Guardian report.
The government will attempt today to have a case about torture heard entirely
behind closed doors in a move that some lawyers say would extend secrecy to a
new area of hearings, overriding ancient principles of English law.
[...]
"This would set a very serious precedent," said Louise Christian, a partner at
Christian Khan who represents Martin Mubanga, one of the claimants, who was
also detained at Guantánamo Bay. "If you allow evidence in ordinary civil cases
to be kept secret, there is no doubt it will be endlessly used by the
government. As the Binyam Mohamed case illustrated, this is really about the
government avoiding embarrassment for the reality of their collaboration with
the US and all that happened, rather than any real national security issues."
ALL
guantanamo
liberty
torture
Clive Stafford Smith in the Guardian.
After rubbing the government's nose in its torture cover-up in the case of
Binyam Mohamed, we gave the government a chance to come clean this week in the
case of Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni, a man I met last week in Lahore,
Pakistan. Madni was rendered through Diego Garcia to 92 days of particularly
gruesome torture in Egypt, followed by time in Bagram and Guantánamo, before
being belatedly cleared of any crime and sent home.
The British, sad to say, were again mixed up in all this. We suggested last
August that they simply admit it.
[...]
A hearing was set for the case on 4 March 2010. At 5:21pm on 3 March, after the
close of business, the government changed its tune. The government now admitted
to the court that it was in "possession of documents which have a bearing … on
whether any British or American authorities were mixed up in wrongdoing …"
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Independent report.
He was supposed to return to Britain in 2007 -- but Shaker Aamer is still being
held inside Camp Delta. Who is this charismatic prisoner? And what happened to
him at the hands of MI5? Robert Verkaik reports
ALL
guantanamo
torture
Larisa Alexandrovna on at-Largely.
The reason Liz Cheney is so interested in demonizing lawyers who represented or
advocated for detainees at Gitmo is because her father has admitted to
committing war crimes, over and over and over. Using the same old handbook, Liz
Cheney is defending daddy by demonizing anyone in a position to shed light on
the war crimes committed on her father's orders.
ALL
cheney
guantanamo
torture
Channel 4 report.
The "special relationship" is showing strain as a meeting set to celebrate UK
and US intelligence sharing is called off in the wake of the decision to
publish information about Binyam Mohamed.
A meeting to celebrate 60 years of UK/US defence intelligence sharing was
called off last week, Channel 4 News has learned, in the wake of the
controversial Court of Appeal ruling in the Binyam Mohamed case.
ALL
guantanamo
torture
Andy Worthington writes.
On Friday, it emerged in a UK court that the Metropolitan Police is
investigating allegations that MI5 was complicit in the torture, in US custody
in Afghanistan, of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident still held at
Guantánamo. In the High Court, Richard Hermer QC, counsel for Aamer, told
Mr. Justice Sullivan that Met officers had visited his solicitors, Birnberg
Peirce, on Wednesday. "It became apparent they are now investigating
allegations raised by Mr. Aamer into the alleged complicity of the UK security
service in his mistreatment," he said, adding that the police had made an
application to the court "for release of relevant documents" relating to
Aamer's allegations that the confessions he made in US custody were obtained
through torture.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Guardian report.
The Polish authorities have for the first time admitted their involvement in
the CIA's secret programme for the rendition of high-level terrorist suspects
from Iraq and Afghanistan, it emerged today.
After years of stonewalling, Warsaw's air control service confirmed that at
least six CIA flights had landed at a disused military air base in northern
Poland in 2003.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
poland
rendition
torture
Times report.
For the past 10 weeks a senior lawyer in the office of Baroness Scotland, the
attorney-general, has been studying the cases of five British men alleged to
have been unlawfully detained and tortured in Pakistan with the complicity of
MI5.
Scotland may rule there is insufficient evidence to call in detectives but if
she does refer the cases to the police, it could in effect paralyse the agency
that Evans has led since 2007.
ALL
guantanamo
torture
Guardian report.
The Metropolitan police is investigating allegations that MI5 was complicit in
the torture of Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident in Guantánamo
Bay, it was revealed today.
Investigating officers have applied to the high court for the release of
classified government documents relating to the case. They are already
investigating claims of MI5 complicity in the ill-treatment of British resident
Binyam Mohamed while being held by the US.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Craig Murray comments on Bruce Anderson's
nasty
piece that was in the Independent on Monday.
