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Martin Mubanga

Martin Mubanga

al-Qaeda

Britain

20040310

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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Down Under

Hicks admitted training with Richard Reid

2006-03-19

AUSTRALIAN terror suspect David Hicks was secretly interrogated in Guantanamo Bay by British intelligence agency MI5 and admitted to training with several terrorists including the infamous "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, according to new claims from the Blair Government. In an extraordinary twist to the Hicks saga, the British Government is using the contents of MI5's secret 2003 interview to deny the Australian detainee his application for a British passport. According to lawyers representing the Home Office, Hicks admitted during the interview to extensive terrorist training in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and also that he had met the late Abu Hafs, an al-Qaeda kingpin who was anointed by Osama bin Laden as his successor just before his violent death in 2001. The revelations emerged in Britain's High Court on Friday, as Home Secretary Charles Clarke fought an appeal against last year's ruling that he should grant Hicks British citizenship immediately, on the basis that the detainee's mother was born in Britain. Hicks' father, Terry, yesterday fought back on his son's behalf against the allegations, raising the spectre of torture, and said his son should be subject to all the protection afforded to other detainees who were British citizens. He is planning to personally ask Tony Blair for help with his son's plight when the British Prime Minister arrives in Australia next weekend. "He's not in a real good way," he said of his son. "The quicker we get him back here, the better off David will be." In London, counsel for the British Government told the High Court that the Government had sent a letter to Hicks' lawyers setting out why Mr Clarke is unwilling to make Hicks a British citizen. The Home Secretary, according to the letter, dated December last year and seen by The Sunday Age, intends to "rely on admissions made by Mr Hicks in an interview with the Security Service (known more generally as MI5) on 26 April, 2003 in Guantanamo Bay". "In particular, Mr Hicks admitted the following: attending a Lashkar Tayyaba (sic) training camp in Kashmir in around 2000 . . . attending the Al Farooq system of camps in Afghanistan in around 2001 . . . (and) receiving training in weapons and guerilla warfare." Hicks also admitted, according to the letter, "meeting and training with a number of UK nationals known to be Islamic extremists including Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Richard Reid and Sajid Badat". Reid, the British-born "shoe bomber" who unsuccessfully attempted to blow up his sneakers on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001, is now serving a life sentence in the US. Badat, his accomplice, was sentenced last year to 13 years in a British prison. Abbasi and Mubanga, however, are at liberty in Britain, having been released from Guantanamo Bay in January 2005. The British Government secured the release of all British citizens from the prison through a deal with the US Government, and neither Mr Abbasi nor Mr Mubanga have subsequently been charged with any offence. An irritated Michael Fordham, barrister for David Hicks, told the court it was "inconsistent" for Mr Clarke to condemn Hicks for his association with the likes of Mubanga and Abbasi. "They were in Guantanamo! They were released! They have been arrested and interviewed in this country, and no charges were laid!" he protested. Terry Hicks said the British Government was treating his son like a "political football". "If the law says he is eligible for British citizenship, well that's it," he said. "The nine Brits who were released from Guantanamo Bay probably had the same alliances, and some of the stuff that has come out about David could possibly be hearsay."

