U.S. unable to secure terror extraditions

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. officials have been largely unable to convince other countries to extradite jailed alleged terrorists wanted in the United States, observers say.

That's because officials in Britain and other countries holding such wanted men as Khalid Fawwaz, an accused conspirator in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, fear the suspects' human rights will be violated if sent to the United States, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Fawwaz, for instance, has been jailed in Britain for a decade but, despite repeated requests by Washington, London has been slow to address the matter.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States has managed to extradite only a handful of minor terrorist figures from other countries, which cite torture and other alleged extralegal tactics used by U.S. interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp, the Post said.

"(Suspects) anticipate if they are extradited to America, they will be convicted and locked up for the rest of their lives in utterly grotesque conditions," British attorney Gareth Peirce told the newspaper. "Even though they are innocent, they don't believe they could be acquitted in an American court."