08-02-2009, 02:54 PM
UK suppressed torture evidence to protect MI6
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
- Tim Shipman, Washington
- February 9, 2009
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
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
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"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.