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Home Front: WoT

Muslims Still Protesting Alleged Quran Abuse

2005-05-22

Muslim protesters burned, spit and urinated on a U.S. flag Friday in eastern India, accusing Americans of desecrating Islam's holy book as anger persisted despite the retraction of a magazine report that a Quran was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay. That's right. Answer an alleged desecration with an actual desecration... U.S. officials have said they found nothing to substantiate the Newsweek report that interrogators at the prison camp in Cuba flushed a copy of the Quran down the toilet to unnerve an inmate. But given frequent reports of mistreatment at the camp from released detainees, some Muslims remained convinced the desecration happened and U.S. officials pressured the magazine to deny the story. "Of course it happened! It had to have happened! Why would they tell us it happened if it didn't? It's not like we're a bunch of ignorant rubes who'll riot over... ummm... anything. Any time. Any place. In London, a former prisoner at Guantanamo told a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy that guards at the camp had mistreated his Quran. "This was one of the methods they used, throwing the Quran, my Quran, on the floor in my cell. This was in the first month at Camp Delta but it is not something that stopped, rather continued and increased," said Martin Mubanga, who was released from the prison in January. "It's a shame we have had to wait for a magazine to publish and then retract a story concerning the treatment of the Quran," Mubanga said. "Oh why, why didn't you believe me and riot six months ago?" He spoke as about 200 protesters gathered outside the embassy, chanting "kill, kill George Bush" and other anti-American slogans. Many in the crowd bravely covered their faces with scarves. A man with a megaphone led chants including "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "bomb, bomb New York." Thank you. We'll keep that in mind. And maybe you should keep that statement in mind next time you feel like we're being too hard on the poor, defenseless Moose limbs... Thousands also took to the streets in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu and the Palestinian territories, but the demonstrations were nothing on the scale of rioting in Afghanistan last week in which 15 people died and protesters threw rocks at police. Seems like people in Mogadishu and Paleostine would have other things to worry about, like one state being failed and the other being stillborn, but maybe that's just me... Riot police watched but did not stop some 500 protesters who shouted slogans against the United States and forced a traffic shutdown in the heart of the eastern Indian city of Calcutta. The protest began at a mosque after Friday afternoon prayers conducted by the "imam" or chief priest, who then led demonstrators to the road. "Death to America!" they cried as men spat on the flag. They asked a boy in the crowd to urinate on it, and hit the flag with shoes and leather slippers. The 20-minute protest ended with the burning of two American flags. And a wonderful time was had by all. In the West Bank city of Nablus, some 2,500 Palestinian Hamas militants streamed out of mosques Friday chanting, "Death to America, death to Israel." Muslim preacher Maher Haraz demanded that "America apologize to all Muslims worldwide, and punish those that trampled on the Quran and stuffed it in the toilet." After you've killed the people who burnt or pissed on our flag. "There will be a Muslim uprising in the world, an uprising of the Quran," Haraz declared. As opposed to what we have now?

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Europe

UK Quran protests at U.S. Embassy

2005-05-20

LONDON, England (CNN) -- About 100 people have been taking part in a noisy protest over the alleged desecration of the Quran outside the U.S. Embassy in London. The protesters chanted "Death, death to the USA," "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and other anti-American slogans. Many in the crowd covered their faces with scarves, the Press Association reported. Musta been cold in London in late May ... Al Jizz claims it is 200 people ... goes on to say: More than 200 people have gathered outside the US embassy in the London to demonstrate against what they call systematic and institutionalised abuse of the Quran. Muslim and non-Muslim groups alike heard former Guantanamo Bay detainee Martin Mubanga on Friday talk about frequent instances of disrespect for Islam's holy book during his time at the US prison camp. "The soldiers thought I was a dangerous man, a martial artist, so they liked to beat me to a pulp, which they did routinely fight me," the former prisoner said. Released in January, Mubanga was held in Camp Delta's Charlie Block for more than two years. "This was one of the methods they used, throwing the Quran, my Quran, on the floor in my cell. This was in the first month at Camp Delta, but it is not something that stopped, rather continued and increased," Mubanga said. Oooh! They threw it on the floor not the bed...oooh! He's a real tough boy now in front of a crowd, isn't he.

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Britain

Terror suspect 'ran jihad web network' from South London; faces extradiction to US

