Soldiers Who Hand Prisoners To US Could Face Legal Action, MPs Warned

British troops who hand over prisoners in Iraq to US military personnel could find themselves facing prosecution, according to a legal opinion compiled for parliament. The finding has led to calls for the British government to rethink its current policy and investigate how the US treats its prisoners, and whether torture is employed against them.

Earlier this year the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition sought legal opinion from Michael Fordham QC on whether a human rights violation would arise under the European convention on human rights (ECHR) and the 1998 Human Rights Act (HRA) if an individual in British detention in Iraq were handed over to US military personnel, "despite substantial grounds for considering that there is a real risk of that person being subjected to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment".

The conclusion reached by Fordham and his colleague Tom Hickman is that an offence would definitely have been committed. If acted on, the opinion could mean that UK troops would not be allowed to "render" detainees to the US military until it was clear that they would no longer face the possibility of torture or ill-treatment.

What prompted the inquiry was a statement made in February this year by Ben Griffin, a former SAS soldier who was on active service in Iraq. In his statement, Griffin said that he was "in no doubt" that individuals handed over to the US military "would be tortured". He cited what had happened to those detained at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram airbase and Abu Ghraib prison.

The opinion adds: "UK forces operating in Iraq are potentially also subject to UK criminal law, tort law and Iraqi law. Notably, the Criminal Justice Act 1988 makes it a criminal offence for a public official, whatever his nationality and wherever located, to commit an act of torture."

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee which commissioned the report, said there had been a number of allegations that UK forces had been capturing people and handing them over to US authorities, knowing that these detainees were at risk of being tortured or mistreated.

"I commissioned a legal opinion to establish whether the UK acted unlawfully when they were handed over," said Tyrie. "I now have the answer. The UK remains legally responsible for the subsequent treatment of anybody who has been detained by the UK. It is likely that British policy on this area is not only ethically questionable but is also unlawful. The government now needs to radically rethink its policy on this issue."

Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal action charity Reprieve, also welcomed the findings. "We are delighted that the all-party parliamentary group has recognised the illegality of British troops handing over prisoners to US custody in Iraq, " he said. "These prisoners promptly disappear into an unaccountable prison network in which over 20,000 prisoners are held for illegal interrogation and torture. If it is confirmed that this has been happening, the British government must immediately reveal how many people have been handed over, where they are now, and what has been done to them."

Paul Marsh, president of the Law Society, called on the government to investigate what happens to prisoners rendered from British custody. "Extraordinary rendition has been used by some states as a means of bypassing the formal justice system," said Marsh. "To do so is a breach of the rule of law and puts individuals at risk of ill-treatment. The Law Society calls on the UK government to look beyond assurances from other countries and positively investigate and monitor whether individuals rendered from British custody are receiving equivalent standards of due process. It is time we returned to our values in the rule of law."

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/29/military.law

Soldiers Tell of Detainee Abuse in Iraq

Torture and other abuses against detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq were authorized and routine, even after the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal, according to new accounts from soldiers in a Human Rights Watch report released today. The new report, containing first-hand accounts by U.S. military personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch, details detainee abuses at an off-limits facility at Baghdad airport and at other detention centers throughout Iraq.

In the 53-page report, “No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq,” soldiers describe how detainees were routinely subjected to severe beatings, painful stress positions, severe sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme cold and hot temperatures. The accounts come from interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch, supplemented by memoranda and sworn statements contained in declassified documents.

“Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk,” said John Sifton, the author of the report and the senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. “These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional – on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used.”

The accounts reveal that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005. They also suggest that soldiers who sought to report abuse were rebuffed or ignored.

The Human Rights Watch report comes at a time when Bush administration officials and congressional leaders are hotly debating the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to detainee treatment. The report provides vivid demonstration of the abuses that result when these basic international standards are ignored.

Some of the most serious abuses detailed in the report concern a special task force, which was called at various times Task Force 20, Task Force 121, Task Force 6-26, and Task Force 145, and was stationed at an off-limits detention center at the Baghdad airport, called Camp Nama.

The report also describes serious abuses at a facility near Mosul airport, and at a base near al-Qaim, on the Syrian border.

According to soldiers’ accounts, detainees at Camp Nama were – in violation of international law – not registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross. They were regularly stripped naked and subjected to beatings, forced exercises, severe sleep deprivation and various forms of degrading and humiliating treatment.

