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Britain
US intelligence agencies are holding back evidence from Britain over fears of open courts
2012-04-04
American intelligence has begun "cutting back" on material provided to British agencies over fears information could be compromised in UK courts, Kenneth Clarke has said.

US security services had become "extremely cautious" when dealing with Britain on the basis that shared national secrets risked being made public in open hearings.
The Justice Secretary revealed US security services had become "extremely cautious" when dealing with Britain on the basis that shared national secrets risked being made public in open hearings.

Mr Clarke made his comments following continued criticism over controversial plans by the Coalition government to hold court cases and inquests behind closed doors.

A cross-party group of peers and MPs has today attacked his proposals for so-called secret justice claiming the system would be "inherently unfair" and was based on "spurious assertions".

Speaking this morning on the BBC's Today programme, Mr Clarke refuted the suggestion that plans to allow spies to give evidence in camera to protect national security was the result of "immense American pressure" being exerted.

However, he agreed that a decision to disclose US intelligence during the case of UK resident Binyam Mohamed had led to a lessening of cooperation between the two countries. In 2008 Mr Mohamed took the British government to court to secure the release of documents relating to his detention in Guantanamo Bay prison between 2004 and 2009.

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Fifth Column
Legal trouble for US over drones
2011-05-11
[Arab News] A human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
 group says it is searching for ways to use the British and American legal system to pursue those behind the drone strikes in Pakistain's tribal belt.

Reprieve Director Clive Stafford-Smith, a London-based lawyer who has fought for Guantanamo detainees, says there are «endless ways in which the courts in Perfidious Albion, the courts in America, the international courts and Pak courts can get involved" in legal bids to block the drone strikes.

Stafford-Smith gave few details of his proposed legal campaign Monday, but Reprieve has seen past success in defending those caught up in the US campaign against international terrorism.

The legal advocacy group has represented several Guantanamo Bay detainees, including UK resident Binyam Mohamed.
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India-Pakistan
UK never told Pakistan to avoid torture: Musharraf
2011-03-15
[Emirates 24/7] Former Pak president Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
 has claimed that Britain never clearly demanded that British citizens not be tortured by his country's security services, in comments released on Monday.
"So naturally it never occurred to us not to."
As Britain prepares to open an inquiry into claims that its agents were complicit in the torture of terror suspects, Pakistain's former military ruler said London's stance may have been a "tacit approval of whatever we were doing."

In an interview with BBC TV, Musharraf strongly indicated that Pak intelligence agents used torture to extract information from terror suspects, although he did not say whether Britons were subjected to such methods.

He claimed he did not recall being told by the British that the ISI, the Pak spy agency, should not use torture on British subjects.

"Never. Never once, I don't remember it all," he said.

"Maybe they wanted us to continue to do whatever we were doing; it was a tacit approval of whatever we were doing."

Musharraf, who who was president of Pakistain from 1999 to 2008 but now lives in exile in London, said: "We are dealing with vicious people, and you have to get information.

"Now if you are extremely decent, we then don't get any information -- we need to allow leeway to the intelligence operatives, the people who interrogate."

The row in Britain centres on the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident who claims he was tortured into admitting terror charges with the knowledge of British security services.

His comments were strongly denied by former British security chiefs, who have mounted a fightback against the claims that their agents colluded in torture.

Elizabeth Manningham-Buller, former director of British domestic intelligence service MI5, denied Musharraf's claims. "There was no tacit approval of torture," she said.
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Africa North
Al Qaeda Seeking Revenge against Morocco — Anti Terrorism Expert
2011-01-07
[Asharq al-Aswat] Moroccan political analyst Dr. Mohamed Darif, who specializes in studying Islamist groups, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities have dismantled dozens of terrorist cells since 2002 thanks to the pre-emptive security approach pursued by Morocco which had made it possible for the Moroccan authorities to foil a large number of these terrorist cells' plans.
Dr. Darif added that the continuous news in Morocco of terrorist plans being foiled and terrorist cells being dismantled can be explained by the logistical and technical abilities developed by the Moroccan security services, which has allowed Rabat to monitor the activities of such groups.

Answering a question about some people's suspicions about why so many terrorist cells have been uncovered in Morocco - with Rabat claiming to have dismantled as many as 70 terrorist cells since 2002 - Dr. Darif told Asharq Al-Awsat that the skeptics need only ask themselves one question, and that is: Is Morocco truly being targeted by Al Qaeda?"