2005-03-03

A British computer expert ran websites raising cash and recruiting fighters for the Taleban and the Chechen Mujahidin, an extradition hearing was told yesterday. Babar Ahmad allegedly operated websites in the United States that revealed links to Shamil Basayev, the Chechen leader behind the Beslan school attack. There was also advice on smuggling cash to the Taleban, and Muslims were urged to take arms training for a jihad. Mr Ahmad, 30, of Tooting, South London, is fighting extradition on five charges stretching from 1997 to 2004 alleging that he used websites to incite the murder of US servicemen in Afghanistan and elsewhere. At the start of a two-day hearing, John Hardy, for the US Government, said that the websites "sought and invited and solicited contributions to terrorist causes in Afghanistan and Chechnya". The material inciting murder in both the countries and elsewhere was "established, operated and maintained by this defendant", he told Tim Workman, the senior district judge at Bow Street Magistrates' Court. Muslims were told that "military training is an Islamic obligation, not an option" and it was suggested that they should get hold of weapons such as AK47s. One of the websites, named after the spiritual teacher of Osama bin Laden, announced that it had been set up "to propagate the cause of jihad among Muslims who are sitting down ignorant", Mr Hardy said. The website said that the best way to help would be to "go to the lands of jihad" to fight. The website included a disclaimer suggesting that there was no suggestion of promoting illegal action. Mr Hardy said that this was "manifest nonsense". Potential militants were told that they should read US military manuals and the memoirs of British soldiers, take martial arts training and learn knife fighting. Recruits were urged to be discreet and advised to make contact with veteran fighters who had come home. Website readers were also told: "The most important thing a Muslim can do in the West is raise money." Edward Fitzgerald, QC, for Mr Ahmad, asked the court to consider whether the Act allowing extradition was at odds with an extradition treaty signed in 1972. The treaty requires prima facie evidence but the Act under which Mr Ahmad faces extradition does not. Mr Fitzgerald said that the definition of terrorism as "an act of violence for political ends" was far too broad. On that basis he said: "One would say President Bush was a terrorist. He is constantly concerned in violence with political ends." Looking at the charges, Mr Fitzgerald said that the Taleban were the de facto Government in Afghanistan, and Chechnya was invaded by the Russians despite a peace treaty in 1998. The Mujahidin were acting in self-defence. Mr Fitzgerald said that there was also a danger that once in the United States Mr Ahmad could be held indefinitely without trial by the military. Legislation allows a president to sign an order designating a foreigner as an enemy combatant and send him to a military prison or a military tribunal. Scores of protesters, including Martin Mubanga, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee, gathered in Bow Street to support Mr Ahmad. The hearing continues.

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Britain

Freed Gitmo detainees denied passports

2005-02-16

It's a trend -- first Australia, now Britain! The Government is refusing to issue passports to some of the Britons released from Guantanamo Bay last month under a rarely used law. Home Secretary Charles Clarke used powers under the Royal Prerogative to deny passport facilities to Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme said. It is not known whether the other two British detainees, Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg, have also been refused passports under the powers, only used 13 times since 1947 and for the last time in 1976. The Home Office's letter to Mr Mubanga, a 32-year-old former motorcycle courier from Wembley, north London, who was arrested in Zambia and sent to the US base in Cuba, said the Home Secretary has the power to refuse passport facilities "if past or proposed activities were so demonstrably undesirable that the granting of the passport would be contrary to the public interest". Bwahahahaha.

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Britain

Al-Qaeda rule #18 - Always claim to have been tortured after being detained

2005-01-30

Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar finally arrived back in Britain last week after their three-year imprisonment in Guantanamo, to near-universal acclaim and sympathy. Their lawyers insist that they are totally innocent of any involvement in terrorism. The men themselves say that they have been tortured, and that the admissions made by three of them — that they had been recruited by al-Qa'eda , and undergone training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan — are completely false. The horrors of what undoubtedly took place in Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq, have convinced many people that the Americans must also have administered hideous tortures to everyone they imprisoned at Guantanamo. In fact it is not at all clear that the Americans have tortured anyone in Guantanamo. Some of the "sexual tortures" — women interrogators rubbing their breasts against the backs of those being questioned — sound, to Western ears, too close to the comfy chair of Monty Python's Spanish Inquistion to be taken seriously. Surprisingly, perhaps, the US army authorities took them very seriously: they dismissed for "inappropriate conduct" a female interrogator who was found to have run her fingers through one detainee's hair and sat on his lap during an interrogation. The detainees in Guantanamo were certainly humiliated and made to feel extremely uncomfortable. They may have been deprived of light and sleep and forced to stand for long periods. But did it constitute torture? The US Department of Defence insists that none of the Britons even alleged they had been tortured or abused until October last year — and that when US officials investigated those claims, they not only found they had no foundation, but that one of the Britons had assaulted one of his interrogators.

