Deep Politics Forum

US Threats Mean Evidence of British Resident's Guantánamo Torture Must Stay Secret, Judges Rule

Tory MP David Davis demands urgent Commons statement on MI5 role in Binyam Mohamed case

by Richard Norton-Taylor

Evidence of how a British resident held in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp was tortured, and what MI5 knew about it, must remain secret because of serious threats the US has made against the UK, the high court ruled today.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton® and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband shake hands after speaking to the press at the State Department in Washington. Clinton said Tuesday the US-British special relationship "really stands the test of time."(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
The judges made clear they were deeply unhappy with their decision, but said they had no alternative as a result of a statement by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, that if the evidence was disclosed the US would stop sharing intelligence with Britain. That would directly threaten the UK's national security, Miliband had told the court.This afternoon David Davis, the Conservative MP and former shadow home secretary, said ministers must urgently respond to the allegations that Britain was complicit in torture. He demanded a Commons statement from the government on the ruling, calling it "a matter of utmost national importance".
Davis said: "The ruling implies that torture has taken place in the [Binyam] Mohamed case, that British agencies may have been complicit, and further, that the United States government has threatened our high court that if it releases this information the US government will withdraw its intelligence cooperation with the United Kingdom.
"The judge rules that there is a strong public interest that this information is put in the public domain even though it is politically embarrassing."
He told the BBC: "The government is going to have to do some pretty careful explaining about what's going on."
The ruling, by Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, was the latest from a long-running and unprecedented series of court hearings into the abduction of Binyam Mohamed, who was seized and held incommunicado in Pakistan in 2002 before being secretly rendered to Morocco, where he says he was tortured.
He was subsequently flown to Afghanistan before being rendered to Guantánamo Bay.
Today's ruling comes after the judges last year invited the Guardian and other media groups to question earlier claims by Miliband that the disclosure of evidence, originally contained in documents given to him by the US government, would threaten the UK's national security.


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Does anything 'Intelligent' come out of the US government these days anyway and why would the UK want their putrid disinformation? Much more likely the UK is complicit and wants to keep that secret.

Just letting you know who is 'boss' and that you must do as we say and not as we do - and certainly not as you yourselves want [or are required by law or morality] to do!

I like David Wright Miliband. If you look carefully at the smile he is giving to Mr. Hilary Clinton, it is just possible to see Tony Blair rippling below the surface.

Besides, as poodle's and other patting pets go Miliband "stands the test of time" that is required by the Special Relationship.

Peter Lemkin Wrote:Just letting you know who is 'boss' and that you must do as we say and not as we do - and certainly not as you yourselves want [or are required by law or morality] to do!

Whilst this is true, there are also provocative suggestions that this is all a cover story to disguise British Intelligence knowledge of, and perhaps complicity in, the American-sanctioned torture.

Quote:Besides, as poodle's and other patting pets go Miliband "stands the test of time" that is required by the Special Relationship.

Can't be that special though as both Britain and the US keeping telling us Australians they we also have a Special Relationship. Two timers.

[quote=Magda Hassan]

Quote:Two timers.

Two timers yes, but only in the sense that ladies who work in bordellos are two timers.

Ladies in Bordellos? Never!
However, the women that work in bordellos are saints for what they do and underpaid for the most. It's a workplace. There may be special arrangements but no special relationships.

I think I am beginning to understand this Special Relationship. It means that the US can kidnap any UK citizen it likes and the UK get to just put up with it. I suppose that is special after all. On the other hand what also makes it special is that the UK can have a quiet word with the US and unofficially request that one or two or perhaps more of their citizens be 'kidnapped' by the US as long as the 'intelligence' delivered by those kidnapped is shared. That seems fair. :marchmellow:

UK suppressed torture evidence to protect MI6

• Tim Shipman, Washington
  
• February 9, 2009
  

THE British Government suppressed evidence that a terrorist suspect was tortured before being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay because the documents revealed that MI6 officers helped his interrogators, the Sunday Telegraph claims.
Material in a CIA dossier on Binyam Mohamed that was blacked out by High Court judges last week contained details of how MI6 supplied information to his captors and contributed questions as he was tortured.
Intelligence sources said spy chiefs put pressure on Foreign Secretary David Miliband to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution.
Nor do they want him to jeopardise relations with the CIA, which is passing on "top-notch" information about British terrorist suspects.
Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, taken to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. All terrorism charges against him were dropped last year. Last week, two High Court judges said they wanted to release the contents of a CIA file on his treatment. However, they withheld seven paragraphs after Mr Miliband argued it could compromise the sharing of intelligence with the US.
A British official, who is regularly briefed on intelligence operations, said: "The concern was that the document revealed that intelligence from the British agencies was used by the Americans and that there were British questions asked while Binyam Mohamed was being tortured. Miliband is being pushed hard by the intelligence agencies to protect the identity of those involved."
The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel.
It featured other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did", the official said.
Another source familiar with the case said: "British intelligence officers knew about the torture and didn't do anything about it. They supplied information to the Americans and the Moroccans. They supplied questions, they supplied photographs. There is evidence of all of that."
David Davis, the former shadow home secretary who first highlighted the case, said: "What has become clear is that the information being held back is not protecting the American Government, who have made a clean breast of their involvement in torture, but the British Government, where at least two cabinet ministers have denied any complicity whatsoever. It is very clear who stands to be embarrassed by this and who is being protected by this secrecy. It is not the Americans, it is Labour ministers."
The full document on Mr Mohamed could still emerge as President Barack Obama is under pressure from the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to release the unedited report.
The Attorney-General, Baroness Scotland, is considering whether British intelligence officers can be charged.
Mr Mohamed's lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, offered to supply the Attorney-General with his files of evidence in December, but he has had no reply. He condemned the Government's attitude as "an attempt to define as classified that which is merely politically embarrassing".
http://www.theage.com.au/world/uk-suppre...ml?page=-1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb...man-rights

There's a photo of Rangzieb Ahmed's hands taken in September 2007, one year after he said his fingernails were removed, at the url.

