THE TSUNAMI DISASTER: US ISSUED KILLER WAVE WARNING TO TERROR SHIPS
By Charles Lavery Daily Mail
PRISON ships holding Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants were given an hour's warning of the tsunami.
The terrorists were aboard the vessels, anchored off British-owned island Diego Garcia, 1000 miles south of India.
Staff were alerted to the tsunami and had around an hour to batten down the hatches aboard the eight ships, whose detainees include bin Laden henchmen Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi Binasshibh and Abu Zubaida.
It's not known if the boats rode out the killer waves.
Diego Garcia is a key 15-mile stretch of land leased to the US military. They used it for bombing runs on Iraq and Afghanistan.
They currently use it as a holding and interrogation centre for suspected terrorists. Interrogators are not subject to US government rules on interviewing suspects.
Officials at the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii alerted the base but failed to warn the affected nations, which had no warning system in place.
The US government said the base had not been damaged.
Human rights organisations fear physical abuse similar to that meted out in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison is being allowed on Diego Garcia.
