CIA to close overseas interrogation sites

WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- The CIA said Thursday it will close secret overseas centers where suspected al-Qaida operatives were interrogated, The New York Times reported.

Citing a statement delivered to intelligence employees Thursday by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the newspaper said the agency will stop using contractors to carry out interrogations. Panetta said the sites were already out of use and will be decommissioned.

Panetta said U.S. taxpayers will have to keep paying for security and maintenance, but decommissioning of the sites will save some money.

"It is estimated that our taking over site security will result in savings of up to $4 million," Panetta said in the message to CIA employees.

U.S. officials have not disclosed the locations of the interrogation sites but news reports -- along with aviation records and statements by intelligence officials -- have said such operations were conducted in a number of countries including Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Jordan, the Times said.

President Barack Obama said in January his administration would stop using coercive interrogation methods and he ordered the CIA detention program shut down -- although he said the agency could hold prisoners for short periods, the newspaper said.

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said last month it would examine the CIA detention and interrogation program.

Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Vice Chairman Kit Bond, R-Mo., said the review was intended "to review the program and to shape detention and interrogation policies in the future."

U.S. prosecutors have been conducting a criminal investigation since January 2008 into the destruction by CIA officers of videotape records of some detainee interrogations.