An interrogator who served at Camp Nama told Human Rights Watch that the leadership of his interrogation unit encouraged abuse. “[P]eople wanted to go, go, go harsh on everybody,” he said. “They thought that was their job and that’s what they needed to do, and do it every time.”

The accounts given by soldiers reveal that many abusive techniques were authorized by the military chain of command. An interrogator posted at a facility near Mosul in 2004 told Human Rights Watch of a case in which the officer in charge of his interrogation unit told him and other interrogators to use abusive techniques on a set of detainees. The officer reportedly said, “Look, this is what we are gonna do – we’re gonna keep them up all night long, we’re gonna keep them on their knees and we’re not gonna let them sleep.”

According to the interrogator:

He [the MI officer] was very specific about it. He didn’t say, ‘I want you guys to go nuts on these guys,’ but he was very specific about what he wanted . . . Later, we had a few dogs on these guys too [i.e., used dogs to intimidate the detainees], and all the whole thing . . . [The MI officer] said, you know, ‘I’ve got these dog handlers, these MPs, they are going to come in and you’re gonna use them in the interrogation.’ . . . [W]e were making these guys do MPT [exercise], which were pretty rough on them. And the stretch positions were pretty rough on them too . . . you know, like kneeling in the gravel, walking on your knees in the gravel . . . having them stand with outstretched arms with water bottles in [their] hands for extended periods of time. Crawling through the gravel. And the guards in the prison were helping with this.

The interrogator stationed at Camp Nama, mentioned above, said the commander of the interrogation unit there had to authorize the use of the abuse techniques, but that the authorizations were so common that interrogators used a template to fill out authorization forms:

There was an authorization template on a computer, a sheet that you would print out, or actually just type it in. And it was a checklist . . . you would just check what you want to use off, and if you planned on using a harsh interrogation, you’d just get it signed off. I never saw a sheet that wasn’t signed. It would be signed off by the commander, whoever that was . . . He would sign off on that every time it was done.

In several instances described in the report, detainee abuse was apparently reported to military leadership in Baghdad and Washington, but little or no action was taken to stop it. For instance, an investigation into a detention facility at Mosul airport in early 2004, initiated after a detainee there had his jaw broken, revealed that detainees at Mosul were regularly subjected to abuse. However, no action was taken to punish wrongdoers, and an interrogator stationed there described serious abuse continuing through 2004. A detainee died while undergoing interrogation at the facility in December 2003; another died in April 2004.

Abuses also continued at Camp Nama through much of 2004, even after various military officials registered complaints about abuse at the facility. Col. Stuart A. Herrington, a retired military intelligence officer, was brought to Iraq to assess intelligence gathering. He informed Gen. Barbara Fast, the chief of military intelligence in Iraq, in a memorandum that Task Force 121 was abusing detainees and not registering them either in the military’s detention records or with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Herrington concluded, “It seems clear that TF 121 needs to be reined in with respect to its treatment of detainees.” Despite this warning, abuses by the task force continued.

Human Rights Watch said that the new report shows how soldiers who felt abusive practices were wrong or illegal faced significant obstacles at every turn when they attempted to report or expose the abuses. For example, an MP guard at the facility near al-Qaim, who complained to an officer about beatings and other abuse he witnessed, was told, “You need to go ahead and drop this, sergeant.”

The guard told Human Rights Watch, “It was repeatedly emphasized to me that this was not a wise course of action to pursue . . . ‘You don’t want to take this inquiry anywhere else,’ kind of thing. ‘You should definitely drop this; this is not something you wanna do to yourself.’

In another instance, after an interrogator complained about abuse at a facility near the Baghdad airport, commanders asked military lawyers to conduct a Power Point presentation for interrogators. During the presentation, the lawyers instructed the interrogators, erroneously, that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the detainees at their facility, and that the techniques they were using were acceptable.

“They told us that they’re enemy combatants, they’re not POWs, and so we can do all this stuff to them and so forth,” the interrogator said.

Human Rights Watch has previously condemned Iraqi insurgent groups for routinely violating international humanitarian law, carrying out abductions and attacks against civilians and humanitarian aid workers, and detonating hundreds of bombs in bazaars, mosques and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch has stated that those responsible for violations, including the leaders of these groups, should, if captured, be investigated and prosecuted for violations of Iraqi law and the laws of war.