Dr. Darif stressed that there are a number of reasons why Morocco would be targeted by Al Qaeda to this extent, not least of which is that Morocco is one of the few countries that has announced its full commitment to the global war on terror. Darif added that the ruler of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, was visiting Mauritania when 9/11 occured, however he cut short this visit and returned to Morocco where he announced that Rabat was fully committed to waging war against terrorism.

Dr. Mohamed Darif stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that ever since this time, Al Qaeda has had a vendetta against Morocco. He also added that we should not forget that one of Al Qaeda's leading commanders, Mohammed Haydar Zammar, was jugged by the Moroccan authorities in December 2001 and later handed over to Syria. Morocco was also known to have taken part in the controversial US "extraordinary rendition" program, with Guantanamo Bay detainees being rendered to Morocco, including senior member of Al Qaeda Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who is accused of being a "key controller" for the 9/11 attacks, as well as former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who has subsequently spoken about the torture he suffered there.

Dr. Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that some people have said that the 16 May 2003 Casablanca bombings which resulted in the deaths of 45 people were planned by Al Qaeda -- and carried out by their affiliate organization Salafia Jihadia -- in retaliation for Moroccan security cooperation with the West, particularly the USA.

Further evidence of Morocco's commitment to combating terrorism, according to Darif, can be seen in the case of the two Moroccan embassy staff who were kidnapped in Iraq in 2005. Rabat completely refused to negotiate with Al Qaeda for their release, and in fact, the Moroccan Senior Council of Clerics which is headed by King Mohamed VI met [at this time] and issued a statement condemning Al Qaeda as an organization that has nothing to do with Islam.

Darif also indicated that when the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb...
 changed its name to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007, it issued a statement threatening violence against Morocco if any officials appeared on satellite television to condemn them.

Darif also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Moroccan authorities' success in dismantling this huge number of terrorist cells is, most of all, due to the authorities' awareness that their country is being targeted, and has therefore sought to develop strong relations with security apparatus in western countries and the Arab world, particularly Soddy Arabia, Syria, and Jordan.

Darif also indicated that the majority of those jugged in Morocco do not belong to any single organization, for the jihadist salafist ideology is prevalent throughout Morocco. As a result of this, the Salafist jihadists who have been jugged by Morocco are of different trends, and vary in their attitudes towards the authorities which is something that has made it even more difficult for the Moroccan authorities to open a dialogue with them.

Darif added that the majority of cells that have been dismantled since 2005, such as al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, the Ansar al-Mahdi group, al-Murabatoon al-Judud, Fatah al-Andulus, and others, were also accused of trying to recruit fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Britain
No prosecution of MI5 officer over torture claims
2010-11-18
(KUNA) — An MI5 (domestic intelligence service) officer will not be prosecuted over claims he was complicit in the torture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, it was announced this evening.

Scotland Yard launched an inquiry after Mohamed said an employee of the Security Service was aware of his ill-treatment while he was being held in Pakistain in 2002.

But director of public prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer said there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute the man, known as witness B, for any offence.

In a statement Starmer said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has advised the Metropolitan Police that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute witness B for any criminal offence arising from the interview of Binyam Mohamed in Pakistain on 17 May 2002.
Binyam who? Nope. Never heard of the guy...
"We are unable to release further information at this stage because the wider investigation into other potential criminal conduct arising from allegations made by Mohamed in interviews with the police is still ongoing." The "wider investigation" is understood to refer to an inquiry into claims MI6 officials have also been linked to torture. Detectives from Scotland Yard's specialist crime wing are examining "the conditions under which a non-Briton was held" and "potential involvement of British personnel".

A Metropolitan Police front man declined to comment. He said: "We will not give a running commentary."

MI5 Director General Jonathan Evans welcomed the DPP's decision.

"I am delighted that after a thorough police investigation the Crown Prosecution Service has concluded that Witness B has no case to answer in respect of his interviewing of Binyam Mohammed," he said in a statement. "Witness B is a dedicated public servant who has worked with skill and courage over many years to keep the people of this country safe from terrorism and I regret that he has had to endure this long and difficult process."

Mohamed, an Ethiopian Mohammedan convert who lived in west London after seeking asylum in 1994, was jugged in Pakistain in 2002.