Quote:UK agents 'colluded with torture in Pakistan'

• Intelligence sources 'confirm abuse'
• Extent of Mohamed injuries revealed

Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009

A shocking new report alleges widespread complicity between British security agents and their Pakistani counterparts who have routinely engaged in the torture of suspects.

In the study, which will be published next month by the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch, at least 10 Britons are identified who have been allegedly tortured in Pakistan and subsequently questioned by UK intelligence officials. It warns that more British cases may surface and that the issue of Pakistani terrorism suspects interrogated by British agents is likely to "run much deeper".

The report will further embarrass the foreign secretary, David Miliband, who has repeatedly said the UK does not condone torture. He has been under fire for refusing to disclose US documents relating to the treatment of Guantánamo detainee and former British resident Binyam Mohamed. The documents are believed to contain evidence about the torture of Mohamed and British complicity in his maltreatment. Mohamed will return to Britain this week. Doctors who examined him in Guantánamo found evidence of prolonged physical and mental mistreatment.

Ali Dayan Hasan, who led the Pakistan-based inquiry, said sources within the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau and the military security services had provided "confirmation and information" relating to British collusion in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Hasan said the Human Rights Watch (HRW) evidence collated from Pakistan intelligence officials indicated a "systemic" modus operandi among British security services, involving a significant number of UK agents from MI5 rather than maverick elements. Different agents were deployed to interview different suspects, many of whom alleged that prior to interrogation by British officials they were tortured by Pakistani agents.

Among the 10 identified cases of British citizens and residents mentioned in the report is Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, from Rochdale, who claims he was tortured by Pakistani intelligence agents before being questioned by two MI5 officers. Ahmed was convicted of being a member of al-Qaida at Manchester crown court, yet the jury was not told that three of the fingernails of his left hand had been removed. The response from MI5 to the allegations that it had colluded in Ahmed's torture were heard in camera, however, after the press and the public were excluded from the proceedings. Ahmed's description of the cell in which he claims he was tortured closely matches that where Salahuddin Amin, 33, from Luton, says he was tortured by ISI officers between interviews with MI5 officers.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, 25, from London, who was detained in Pakistan in 2005, also claims he was interviewed by British intelligence agents during a period in which he was tortured.

Other cases include that of a London medical student who was detained in Karachi and tortured after the July 2005 attacks in London. Another case involving Britons allegedly tortured in Pakistan and questioned by UK agents involves a British Hizb ut-Tahrir supporter.

Rashid Rauf, from Birmingham, was detained in Pakistan and questioned over suspected terrorist activity in 2006. He was reportedly killed after a US drone attack in Pakistan's tribal regions, though his body has never been found.

Hasan said: "What the research suggests is that these are not incidents involving one particular rogue officer or two, but rather an array of individuals involved over a period of several years.

"The issue is not just British complicity in the torture of British citizens, it is the issue of British complicity in the torture period. We know of at least 10 cases, but the complicity probably runs much deeper because it involves a series of terrorism suspects who are Pakistani. This is the heart of the matter.

"They are not the same individuals [MI5 officers] all the time. I know that the people who have gone to see Siddiqui in Peshawar are not the same people who have seen Ahmed in Rawalpindi."

Last night the government faced calls to clarify precisely its relationship with Pakistan's intelligence agencies, which are known to routinely use torture.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that an investigation by the British security services had revealed "there is nothing to suggest they have engaged in torture in Pakistan". He added: "Our policy is not to participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture, or inhumane or degrading treatment, for any purpose."

But former shadow home secretary David Davis said the claims from Pakistan served to "reinforce" allegations that UK authorities, at the very least, ignored Pakistani torture techniques.

"The British agencies can no longer pretend that 'Hear no evil, see no evil' is applicable in the modern world," he added.

Last week HRW submitted evidence to parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights. The committee is to question Miliband and Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, over a legal loophole which appears to offer British intelligence officers immunity in the UK for any crimes committed overseas.

It has also emerged that New York-based HRW detailed its concerns in a letter to the UK government last October but has yet to receive a response.

The letter arrived at the same time that the Attorney General was tasked with deciding if Scotland Yard should begin a criminal investigation into British security agents' treatment of Binyam Mohamed. Crown prosecutors are currently weighing up the evidence.

Hasan said that evidence indicated a considerable number of UK officers were involved in interviewing terrorism suspects after they were allegedly tortured. He told the Observer: "We don't know who the individuals [British intelligence officers] were, but when you have different personnel coming in and behaving in a similar fashion it implies some level of systemic approach to the situation, rather than one eager beaver deciding it is absolutely fine for someone to be beaten or hung upside down."

He accused British intelligence officers of turning a blind eye as UK citizens endured torture at the hands of Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

"They [the British] have met the suspect ... and have conspicuously failed to notice that someone is in a state of high physical distress, showing signs of injury. If you are a secret service agent and fail to notice that their fingernails are missing, you ought to be fired."

Britain's former chief legal adviser, Lord Goldsmith, said that the Foreign Office would want to examine any British involvement in torture allegations very carefully and, if necessary, bring individuals "to book" to ensure such behaviour was "eradicated".