“The crimes of insurgents are no excuse,” said Sifton. “Abuses by one side in a conflict, no matter how vile, do not justify violations by the other side. This is a fundamental principle of the laws of war.”

Human Rights Watch said that the report showed that criminal investigations of abuses need to follow the military chain of command, rather than focusing on low-level soldiers. To date, not a single military intelligence officer has been court-martialed in connection with abuse allegations in Iraq. Human Rights Watch is unaware of any criminal investigations into wrongdoing by officers overseeing interrogations and detention operations in Iraq.

Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. Congress to appoint an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the true scope of detainee abuse in Iraq, the complicity of higher-level officials, and the systemic flaws that make it difficult for soldiers to report abuses they witness. Human Rights Watch also called on the president to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of abuse, including the military and civilian leaders who authorized or condoned abuse.

“It is now clear that leaders were responsible for abuses that occurred in Iraq,” Sifton said. “It’s time for them to be held accountable.”

Source: www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/19/usint13767.htm

Pakistan Warns US Troops After Exchange Of Fire

Pakistan warns US troops to avoid crossborder strikes after clash raises tensions

Pakistan warned U.S. troops not to intrude on its territory on Friday, a day after the two anti-terror allies traded fire along the volatile border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, tempered the warning by praising U.S. support for his country as a "blessing." He spoke standing beside Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after a meeting at the U.N. with foreign ministers of major powers.

In Washington, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistani military leaders reassured him last week that they have no intention of using force against U.S. troops along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Pakistani government spokesman Akram Shaheedi urged U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan "not to violate territorial sovereignty of Pakistan as it is counterproductive to the war on terror."

A five-minute clash on Thursday between Pakistani and American forces added to already heightened tensions at a time the United States is stepping up cross-border operations in a region known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

The clash — the first serious exchange with Pakistani forces acknowledged by the U.S. — follows several incidents that have angered many here: a deadly American commando raid into the tribal areas on Sept. 3 and the apparent crash of a U.S. spy drone this week.

The American cross-border operations could undermine support for the U.S.-Pakistani alliance in fighting terrorism and risk further destabilizing the country at a time when the new government was still trying to assert its authority, analysts say.

Mullen said he has no reason to believe the Pakistan-U.S. relationship has changed as a result of Thursday's border clash. He said Pakistan naturally reserves the right to defend itself but is committed to cooperating with the U.S. military.

"I've been given assurance by the senior military leadership in Pakistan that there is certainly no intent or plan to fire on (U.S.) forces," Mullen told a Pentagon news conference.

He urged a cautious approach to confronting an increasingly bold Islamic extremist insurgency in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

"Now more than ever is a time for teamwork, for calm," he said.

Zardari tried to downplay Thursday's clash, saying only warning flares were fired at foreign helicopters when they strayed into his country from Afghanistan.

U.S. and NATO military officials said the ground troops and helicopters were in Afghan territory.

The clash occurred as Zardari was in New York meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was to meet President Bush Friday.

"Just as we will not let Pakistan's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbors, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," Zardari said Thursday. "Unilateral actions of great powers should not inflame the passions of allies."

Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine patrol in the eastern Afghan province of Khost when they received small arms fire from a Pakistani border post, said Tech Sgt. Kevin Wallace, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan. There was no damage to aircraft or crew.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said the helicopters had been escorting U.S. troops and Afghan border police.

When the helicopters were fired on, the ground forces fired rounds meant not to hit the Pakistani troops, but "to make certain that they realized they should stop shooting," Smith said from Centcom headquarters in Florida.

The Pakistani forces fired back.

The joint patrol was moving about a mile from the border inside Afghanistan, with the helicopters above, Smith said.

The Pakistani military disputed the U.S. version, saying its troops fired warning shots when the two helicopters crossed over the border — and that the U.S. helicopters fired back.

"When the helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistani territory, own security forces fires anticipatory warning shots. On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back," a Pakistani military statement said.

In other developments Friday, three men blew themselves up in Pakistan's largest city Karachi. They were suspected of planning an attack on a "high-profile" target in the city, said Sindh police chief Babar Khattak. The police raided the house on a tip from a leader of an al-Qaida-linked militant group, Khattak said.

