Torture, Secrecy and the British State

[Jan Klimkowski]

So the New Labour minister claims he didn't watch TV? Even when his own civil servants must have drawn the relevant pieces to his attention?

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the Army's senior legal officer in Iraq at the time of the invasion, had earlier told the hearing that his "very serious" concerns about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners were passed to military headquarters in the UK "and or ministers" before Mr Mousa's death.

The inquiry had also heard Mr Hoon had been sent a memorandum soon after Mr Mousa's death in 2003 revealing that the 26-year-old hotel receptionist had been kept hooded for nearly 24 hours of the 36 in UK custody before he died with 92 separate injuries.

Mr Hoon, asked by Gerard Elias QC, counsel for the inquiry, whether he was aware Mr Mousa had been hooded, said: "I was aware hooding was an issue in his death, I was shocked and concerned that should have happened." However, he said his knowledge of the matter was based on information received after the prisoner had been killed.

He said the death raised a number of questions. "Why was this man hooded for so long? What were the circumstances? Why was hooding being used? Was it being used for purposes that were for example unlawful?"

Mr Elias asked if Mr Hoon knew some of Mr Mousa's fellow detainees were hooded prior to interrogation. He replied: "I'm not aware of any suggestion that they were hooded in either tactical questioning or interrogation."

Mr Hoon was shown footage of hooded prisoners, including Mr Mousa, moaning in pain while being beaten and being forced to maintain "stress positions". The film had been extensively broadcast in the media since it was shown at a court martial of soldiers accused over the killing in 2007.

But Mr Hoon, who avoided the waiting photographers and cameramen by entering the inquiry building via a back door, said yesterday: "I've never seen that film before. If it is what it appears to be, it looks pretty appalling. If British soldiers engaged in that, it's reprehensible."

The then armed forces minister Adam Ingram was also copied into memorandum sent after Mr Mousa's death revealing that he had been subjected to prolonged hooding. In June 2004, nine months after Mr Mousa's death, Mr Ingram assured the parliamentary joint committee on human rights that hooding was used only while detainees were being transported for security reasons. Giving evidence last week the former minister was forced to admit that this was "not accurate".

Hoon's defence is simply not credible.

In fact, it's pathetic.

I suspect Hoon's true beliefs are far more accurately encapsulated by his 2003 comments as a New Labour government minister:

Hoon is 'cruel' for claims on cluster bombs claims

By Paul Waugh and Ben Russell
Saturday, 5 April 2003

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, suggested yesterday that mothers of Iraqi children killed by cluster bombs would "one day" thank Britain for their use.


Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, suggested yesterday that mothers of Iraqi children killed by cluster bombs would "one day" thank Britain for their use.

Mr Hoon's claim came as the Ministry of Defence confirmed for the first time that it had dropped 50 airborne cluster munitions in the south of Iraq, leaving behind up to 800 unexploded bomblets.

Labour MPs, landmine charities and aid agencies all condemned the Defence Secretary for his comments in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

When put to him that the Iraqi mother of a child killed by cluster bombs would not thank British forces for their actions, Mr Hoon replied: "One day they might.

"I accept that in the short term the consequences are terrible. No one minimises those and I'm not seeking to do so," he said. "But what I am saying is that this is a country that has been brutalised for decades by this appalling regime and that the restoration of that country to its own people, the possibility of their deciding for themselves their future ... and indeed the way in which they go about their lives, ultimately, yes, that will be a better place for people in Iraq."

Mr Hoon said that cluster bombs were "perfectly legal" weapons with an "entirely legitimate military role" and his advice had been that they protected British troops from unnecessary risk.

But Alice Mahon, MP for Halifax, said Mr Hoon's remarks about the mothers of Iraqi children killed by the bombs were "cruel and unfeeling.

"It was an outrageous thing to say. Does he seriously think he will win hearts and minds with talk like that? It was a typical quote from a conqueror, not a liberator," she said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pol...93447.html