Within hours of the British court order for the release of documents connected with the alleged torture of detainee Binyam Mohamed, and British Foreign Minister David Miliband’s insistence that release of the material would risk the US-UK intelligence relationship, I spoke with Peter Allen of BBC Radio 5 about the case (and, yes, I did use the word “lie” with reference to Mr Miliband). The interview starts just before the 2:20.00 mark.
This afternoon a British court issued an important and long-awaited ruling in the case of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident tortured in Pakistan and then detained at Guantanamo Bay. The court ordered the British Government to present documents, demanded by Mohamed’s lawyers, that established not only the torture but also US and British complicity in the “enhanced interrogation”. The British Government had maintained that, because the documents contained information which originated with their US counterpart, its revelation could jeopardise the US-UK intelligence relationship.
In the last hour, I have heard British Foreign Secretary David Miliband maintain in two radio interviews that he would be happy to release the documents but that Washington has insisted they be withheld. Therefore, before getting into the details and implications of his argument — for example, that any decision of a British court should be set aside because of the demands of the “intelligence” relationship, indeed that torture must not be investigated if there is a US-UK intelligence dimension — let’s re-state:
Miliband is lying.
Reprinted below is our entry from March 2009, after an earlier court decision reluctantly accepted the withholding of the documents. Then as now, Miliband trotted out the line that the decision was up to the Americans; unfortunately, his cover was blown by a State Department official who revealed that the Brown Government had asked Washington to make that statement to the court. That way, the material would still not see the light of day but the British Government could claim that it was not hiding evidence alleging London’s own involvement in the torture of Mohamed.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is to be questioned by senior MPs over what he and his officials knew about the ill-treatment and secret interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, the former UK resident recently released from Guantánamo Bay. The move was announced yesterday by the Commons foreign affairs committee, which said it also intends to investigate other key issues where recent evidence has thrown up uncomfortable questions for ministers to answer. They are allegations of British complicity in torture in Pakistan, in the US practice of rendering terror suspects to countries where they risked being tortured, and in the transfer of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read the rest of this entry »
In recent weeks, we’ve paid close attentions to allegations of abuse by Iranian authorities in the post-election conflict. Perhaps as a timely reminder, Duncan Gardham writes in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that “torture” is not the exclusive practice of Tehran:
[Britain's] Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights said the structures for supervision were woefully deficient and accused ministers of refusing to give adequate answers to its detailed questions about torture.
It said “ministers are determined to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny and accountability” over allegations of complicity in torture, and concluded: “In view of the large number of unanswered questions… there is now no other way to restore public confidence in the intelligence services than by setting up an independent inquiry.”
The committee urged ministers to publish the instructions given to security service officers on the detention and interviewing of detainees overseas.
Ministers have refused to give oral evidence to the committee on allegations of torture or have given only general answers to detailed questions about the treatment of individual detainees.
Seven former Guantanamo detainees, including Binyam Mohamed, are suing MI5, MI6, the Attorney General, the Foreign Office and the Home Office over their treatment.
The BBC, freed from its caution by the Parliamentary report, is adding a claim by Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan: he was told in March 2003 that Britain had accepted torture as part of its campaign in the War on Terror.
Clive Stafford Smith and Ahmad Ghappour, lawyers for a number of Guantánamo Bay detainees, have been summoned to court over a letter they sent to President Obama detailing the torture their client Binyam Mohamed claims he faced. Stafford Smith and Ghappour face charges of ‘unprofessional conduct’ and revealing classified evidence, and will attend a hearing in Washington, DC on May 11. Stafford Smith has called the charges “frivolous”, pointing out that all information in the letter, classified or otherwise, had been redacted by censors, leaving only the subject line “In re: torture of Binyam Mohamed”. Like Stafford Smith I’d also question the sanity a law that makes revealing classified information about Guantántamo Bay to the President of the United States a crime.
The Independent of London reveals that the US Government offered a deal to British resident Binyam Mohamed, held in Pakistan, Morocco, and then Guantanamo Bay for more than six years: he could go free “if he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, ended his High Court case to prove his claims of torture, and agreed not to speak to the media about his ordeal”.
The plea bargain was offered to Mohamed last year while he was still at Guantanamo Bay; under its terms, he would have received a 10-year sentence, nine years of which would be suspended. He rejected it.
After a sustained campaign earlier this year revealed further evidence of his rendition and torture, Mohamed was returned to the United Kingdom.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is to be questioned by senior MPs over what he and his officials knew about the ill-treatment and secret interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, the former UK resident recently released from Guantánamo Bay. The move was announced yesterday by the Commons foreign affairs committee, which said it also intends to investigate other key issues where recent evidence has thrown up uncomfortable questions for ministers to answer. They are allegations of British complicity in torture in Pakistan, in the US practice of rendering terror suspects to countries where they risked being tortured, and in the transfer of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The foreign secretary will not be able to refuse to testify before the Commons foreign affairs committee, which was set up to monitor the activities of his department.
I thought of using the English euphemism “economical with the truth”, but that doesn’t capture the brazen statement of the Foreign Secretary yesterday regarding alleged British complicity with the torture of detainees.
Today intrepid reporter Ben Leach of The Daily Telegraphgives us the inside story on a case involving torture, extraordinary rendition, and deprivation of basic human rights:
Binyam Mohamed, the British resident released from US detention base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has told friends that Britain is too cold.
Mohamed said as he left Guantanamo, “I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, ‘torture’ was an abstract word for me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways — all orchestrated by the United States government.”
British authorities have not said whether he will be held on his arrival in Britain for questioning, as has happened with previous detainees returning from Guantanamo. Clive Stafford-Smith, who has led the campaign for Mohamed’s release, said, “He just wants to go somewhere very quiet and try to recover. Every moment that he is held compounds the abuse he has endured.”
Within hours of the British court order for the release of documents connected with the alleged torture of detainee Binyam Mohamed, and British Foreign Minister David Miliband’s insistence that release of the material would risk the US-UK intelligence relationship, I spoke with Peter Allen of BBC Radio 5 about the case (and, yes, I did use the word “lie” with reference to Mr Miliband). The interview starts just before the 2:20.00 mark.
Comments Off 
This afternoon 
Update (3 March): The Guardian reports….
Today intrepid reporter Ben Leach of The Daily Telegraph 
British resident Binyam Mohamed, who has been detained in US-run facilities since 2002, 
Entries (RSS)