"Police definitely averted a big attack from happening in this city," he said.

Police seized at least 22 pounds of explosives, two suicide jackets, seven pistols and 12 hand grenades from the house. They also found the body of a man in handcuffs in the rubble of the house and was identified as a wealthy supplier of fuel and goods to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, senior police official Aleem Jaffry told The Associated Press.

A bomb blast caused a train to derail in eastern Punjab province, killing four people and wounding 15 others.

Pakistan's top general, Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, said the army will regain control the restive tribal area of Bajur that borders Afghanistan within "two to three months." The offensive began in August.

Source: www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=33662149&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281

Moazzam Begg: The Way Out

It’s almost seven years since the notorious images depicting kneeling Muslim men attired in the signature orange clothing of Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, were unleashed through the world’s media. Their eyes covered with blackened-out goggles, their mouths masked and their ears covered with earmuffs. They saw no evil, spoke no evil and heard no evil: they only experienced it. Ironically, they were – and are still – regarded by the world’s most powerful military machine as the epitome of evil, the ‘worst of the worst.’ My time with them was comparatively short but, I had the honour of being in these men’s company for three years.

The president of the USA called them ‘bad men’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘murderers’ who were so dangerous they would ‘gnaw through the cables of an aircraft in order to bring it down’ (hence the justification for face masks.) Despite not one person being convicted of any crime related to September 11 (the whole reason why Guantánamo was allegedly instituted as a prison facility) the men are still treated worse than convicted criminals. In fact, they are still regarded as ‘the worst of the worst’ at worst or, with deep suspicion at best – even by Muslims. So how is one meant to judge these people, especially when we learn what these men were doing before they had the fortune to be tested in the manner of the Prophets of old?

It is now clear from released prisoners and mountains of US military documentation that the overwhelming majority of those detained in Guantánamo had nothing to do with the targeting and killing of innocent civilians in America – or anywhere else. Although this fact has not been conceded by the US in word it has been in deed with the release of 500 of us to date. But 250 still remain in Guantanamo and, more disturbingly, thousands have been simply ‘disappeared’ or held in ‘ghost’ detention sites around the world.

Some of the men were abducted from places as diverse as like Gambia, Zambia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, the Persian Gulf – no where near the ‘theatre of combat operations.’ But most of the men, me included, were in Pakistan and Afghanistan working on benign projects to build schools, wells, orphanages and aid centres. Others had come to this region to live under what they believed was a land of hijrah (migration) for the sake of Allah, or to study the tenets and jurisprudence of their faith, or to live as exiles from their various homelands – like the Chinese Uyghurs – escaping terrible persecution. It is also undeniable that some came to repel the occupiers of a Muslim land by non-Muslim forces, in the way that thousands had come before them during the last superpower’s occupation of Afghanistan. But that’s very different from what they stand accused of being: terrorists.

Hitler’s propaganda minster, Joseph Goebbels once said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” This formula has been adopted by many of today’s leaders and those who follow them. We know how these men – and Muslims in general - have been described by certain western leaders and their Middle Eastern sycophants. But how does the one who created them and gave them purpose of life describe them?

‘Those who believed, and emigrated, and struggled for the Faith in the Cause of Allah, as well as those who give (them) asylum and aid― these are indeed the true believers: for them is the forgiveness of sins and a provision most generous.’

Are these men not Muslims – believers in fact? Did they not emigrate for the various reasons cited? Did not the Prophet (saws) say that hijrah in the way of Allah wipes out all prior sins, even more so than Hajj? Did they not struggle in the cause of Allah with their wealth and in person against all the hardships one must endure to live in one of the world’s poorest and destitute countries? Did not Allah promise them the greatest of rewards in the Hereafter for their struggle and sacrifice? Did they not come to give support and aid to the beleaguered people of impoverished lands?

And when Allah continued to test them in the way He tested his beloved Yusuf (as) did we find they faltered or changed? When tortures and humiliations like those meted out to Bilal, Ammar and Summaya were inflicted upon them did they not hold fast to their faith and cry out: Hasbuna Allaha wa ni’mal wakeel (Allah is the sufficient protector for us)? When they heard about the births of their children – or their deaths – during their time in prison did they despair and lose hope in Allah’s mercy and deliverance? Did not the very earth shake under their feet after such tumultuous trials until they said: ‘When will the help of Allah come?’ Were they not contented with His words: ‘Surely, the help of Allah is near’?