He claimed he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorist activities and held incommunicado without access to a lawyer for more than two-and-a-half years.
Terrorist SOP ...
The terror suspect said he was secretly transported to Morocco and tortured before being flown to Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2004.

The United States government dropped all charges against him in October 2008 and he was released and returned to Britain in February 2009.

It emerged yesterday that secret payouts will be made to 16 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Mohamed. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said the controversial move was necessary to avoid a protracted, complex and expensive legal battle. Others are believed to include Bishar Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes and Martin Mubanga. Their allegations included claims that the Government knew they were being illegally transferred to Guantanamo Bay but failed to prevent it.
Nope. Don't know them either. They a mariachi band or sumthin?
There were also allegations that British security and intelligence officials colluded in their torture and abuse while they were held abroad. Other allegations included that British agents witnessed mistreatment, including the use of hoods and shackles.

Starmer's decision could bring a broader inquiry into claims of British complicity in torture during the war against terror a step closer.
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Britain
UK govt forced to publish U.S. torture allegations
2010-02-11
The British government lost a legal battle Wednesday to prevent the disclosure of secret U.S. intelligence material relating to allegations of "cruel and inhuman" treatment involving the CIA.

London's Court of Appeal rejected a request by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband to prevent senior judges from disclosing claims that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed had been shackled and subjected to sleep deprivation and threats while in U.S. custody.

The office of Dennis Blair, U.S. director of national intelligence, issued a statement saying the British court's decision "to release classified information provided by the United States is not helpful, and we deeply regret it."

"The protection of confidential information is essential to strong, effective security and intelligence cooperation among allies," the statement said. It indicated the ruling would create "challenges" but the two countries would "remain united in our efforts to fight against violent extremist groups."

Miliband had argued that full disclosure of the redacted claims might make the United States less willing to share intelligence and thus prejudice Britain's national security.

Recent events showed the importance of sharing intelligence, and the U.S. authorities were concerned about the release of such material, he told parliament, adding that he was working with U.S. officials to ensure bilateral ties were not damaged.

Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and British resident, was arrested in Pakistan in April 2002. He says he was flown to Morocco on a CIA plane and held for 18 months, during which he says he was repeatedly tortured, including having his penis cut with a knife. Morocco has denied holding him.

He was transferred to Afghanistan in 2004 and later moved to Guantanamo Bay, U.S. authorities have said. He was never charged and returned to Britain in February 2009.

KEY PARAGRAPHS 'REDACTED'

London's High Court ruled in 2008 that the British government must disclose all evidence held against Mohamed.

The court excluded seven sensitive paragraphs supplied by U.S. intelligence services, and judges said later the United States had threatened to end intelligence cooperation if the evidence of alleged torture was released.

But last October, two High Court judges ruled there was "an overwhelming public interest" in releasing the details, a decision the Appeal Court upheld Wednesday.

"The treatment reported ... could be readily contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities," the now public judgment said.

Miliband said the Appeal Court would have upheld the principle that no country should disclose intelligence from another without its agreement -- had the substance of the paragraphs not already been put into the public domain by a U.S. court judgment in a separate case in December.

"Without that disclosure, it is clear that the Court of Appeal would have overturned the Divisional Court's decision to publish the material," Miliband said in a statement.

He told parliament Britain was opposed to torture. "The UK firmly opposes torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. This is not just about legal obligations, it is also about our values as a nation ..."

Human rights campaigners said the government had gone to great lengths to conceal torture and the Foreign Office had been concerned mainly with saving face.

"These embarrassing paragraphs reveal nothing of use to terrorists but they do show something of the UK government's complicity with the most shameful part of the War on Terror," said Shami Chakrabati, director of rights campaign group Liberty.
Looks like Chakrabati's idea of what is the most shameful part of the WoT diverges from reality.
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Home Front: WoT
Suit by 5 ex-captives of CIA can proceed, appeals panel rules
2009-04-28
Should have a Lawfare subheading
The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today.

Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama's Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security.

The lawyers argued that "the very subject matter" of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president's state secrets privilege. In a move that surprised many human rights groups, the Obama administration declined to revise the Bush lawyers' claims that the case needed to be dismissed to protect national security.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subcontractor accused of complicity in the men's mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.

Previous lawsuits alleging abuse were brought against the U.S. government and dismissed by the courts presented with presidential claims of state secrets privilege.

