El Khiam jailers and
interrogators did not receive their salaries directly from IDF officers but from
SLA officials. A reexamination of the matter has revealed that the petitioners'
claim was correct, as a result of which it has been decided to halt the direct
payment of salaries to the SLA members serving in El Khiam beginning with the
next salary payment."
Halutz also wrote that Israel has given the SLA money to improve conditions at
El Khiam.