There is a verse I came to learn, to know, to recite, to contemplate and to believe in – even during the bleakest of times:

‘And whoever fears Allah He will make for him a way out and provide for him from whence he never imagined.’

The word at the end of this verse is ‘makhraja’ which in Arabic literally means exit and although it refers to a set of circumstances relating to marital affairs, the rule therein was, for us, devastatingly simple: fear Allah, turn to him, keep to your duty and He will find you a way out. And so we were released – at least some of us were. But what of those who remain? Does it mean they did not fear Allah, did not keep to their duty and promise to Allah? Of course not. The Prophet (saws) said: When Allah loves a person He puts them to trial. And if He did this with his beloved Prophets, then what of us? Was not Yusuf thrown into a dungeon for years, despite his innocence? Could the Torah, the New Testament and even the Quran have been complete without this story of wrongful imprisonment?

I am honoured to have been in the company of these few men who held on to the rope of Allah when many others would have wavered and fallen. They have not all been released, but they have been mentioned specifically by the one in whose hands their souls lie:

‘Amongst the believers are men who remained true to their covenant with Allah; of them some have fulfilled their obligations, (i.e. have left this world) and some still are waiting, but they have never changed in the least.’
In these last nights of Ramadhan some of us will be praying all night at home, in the mosques and even in the Masaajid al-Haraam (in Makkah and Madinah – where rewards for prayers are multiplied in their thousands). Some of us will be doing ‘itikaaf, qiyaam al-lail and reciting the whole Qur’aan several times and attending Friday prayers with record numbers of worshippers in continually expanding mosques.

My imprisoned brothers have not prayed a single prayer in congregation in seven years. They have not prayed Jum’ah once in seven years. They have had no Eid with their families in seven years. They are waiting with the patience of Yunus (as) for deliverance. But they have made ‘itikaaf in their tiny cages for seven years. Some of them fasted every Monday and Thursday – even when they were given no food to break the fast; some of them fast on every alternate day outside of Ramadhan (the fast of Dawood (as)). And their recitation and memorisation of the Quran far surpasses that of freemen; their supplications during the night prayer have brought tears to the eyes of men who have encountered every hardship imaginable, men whose tears you’d have thought would have dried up by now. But their tears are not of grief and sadness for this world: they cry fearing what might become of them in the Hereafter. Yes, they fear Allah still. It is the only way they will find an exit.

Source: www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=26239

Afghanistan: Why We Should Get Out

"We will not walk away from Afghanistan, as the outside world has done so many times before," Tony Blair said famously in 2001, just before the country was invaded by the United States, disguised as "the international community". This was of course a complete inversion of history, which in the past 200 years has not been a story of invading forces "walking away" but of foreign armies being driven out by the opposition and resistance of the Afghan people. We are witnessing history repeating itself, with the more indiscreet army commanders in America and Britain admitting, "We are not winning in Afghanistan."

In the meantime, the suffering to the Afghan people caused by the refusal of the warmongers to "walk away" is everywhere to be seen in a country designated by the United Nations as fourth from last on its Human Poverty Index of 178 nations:

* Average life expectancy is little more than 40 years.
* 700 children and 60 women die each day from hunger and lack of health care.
* The illiteracy rate is 70 percent in the cities and up to 99 percent in the countryside.
* Only a quarter of the population has access to clean water
* Only 10 percent of the population have access to electricity.

Instead of "walking away, as a recent poll suggested the majority of Afghan people want to happen immediately, America and Britain have announced plans to escalate the war, by sending more troops to kill and be killed, and by extending the killing fields into Pakistan.

The sharply rising numbers of British army casualties show where these war policies are leading, with Private Ben Ford two weeks ago becoming - at 18 years and barely out of school - the youngest soldier to die in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.

A new pamphlet published by Stop the War is now available, with an introduction by campaigning journalist John Pilger. It covers the war, women's rights, the opium boom, the country's shattered infrastructure, the horrific cost in Afghan lives and the cost to British tax payers, the majority of whom want Britain out of Afghanistan. It is an invaluable resource to those who want to learn more about the invasion and its aftermath.