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Britain

More on the Gitmo Brits

2005-01-30

One of the Guantanamo Bay detainees freed in London came face to face with Osama Bin Laden at a terrorist training camp, according to court documents revealed today. Richard Belmar, 25, and three others, were released without charge by Scotland Yard this week after officers concluded that there was not evidence to charge them with an offence. But the official US documents allege that all four were trained by al Qaeda in battlefield tactics and the use of assault weapons. According to US Department of Justice transcripts of a military tribunal held last October, Mr Belmar admitted to living with Bin Laden as he finalised his plans for the September 11 attacks. He is also reported to have been a disciple of Bin Laden's "Ambassador in Europe" Abu Qatada - who is soon to be freed from Belmarsh jail. Mr Belmar, of St Johns Wood, said he did not realise he was at terrorist training camp and thought it was a "military camp for Muslims". And the difference is...? But when asked if he, "received basic weapons, war tactics and navigation training at a terrorist training camp?", Mr Belmar is alleged to have replied: "That is true." All the detainees are accused of being al Qaeda members, according to the transcripts. Feroz Abbasi, 24 of Croydon, is said to have gone to Afghanistan to train to fight Americans and Jews, according to the transcripts obtained by the Sun. When asked about his role, he launched into a rant against "terrorist America". Martin Mubanga, 32, from Wembley, was seized in Zambia and is accused by the US of being an al Qaeda member and fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan after receiving "advanced military training". Mr Mubanga denied all the allegations and later retracted his statement from the tribunal. The fourth Britain, Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham, refused to take part in the tribunal.

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Britain

All 4 Gitmo Brits were trained by al-Qaeda. Wotta surprise.

2005-01-28

The four Britons who returned home free men from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had all been trained by the Al-Qaeda terror network, a newspaper said, citing allegations contained in US documents. The Sun said it had obtained US documents showing that Richard Belmar, 25, had confessed to having come face to face with Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at a training camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Belmar also admitted that Al-Qaeda had taught him how to use assault weapons and carry out battlefield tactics. He had lived with Bin Laden and his aides as the terrorist leader fine-tuned his plans for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The other three who returned home with him -- Moazzem Begg, 36, Martin Mubanga, 31, and Feroz Abbasi, 25 -- also allegedly received weapons training, according to the documents published in The Sun. Though the four were released without charge after their return to Britain on Tuesday following up to three years in Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said the four individuals still pose a "significant threat." But British police have said that statements and information gleaned by US and British intelligence interrogators at Cuba's Camp Delta are inadmissible in a British court. According to the documents published by The Sun, Abbasi is accused by the US government of going to Afghanistan on a Jihad mission to train to fight Americans and Jews. He was allegedly trained to carry out surveillance and ambushes and learned how to fire Kalashnakov's and rocket-propelled grenades, met top Al-Qaeda leaders, heard bin Laden speak and beat up a suspected spy who later identified him. Begg, 36, was allegedly an enemy combatant and member of Al-Qaeda. He was alleged to have recruited others, provided money and support to Al-Qaeda training camps and received extensive military training, according to the US documents published by The Sun. His family claim it was a case of mistaken identity. Mubanga, 32, was accused by the United States of being an Al-Qaeda member and fighting the coalition in Afghanistan after having received advanced military training. When he was arrested he was said to have been plotting to carry out surveillance of 33 Jewish organizations in New York. Mubanga denied all the allegations and retracted all statements made at his tribunal hearing. All four have denied they are linked to Al-Qaeda.