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan now goes back to U.S. District Court in San Francisco for trial, with the U.S. government, which is backing Jeppesen, free to argue that specific documents or pieces of evidence can be protected from disclosure if they pose a genuine national security risk, but not the entire case, said the opinion.

"By excising secret evidence on an item-by-item basis, rather than foreclosing litigation altogether at the outset, the evidentiary privilege recognizes that the executive's national security prerogatives are not the only weighty constitutional values at stake," said the unanimous opinion written by Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an appointee of President Clinton. ...

Binyam Mohamed
The items Mohamed admitted include the following:

1. The detainee is an Ethiopian who lived in the United States from 1992 to 1994, and in London, United Kingdom, until he departed for Pakistan in 2001.

2. The detainee arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, in June 2001, and traveled to the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, to receive paramilitary training.

3. At the al Farouq camp, the detainee received 40 days of training in light arms handling, explosives, and principles of topography.

4. The detainee was taught to falsify documents, and received instruction from a senior al Qaeda operative on how to encode telephone numbers before passing them to another individual.

At a minimum, therefore, we know that Mohamed has admitted being an al Qaeda-trained operative.

Mohamed claims that he was not going to use his skills against America. Mohamed told his personal representative that "he went for training to fight in Chechnya, which was not illegal." In 2005, Mohamed's lawyer echoed this explanation in an interview with CNN. "He wanted to see the Taliban with his own eyes," Mohamed's lawyer claimed. "I am not saying he never went to any Islamic camp," the lawyer conceded, but he "didn't go to any camp to blow up Americans."

There are obvious problems with this quasi-denial.

The al Farouq training camp was responsible for training numerous al Qaeda operatives, including some of the September 11 hijackers. Al Qaeda used the al Farouq camp to identify especially promising recruits who could take on sensitive missions. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, this is what happened with members of al Qaeda's infamous Hamburg cell. Some of the future 9/11 suicide pilots also first expressed an interest in fighting in Chechnya, but ended up being assigned a mission inside the United States.

This is what the US government, or at least the parts of it that investigated Mohamed's al Qaeda ties, believes happened to Mohamed. In the unclassified files produced at Guantánamo, as well as an indictment issued by a military commission, the Department of Defense and other US agencies have outlined what they think happened during Binyam Mohamed's time in Afghanistan and then Pakistan.

According to the US government's allegations, Osama bin Laden visited the al Farouq camp "several times" after Mohamed arrived there in the summer of 2001. The terror master "lectured Binyam Mohamed and other trainees about the importance of conducting operations against the United States." Bin Laden explained that "something big is going to happen in the future" and the new recruits should get ready for an impending event.

From al Farouq, Mohamed allegedly received additional training at a "city warfare course" in Kabul and then moved to the front lines in Bagram "to experience fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance." He then returned to Kabul, where the government claims he attended an explosives training camp alongside Richard Reid, the infamous shoe bomber.

Mohamed was then reportedly introduced to top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. By early 2002, the two were traveling between al Qaeda safehouses. The US government alleges that Mohamed then met Jose Padilla and two other plotters, both of whom are currently detained at Guantánamo, at a madrassa. Zubaydah and another top al Qaeda lieutenant, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, allegedly directed the four of them "to receive training on building remote-controlled detonation devices for explosives."

At some point, Padilla and Mohamed traveled to a guesthouse in Lahore, Pakistan, where they "reviewed instructions on a computer ... on how to make an improvised 'dirty bomb.'" To the extent that the allegations against Mohamed have gotten any real press, it is this one that has garnered the attention. Media accounts have often highlighted the fact that Padilla and Mohamed were once thought to be plotting a "dirty bomb" attack, but that the allegation was dropped, making it seem as if they were not really planning a strike on American soil.

Indeed, all of the charges against Mohamed were dropped last year at Guantánamo. But this does not mean that he is innocent. As some press accounts have noted, the charges were most likely dropped for procedural reasons and because of the controversy surrounding his detention. According to US government files, Padilla and Mohamed were considering a variety of attack scenarios.

Zubaydah, Padilla, and Mohamed allegedly discussed the feasibility of the "dirty bomb plot." But Zubaydah moved on to the possibility of "blowing up gas tankers and spraying people with cyanide in nightclubs." Zubaydah, according to the government, stressed that the purpose of these attacks would be to help "free the prisoners in Cuba." That is, Zubaydah wanted to use terrorist attacks to force the US government to free the detainees at Guantánamo.

