Bravo to Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor. Amidst the UK-US collusion to prevent documents on torture being seen by the British High Court and the attempt to prevent the story of the abuse of Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed (pictured) from emerging, they are explaining how Government officials established torture as a policy. This is the article that will appear in tomorrow’s Guardian:

Whitehall devised torture policy for terror detainees

A policy governing the interrogation of terrorism suspects in Pakistan that led to British citizens and residents being tortured was devised by MI5 lawyers and figures in government, according to evidence heard in court.
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24 hours after I raised the possibility of division between Britain and the United States over the future approach to Afghanistan, Richard Norton-Taylor offers compelling evidence in The Guardian:

For years the generals have been saying – and their political masters have not dissented – that no military solution exists for any conflict in the modern world, let alone the counterinsurgency operation in Afghanistan. That has been brought home this year, and the British army faces the prospect of being bogged down for years in southern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, some of the press is now picking up on the report from the International Council on Security and Development that the Taliban are now active in 72 percent of Afghanistan. Three of four major roads in and out of the capital, Kabul, are now insecure. The report concludes, “The Taliban are now dictating terms in Afghanistan, both politically and militarily.”