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Britain

Clarke to decide the fate of released Gitmo suspects

2005-01-26

Charles Clarke will attempt to resolve the crisis surrounding controversial anti-terrorist laws today when he sets out the fate of foreign terror suspects detained without trial. The home secretary will tell the Commons how the government intends to deal with detainees, after the law lords ruled before Christmas that their incarceration was unlawful under the European convention on human rights. The final details of the plans were still being discussed by the cabinet last night but a statement to parliament was scheduled for lunchtime today. There was speculation that the government would be forced to release at least some of the 11, most of whom are held in Belmarsh prison in London. But civil rights groups warned the government against any attempt to place the suspects, in effect, under house arrest. There were fears ministers could introduce orders placing restrictions on the detainees' behaviour. This would mean keeping tight control over them while not actually confining them in prison. There was even speculation the government might try to challenge its obligations under European law. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the civil liberties group, said: "I'm delighted that the new home secretary is finally responding to the House of Lords' damning verdict on detention without trial. I hope, however, that he will honour the spirit as well as the letter of this judgment and fully comply with human rights values in any new anti-terror measures." Mr Clarke has signalled that he wants to secure deals with north African countries to enable some of the suspects to be deported without the risk of being tortured or sentenced to death in their homelands. The development came as the last four British detainees to return from Guantänamo Bay were being questioned last night by detectives at a central London police station. Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar were arrested as they arrived back in Britain yesterday after almost three years in custody at the US base in Cuba. The men are now expected to sue the US government for compensation. Shortly after the RAF aircraft carrying them touched down, they were taken to Paddington Green for questioning. Their return prompted fresh calls for the government to rethink its anti-terror legislation. Edward Nally, president of the Law Society, said ministers ought now to "pause for thought". The decision to arrest the men was taken in spite of protests from Muslim leaders and a plea from their lawyers not to detain them. The US suspects the four, who were captured three years ago during the war in Afghanistan, of links with the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation. Their lawyers say they did nothing wrong. The men's families are expecting to see them today.

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Home Front: WoT

Gitmo transcripts offer glimpses into the lives of terror suspects

2004-11-17

The 240-pound Kuwaiti engineer said he feared he was "a little chunky" for riding a motorbike into Afghanistan on his mission to arrange humanitarian aid. Part of the "Arms and Ammunition for the Poor" operation... But just when Fouad Al Rabia's story takes a comic turn, he admits to having four meetings with Osama bin Laden, who he describes as "an eccentric millionaire who became a revolutionary." "Oh, yeah. I just popped in to say 'hello.' It ain't like I was a terrorist or nothin'!" Turkish national Murat Kurnaz complained that he was captured in Pakistan and turned over to U.S. forces because a friend from Germany may have been a suicide bomber: "I don't need friends like that." Yeah. They're not there when you need 'em, are they? And Martin Mubanga, a British businessman, denied having any ties with al-Qaida after he was arrested in Zambia. But according to a summary of classified evidence, Mubanga was preparing for "possible terrorist attacks against 33 Jewish organizations based in New York City." From Zambia? Brilliant.

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Britain

Guantanamo Britons are still a threat, says Blair

2004-11-14

Tony Blair reignited the row over Guantanamo Bay last night by claiming that former British detainees had been "causing difficulties again" after their release. The Prime Minister's unexpected comments, in a television interview, came as it was confirmed that the five former terrorism suspects freed this year from the US military base on Cuba are the subject of round-the-clock police surveillance. A senior Whitehall official said that the men were under suspicion and claimed that the activities of more than one was "worrying" police. Mr Blair's remarks were immediately branded "highly defamatory, misleading and irresponsible" by Gareth Peirce, the solicitor for three of the former detainees. She [sic - actually is a woman] called on the Prime Minister to give a full clarification. After his talks with President George W Bush at the White House, Mr Blair was asked by Adam Boulton, the Sky TV political editor, whether the four Britons still at Guantanamo Bay would also be sent home. Mr Blair replied: "We are in discussions with them. It's difficult, because we have to make sure our own security is going to be properly protected if we have people back in this country. As you know, there have been incidents of people who have been back and causing difficulties again, so you need to be careful." Snipped - Usual solicitors' 'butter wouldn't melt' bullshit. Iqbal, Rasul, Ahmed and al-Harith have started legal action for £5.5 million damages against the US government, alleging torture. A relative of Mr Dergoul, said last night: "After the disgusting treatment of Tarek at the hands of the Americans, he has one arm and is severely traumatised and cannot cope with life. One arm?! When was that picked up? Must've been a while after he got back. No one mentioned it before. Bit of an oversight by the PR people. What kind of criminal act does Mr Blair think that he can carry out?" I'm stumped. Does Sharia take an interest in traditionally one-armed activities? The five were flown to London last March and released without charge after being interrogated. The four Britons still in Cuba, Feroz Abassi, Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, expect to face charges within six weeks.

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