According to the summary-of-evidence memo prepared for Mohamed's combatant status review tribunal at Guantánamo, Mohamed was an active participant in the plotting. He proposed "the idea of attacking subway trains in the United States." But al Qaeda's military chief, Saif al Adel, and the purported 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), had a different idea. Al Adel and KSM allegedly told Binyam that he and Padilla would target "high-rise apartment buildings that utilized natural gas for its heat and also targeting gas stations." Padilla and Mohamed were supposed to rent an apartment and use the building's natural gas "to detonate an explosion that would collapse all of the floors above."

It may have been this "apartment building" plot that Mohamed and Padilla were en route to the United States to execute when they were apprehended. In early April 2002, KSM allegedly gave Mohamed $6,000 and Padilla $10,000 to fly to the United States. They were both detained at the airport in Karachi on April 4. Mohamed was arrested with a forged passport, but released. KSM arranged for Mohamed to travel on a different forged passport, but he was arrested once again on April 10. Padilla was released and made it all the way to Chicago before being arrested once again.

The gravity of the charges against Mohamed is rarely reported in the media. The Bush administration and US intelligence officials believed he was part of al Qaeda's attempted second wave of attacks on US soil.
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Home Front: WoT
Guantanamo prison worse since Obama election - ex-detainee
2009-03-07
A FREED Guantanamo Bay prisoner claims conditions at the US detention camp in Cuba have worsened since President Barack Obama was elected, claiming guards wanted to "take their last revenge".

Binyam Mohamed, who became the first detainee to be transferred out of Guantanamo since President Obama took office, also said British agents "sold me out" by cooperating with his alleged torturers.

In his first interview since being released, Mr Mohamed, a 30-year-old Ethiopian-born former UK resident, gave further details of what he called the "medieval" torture he faced in Pakistan, Morocco, Guantanamo and a secret CIA prison in Kabul.

"The result of my experience is that I feel emotionally dead," he told the Mail on Sunday.

President Obama had promised during his campaign to shut down the Guantanamo prison and two days after taking office announced it would close this year.

"Since the (US) election it's got harsher," Mr Mohamed said.

"The guards would say, 'yes, this place is going to close down,' but it was like they wanted to take their last revenge."

Mr Mohamed said he was beaten at Guantanamo and while he was held in Morocco his chest and penis were slashed with razors.

In Afghanistan he lived in constant darkness and "came close to insanity" after being forced to listen to the same album by rapper Eminem at top volume for a solid month.

He flew back to the UK last month, tasting freedom for the first time since 2002 when he was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and plotting to build a radioactive "dirty bomb".

The US never charged him, and British police who questioned him on his return let him go free.
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Britain
Britain admits rendition of terror suspects
2009-02-27
Gordon Brown was under growing pressure to hold an independent inquiry into Britain’s complicity in torture last night after ministers admitted that terror suspects detained by British soldiers in Iraq were secretly flown by the US to Afghanistan.

John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, told MPs that despite repeated official assurances to the contrary, British soldiers were involved in at least one case of rendition. Two suspects captured and detained by British Special Forces outside Baghdad in 2004 were subsequently removed by the US to Afghanistan where they remain in detention. There was “no evidence” that the two, believed to be Pakistani members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed organisation with links to al-Qaeda, had been tortured, Mr Hutton insisted.

But the Government’s embarrassment was heightened when Mr Hutton revealed that officials told Jack Straw and Charles Clarke about the case in April 2006 in internal briefing papers. Mr Straw repeatedly denied that Britain was involved in rendition while he was Foreign Secretary. Yesterday Mr Hutton sought to defend his colleagues, saying that officials had made only “brief references” to the case in “lengthy papers” which did not “highlight its significance”. However, he added: “It is clear to me that the transfer to Afghanistan of these two individuals should have been questioned at the time.” A spokesman for Mr Straw said: “If he had been alerted to the significance of the case at the time it’s a fair suggestion that he would have brought it to the attention of Parliament.”

The admission is the latest in a series of revelations that campaigners say undermine official denials that Britain systematically helped to facilitate the sending of suspects for US interrogation to countries where torture is not illegal. Allegations that MI5 officers were complicit in the torture of the British resident Binyam Mohamed in Morocco are being investigated by the Attorney-General. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted last year that, despite previous denials, the British territory of Diego Garcia was used in the US rendition of suspected terrorists.