Saloon bar bigot Bruce Anderson came out with a fierce defence of the
government's use of torture. It could have been written by Torquemada,
Walsingham or Franco. To get that vital information about the ticking bomb, it
would be morally imperative to torture the terrorist's wife and children, he
concluded.
Interesting is it not that to opine that Palestinian suicide bombers are
justified is illegal, but to advocate torture of innocent women and children is
patriotic?
ALL
guantanamo
torture
Conor Gearty on the London Review of Books blog.
What a change we have seen! Binyam Mohamed's case was before the three most
senior judges in the land outside the Supreme Court. None of the three is
anything other than mainstream: their views can be taken reliably to reflect
the atmosphere that prevails in the rarefied judicial world in which they spend
their professional lives. Their decision upholds the principle of open justice
as against the interests of the intelligence service and requires that the full
basis for Binyam Mohamed's victory in the lower court is made clear to him.
ALL
guantanamo
torture
Clive Stafford Smith in the Times.
Listeners to the Today programme yesterday would have heard Kim Howells, the
Labour MP, demanding to know what a senior judge was "playing at". Lord
Neuberger of Abbotsbury, the Master of the Rolls, had made some harsh
assertions against the security services in his original judgment on the Binyam
Mohamed torture case, for which Dr Howells, chairman of the "completely
independent" Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), claimed that there was
no evidence.
I was astounded at Dr Howells's gall. The British public isn't permitted to see
the classified evidence about Mr Mohamed's abuse. As his lawyer, I am -- albeit
in the US -- and this places me in a fairly good position to call Dr Howell's
bluff. I cannot reveal anything not in the public domain but I can suggest, sad
to say, that Dr Howells has been less than forthright; either that, or evidence
has been hidden from him and his committee.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Charles Moore in the Telegraph echoes the
pro-torture
sentiments of his colleague Con Coughlin, but with slightly more subtle
language.
Also from the Telegraph, this article:
MI5
officers diverted from counter-terrorism to fight 'torture' court cases.
Binyam Mohamed was released from Guantanamo Bay last year at the insistence of
the British Government. It persuaded the American government to drop terrorist
charges against him. Now our Government has been repaid for its efforts on his
behalf by a legal judgment that undermines this country's ability to get
information on our deadly enemies. Few of us want anyone tortured, and most of
us want a system of justice that is independent of government. But we do not
want a country that cannot protect itself from attack, or judges who take
political decisions upon themselves. Yet this is what we are getting.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Moazzam Begg in the Guardian.
When I heard about Binyam Mohamed I felt a certain sense of relief that finally
some of the truth was coming out into the public arena. But it's not a
revelation to me as it's something I have maintained since my release: that the
British intelligence services were present at every stage of my incarceration
and knew what was happening to me and to many other British prisoners.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Guardian article.
The political storm over allegations of MI5 complicity in torture escalated
tonight after Alan Johnson, the home secretary, accused the media of publishing
"groundless accusations" and commentators of spreading "ludicrous lies" about
the Security Service.
As defence lawyers prepared to challenge the government's success in
suppressing severe criticism of MI5 officers made by one of Britain's most
senior judges, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, pointed the finger at
the "very top of government" saying senior ministers had probably known about
claims of Britain's involvement in torture but failed to take action to stop it.
ALL
disinfo
guantanamo
torture
Andy Worthington writes.
In December, lawyers for Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo,
won an important court case in which judges ordered the British government to
release information in its possession regarding claims that MI5 agents were
present in the US prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when Shaker Aamer was
subjected to torture, prior to his transfer to Guantánamo.
Clive Stafford Smith gave a similar appraisal, explaining, as Cahalan described
it, that the Harper's article "added to his belief the US government was afraid
of what Mr. Aamer may reveal."
Stafford Smith added:
This is merely confirmation, fairly stark confirmation, that the reason they
wanted not to send him home to his family in England, but rather to send him to
[his native] Saudi Arabia was simply to gag him. I have known Shaker for some
time, and because he is so eloquent and outspoken about the injustices of
Guantánamo he is very definitely viewed as a threat by the US. Not in the sense
of being an extremist but in the sense of being someone who can rather
eloquently criticize the nightmare that happened there.
ALL
guantanamo
torture