Source: www.stopwar.org.uk

Robert Fisk: Six years in Guantanamo

Sami al-Haj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror. He tells our correspondent about his struggle to rebuild a shattered life

Sami al-Haj walks with pain on his steel crutch; almost six years in the nightmare of Guantanamo have taken their toll on the Al Jazeera journalist and, now in the safety of a hotel in the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer, he is a figure of both dignity and shame. The Americans told him they were sorry when they eventually freed him this year – after the beatings he says he suffered, and the force-feeding, the humiliations and interrogations by British, American and Canadian intelligence officers – and now he hopes one day he'll be able to walk without his stick.

The TV cameraman, 38, was never charged with any crime, nor was he put on trial; his testimony makes it clear that he was held in three prisons for six-and-a-half years – repeatedly beaten and force-fed – not because he was a suspected "terrorist" but because he refused to become an American spy. From the moment Sami al-Haj arrived at Guantanamo, flown there from the brutal US prison camp at Kandahar, his captors demanded that he work for them. The cruelty visited upon him – constantly interrupted by American admissions of his innocence – seemed designed to turnal-Haj into a US intelligence "asset".

"We know you are innocent, you are here by mistake," he says he was told in more than 200 interrogations. "All they wanted was for me to be a spy for them. They said they would give me US citizenship, that my wife and child could live in America, that they would protect me. But I said: 'I will not do this – first of all because I'm a journalist and this is not my job and because I fear for myself and my family. In war, I can be wounded and I can die or survive. But if I work with you, al-Qa'ida will eliminate me. And if I don't work with you, you will kill me'."

The grotesque saga began for al-Haj on 15 December, 2001, when he was on his way from the Pakistani capital Islamabad to Kandahar in Afghanistan with Sadah al-Haq, a fellow correspondent from the Arab satellite TV channel, to cover the new regional government. At least 70 other journalists were on their way through the Pakistani border post at Chaman, but an officer stopped al-Haj. "He told me there was a paper from the Pakistani intelligence service for my arrest. My name was misspelled, my passport number was incorrect, it said I was born in 1964 – the right date is 1969. I said I had renewed my visa in Islamabad and asked why, if I was wanted, they had not arrested me there?"

Sami al-Haj speaks slowly and with care, each detail of his suffering and of others' suffering of equal importance to him. He still cannot believe that he is free, able to attend a conference in Norway, to return to his new job as news producer at Al Jazeera, to live once more with his Azeri wife Asma and their eight-year old son Mohamed; when Sami al-Haj disappeared down the black hole of America's secret prisons the boy was only 14 months' old.

Al-Haj's story has a familiar ring to anyone who has investigated the rendition of prisoners from Pakistan to US bases in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. His aircraft flew for an hour and a half and then landed to collect more captives – this may have been in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital – before flying on to the big American base at Bagram.

"We arrived in the early hours of the morning and they took the shackles off our feet and pushed us out of the plane. They hit me and pushed me down on the asphalt. We heard screams and dogs barking. I collapsed with my right leg under me, and I felt the ligaments tearing. When I fell, the soldiers started treading on me. First, they walked on my back, then – when they saw me looking at my leg – they started kicking my leg. One soldier shouted at me: 'Why did you come to fight Americans?' I had a number – I was No 35 and this is how they addressed me, as a number – and the first American shouted at me: 'You filmed Bin Laden.' I said I did not film Bin Laden but that I was a journalist. I again gave my name, my age, my nationality."

After 16 days at Bagram, another aircraft took him to the US base at Kandahar where on arrival the prisoners were again made to lie on the ground. "We were cursed – they said 'fuck your mother' – and again the Americans walked on our backs. Why? Why did they do this? I was taken to a tent and stripped and they pulled hairs out of my beard. They photographed the pupils of my eyes. A doctor found blood on my back and asked me why it was there. I asked him how he thought it was there?"

The same dreary round of interrogations recommenced – he was now "Prisoner No 448" – and yet again, al-Haj says he was told he was being held by mistake. "Then another man – he was in civilian clothes and I think he was from Egyptian intelligence – wanted to know who was the "leader" of the detainees who was with me. The Americans asked: 'Who is the most respected of the prisoners? Who killed [Ahmed Shah] Massoud ([the leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance Afghan militia]?' I said this was not my business and an American soldier said: 'Co-operate with us, and you will be released.' They meant I had to work for them. There was another man who spoke perfect English. I thought he was British. He was young, good-looking, about 35-years-old, no moustache, blond hair, very polite in a white shirt, no tie. He brought me chocolate – it was Kit Kat—and I was so hungry I could have eaten the wrapping."