Mr Hutton made the latest admission after allegations by a former SAS officer, Ben Griffin, that British soldiers routinely turned over captives to US forces in the knowledge that they would be tortured. The Defence Secretary said that while a review by a senior general had found no evidence to substantiate the claims of complicity in torture, it had revealed at least one case of British involvement in rendition. He also apologised for inaccuracies in figures on the number of detainees held by British Forces in the period since January 2004. He said that in three parliamentary answers since February 2007, ministers overstated by about 1,000 the number of detainees held.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, called for a full Government inquiry into British involvement in the US rendition programme. He said US assurances that it did not use torture were unreliable.

The two suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were detained in a nighttime raid by special forces, according to defence sources, and were described yesterday by military officials as “very, very bad people”. The SAS, backed by soldiers from the Special Forces Support Group, had been engaged since 2003 in one of the most challenging covert counter-terrorist operations in the regiment’s history. They were working alongside Delta Force and other US special forces units. The SAS had no facilities for holding prisoners and handed them to the Americans for interrogation. This was normal procedure, although never publicly acknowledged. Military sources said the Americans did not have interpreters to help in the interrogation of the two men, which was why they were shipped out of Iraq and sent to the US base at Bagram in Afghanistan to be questioned.

The review by the general uncovered a confused paper trail. According to American records, US special forces had arrested the two suspects, but it was clear from the paperwork provided by the SAS at Hereford that it had been a British operation. What is still not clear is why the Ministry of Defence was not included when the reference to the handover of two prisoners to the Americans in 2004 was circulated in a briefing note to ministers at the Home Office and Foreign Office in 2006.
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Home Front: WoT
Lawyer claims Guantanamo abuse worse since Obama
2009-02-25
LONDON (Reuters) - Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees.

Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike.
He doesn't have any proof, of course, but that hasn't stopped any of the critics ...
The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions at Guantanamo, but had concluded that all prisoners were being kept in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

"According to my clients, there has been a ramping up in abuse since President Obama was inaugurated," said Ghappour, a British-American lawyer with Reprieve, a legal charity that represents 31 detainees at Guantanamo. "If one was to use one's imagination, (one) could say that these traumatized, and for lack of a better word barbaric, guards were just basically trying to get their kicks in right now for fear that they won't be able to later," he said.
Then again, if one were a lawyer, one would stick to what could be proven and would turn one's imagination off ...
"Certainly in my experience there have been many, many more reported incidents of abuse since the inauguration," added Ghappour, who has visited Guantanamo six times since late September and based his comments on his own observations and conversations with both prisoners and guards.

He stressed the mistreatment did not appear to be directed from above, but was an initiative undertaken by frustrated U.S. army and navy jailers on the ground. It did not seem to be a reaction against the election of Obama, a Democrat who has pledged to close the prison camp within a year, but rather a realization that there was little time remaining before the last 241 detainees, all Muslim, are released.

"It's 'hey, let's have our fun while we can,'" said Ghappour, who helped secure the release this week of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident freed from Guantanamo Bay after more than four years in detention without trial or charge. "I can't really imagine why you would get your kicks from abusing prisoners, but certainly, having spoken to certain guards who have been injured in Iraq, who indirectly or directly blame my clients for their injuries and the trauma they have suffered, it's not too difficult to put two and two together."
Counselor, your clients are taught to lie.
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Britain
Freed Gitmo detainee says tortured medieval way
2009-02-24
Binyam Mohamed, a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years, was released and returned to Britain on Monday, accusing the U.S. government of orchestrating his torture. "I am pleased that Binyam Mohamed has today returned to the U.K. following his release from Guantanamo Bay," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement, as television pictures showed what they said was Mohamed's plane landing at RAF Northolt airbase in northwest London. "This is the direct result of our request for his release and return and follows intensive negotiations with the U.S. government."

The United States agreed to release Mohamed last week after 18 months of pressure from the British government. He is the first prisoner to be transferred from Guantanamo since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month and promptly pledged to shut it.

Tortured in "medieval way"
After his release Mohamed issued a statement via his lawyers saying he had been "tortured in medieval ways--all orchestrated by the U.S. government."

"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, 'torture' was an abstract word for me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim," he added.

Miliband added that Mohamed had been accompanied on the flight by Foreign Office officials, Metropolitan Police officers and a doctor and that Mohamed's family and lawyers had been informed. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Sunday that Mohamed would be granted temporary admission into Britain, where he has refugee status. She added that a final judgment on his immigration status would be made based on "the facts at the time" and said he would be treated fairly. The Foreign Office has stressed that Mohamed will not necessarily be allowed to remain here permanently.

From Pakistan to Morocco
" the very worst moment came when I realized in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence "
Binyam Mohamed
Mohamed was detained in Pakistan in April 2002, where his lawyers say he was held for nearly four months, during which he says he was tortured and abused by Pakistani intelligence officers in the presence of a British intelligence agent. He was taken to Morocco on a CIA flight in July 2002, his lawyers say, and again subjected to torture and abuse.

Morocco has denied holding him and the U.S. government has denied that he was subjected to "extraordinary rendition."

Mohamed has been accused of receiving al-Qaeda training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb" on the U.S. transport network, but all charges brought against him have been dropped and he has never been tried.
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Europe
The Independent: Obama, tell us the whole truth
2009-02-22
Lots of butter, but easy on the salt, please
'Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position." With these words, Acting Assistant Attorney General Michael Hertz ended a dream.
Never mind. When an article starts out like that it's time for the Dramamine, not the popcorn.
The dream that Barack Obama's presidency would inaugurate a transcendent world order on a new moral plane.
See, what this tells you is that the editors of The Independent don't know a whole lot about Illinois politics.
"Governor, there's some Brit a****** out here sayin' he wants a transcendent world something or other."
"Huh? Tell that f*** Transvestite World's on the South Side. Ask for Butch."
"I don't think that's it, Governor. I wrote it down. He wants a 'transcendent world order on a new moral plane.'"
"For nothing? F*** him. I'll give the world to the f****** Martians before I give this f*** a new world order and I don't get anything!"
Late on Friday Mr Hertz told the Washington district court that the Obama administration maintained President Bush's view that prisoners held at Bagram air base in Afghanistan could not challenge their detention in US courts. For the cynics, this is "a previously articulated position you can believe in".

This newspaper was not so naive
( with a lead in like that you know this next part's going to be weird)
as to imagine that President Obama would immediately conform to the most scrupulous interpretation of US and international law.
Which is?
We are pleased that he has ordered the closure within a year of Guantanamo Bay, halted military trials and restricted CIA interrogators to Army Field Manual techniques. But the refusal to grant legal rights to detainees at Bagram is disappointing.
Hmm. I'm guessing The Independent still isn't ready to get on the Palin 2012 bandwagon.
The US Supreme Court ruling in 2004 that prisoners in Guantanamo had the right to take their cases to US courts ended the anomalous status of the prison camp in Cuba. President Bush's attempt to create a legal limbo outside the American and international legal systems had failed. But he continued to try to deny legal rights to prisoners not just in Guantanamo but in Iraq and Bagram, too.
The way I'd put that is: he continued to try to win the war.
Mr Obama's closure of Guantanamo therefore smacks more of fulfilling a symbolic pledge than following it through.
"Ahmed, we're gonna hook your 'nads up to this car battery, but only for symbolic reasons."
"Is it too late for me to vote Repubican?"
Indeed, Elena Kagan, Mr Obama's nominee for Solicitor General, said during her confirmation hearing that someone suspected of helping to finance al-Qa'ida should be subject to battlefield law -- indefinite detention without trial -- even if captured in the Philippines, say, rather than a battle zone.

Nor is this the first disappointment of Obama's presidency.
Even I have to point out he's only been in office 30 days.
Earlier this month, a government lawyer stuck to the Bush line in a case brought by Binyam Mohamed, the British resident expected home from Guantanamo tomorrow.
When he will no doubt resume a Gandhi-like life of non-violence.
When the case resumed after President Obama's inauguration, the judge asked the Justice Department's lawyer if "anything material" had happened to change that view. "No, your Honour," came the reply. The position he continued to take, he said, had been "thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration".
Which doesn't mean that there's not plenty of room under the bus for this DOJ guy.
What is more, Leon Panetta, Mr Obama's nominee as CIA director, charged with ending the use of torture techniques such as waterboarding by US agents, said that the agency is likely to continue to transfer detainees to third countries. It would rely on the same assurances of good treatment on which the Bush administration depended.
Hey, if you can't trust Hosni Mubarak, who can you trust?
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