On 13 June, al-Haj was put on board a jet aircraft. He was given yet another prison number – No 345 – and once more his head was covered with a black bag. He was forced to take two tablets before he was gagged and his bag replaced by goggles with the eye-pieces painted black. The flight to Guantanamo took 12 to 14 hours.

"They took us on a boat from the Guantanamo runways to the prison, a journey that took an hour." Al-Haj was escorted to a medical clinic and then at once to another interrogation. "They said they'd compared my answers with my original statement and one of them said: 'You are here by mistake. You will be released. You will be the first to be released.' They gave me a picture of my son, which had been taken from my wallet. They asked me if I needed anything. I asked for books. One said he had a copy of One Thousand and One Nights in Arabic. He copied it for me. During this interview, they asked me: 'Why did you talk to the British intelligence man so much in Kandahar?' I said I didn't know if he was from British intelligence. They said he was.

"Then after two months, two more British men came to see me. They said they were from UK intelligence. They wanted to know who I knew, who I'd met. I said I couldn't help them." The Americans later referred to one of them as "Martin" and they did not impress al-Haj's senior interrogator at Guantanamo, Stephen Rodriguez, who wanted again to seek al-Haj's help. "He said to me: 'Our job is to prevent "things" happening. I'll give you a chance to think about this. You can have US citizenship, your family will be looked after, you'll have a villa in the US, we'll look after your son's education, you'll have a bank account'. He had brought with him some Arabic magazines and told me I could read them. In those 10 minutes, I felt I had gone back to being a human being again. Then soldiers came to take me back to my cell – and the magazines were taken away."

By the summer of 2003, al-Haj was receiving other strange visitors. "Two Canadian intelligence officers came and they showed me lots of photos of people and wanted to know if I recognised them. I knew none of them."

In more than 200 interrogations, al-Haj was asked about his employers the Al Jazeera television channel in Qatar. In one session, he says another American said to him: "After you get out of here, al-Qa'ida will recruit you and we want to know who you meet. You could become an analyst, we can train you to store information, to sketch people. There is a link between Al Jazeera and al-Qa'ida. How much does al-Qa'ida pay Al Jazeera?"

"I said: 'I will not do this – first of all because I'm a journalist and this is not my job. Also because I fear for my life and my family.'"

Many beatings followed – not from the interrogators but from other US guards. "They would slam my head into the ground, cut off all my hair. They put me into the isolation block – we called it the 'November Block' – for two years. They made my life torture. I wanted to bring it to an end. There were continual punishments without reason. In interrogations, they would tighten the shackles so it hurt. They hadn't allowed me to receive letters for 10 months – even then, they erased words in them, even from my son. Again, Rodriguez demanded I work for the Americans."

In January of last year, Sami al-Haj started a hunger strike – and began the worst months of his imprisonment. "I wanted my rights in the civil courts. The US Supreme Court said I should have my rights. I wanted the right to worship properly. They let me go 30 days without food – then I was tied to a chair with metal shackles and they force-fed me. They would insert a tube through my nose into my stomach. They chose large tubes so that it hurt and sometimes it went into the lung. They used the same tube they had used on other prisoners with muck still on it and then they pumped more food into me than it was possible to absorb. They told us the people administering this were doctors – but they were torturers, not doctors. They forced 24 cans of food into us so we threw up and then gave us laxatives to defecate. My pancreas was affected and I had stomach problems. Then they would forbid us from drinking water."

Al-Haj says he completed 480 days of hunger strike by which time his medical condition had deteriorated and he was bleeding from his anus. That was the moment his interrogators decided to release him.

"There were new interrogators now, but they tried once more with me. 'Will you work with us?' they asked me again. I said 'no' again – but I thanked them for their years of hospitality and for giving me the chance to live among them as a journalist. I said this way I could get the truth to the outside world, that I was not in a hurry to get out because there were a lot more reporters' stories in there." They said: 'You think we did you a favour?' I said: 'You turned me from zero into a hero.' They said: 'We are 100 per cent sure that Bin Laden will be in touch with you...' That night, I was taken to the plane. The interrogators were watching me, hiding behind a tennis net. I waved at them, those four pairs of eyes."

The British authorities have never admitted talking to Sami al-Haj. Nor have the Canadians. Al Jazeera, whose headquarters George Bush wanted to bomb after the invasion of Iraq, kept a job open for Sami al-Haj. But Prisoner No 345 never received an official apology from the Americans. He says he does not expect one.

Source: www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-six-years-in-guantanamo-941479.html

Family Visits For Bagram Inmates

Some of the detainees held in US custody at the Bagram air base outside Kabul, Afghanistan, are being visited by their families for the first time.

The Red Cross said five families were being allowed to visit Bagram for hour-long visits with relatives.

The visits were arranged after the Red Cross brokered a deal with US military authorities to allow family visits.

The organisation has always maintained that family visits to detainees are allowed under international law.

The US military considers the men "unlawful combatants" who can be detained for as long as they are deemed a threat to Afghan national security.

Excitement

Earlier this year the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) introduced video calls for relatives to make contact with those held inside Bagram.

But Tuesday's visits, for an initial group of 20 people, took access a step further.

"The first time I saw Safiullah on the screen, I just cried. I was so happy and sad at the same time. But this time it will be different," said Mohammada Jan, whose brother-in-law is being held at Bagram.

"When we visit him in Bagram, we want to make sure that he is not upset about seeing us, but draws strength from the experience," she told the Red Cross.

US commanders agreed to allow the visits after years of negotiations by the Red Cross, although it remains unclear whether there will be a physical barrier between the detainees and their families.

The Red Cross has had regular access to prisoners at Bagram since 2002, and recently set up a video link system to allow families the chance to talk to relatives detained there.

"The videophone system was an important first step in reassuring family members that their relatives held in Bagram were alive and well, and vice versa," said Franz Rauchenstein, head of the Red Cross delegation in Afghanistan.

"It gave them the opportunity to see and speak to one another."

"We have continued to work with the US authorities to make such visits a reality, and we are very happy for the families that they now have this opportunity."

In the past there have been reports of detainees at Bagram facing harsh interrogations. In 2002, two Afghan detainees died after being repeatedly struck by American personnel.

Families of many of the detained men say that initially they had no idea where their relatives were being held, and then had only sporadic communication by letters delivered by the Red Cross.

The US already allows visits to family members at some detention centres in Iraq.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7630892.stm

From Ladbroke Grove to Guantanamo Bay

Date: Saturday 27th September 2008
Time: 5.30 pm - 8.00 pm
Venue: Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, 244 Acklam Rd, London, W10 5YG

Speakers include Binyam Mohamed (Last Londoner in Guantanamo Bay), Andy Worthington (Reprieve and Author of the Guantanamo Files) and Yvonne Ridley (Journalist) .

Binyam Mohamed is a 30 year old Ethiopian national who lived in the Ladbroke Grove area for over seven years. He worked at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre. While travelling in 2002, he was kidnapped in Pakistan and sold to the American military. As a victim of extraordinary rendition, he was flown to Morocco where he was appallingly tortured for 18 months. He was then transferred to Afghanistan, and on to Guantanamo Bay in September 2004. After six and a half years of illegal detention, Binyam is facing trial by a military commission. The evidence against him
was extracted by torture. Come and learn about the plight of a local man and see what action you can take. All are welcome and iftar provided.

For further information please contact: Tel: 07985 382 188 / E-mail: london.gtmo@ googlemail.com / Website: www.guantanamo.org.uk

Torture: A Human Rights Perspective

Product Description

Of all the issues on the human rights agenda, torture offered Americans the moral highground...until this year. With the abuses at Abu Ghraib that led to accusations of torture within the domestic criminal justice system, the question of cruel and unusual treatment has taken on new urgency in the U.S. and now similar abuses by British soldiers are being uncovered. In "Torture", twelve newly-written essays by leading thinkers and experts range over history and continents, offering a nuanced, up-to-the-minute exploration of this wrenching but timely topic. Intended for a general audience, some of the key questions addressed include how to define torture, whether torture is ever effective, and whether it is ever acceptable.

Buy online: www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_/026-7740595-2902842?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Torture%3A+A+Human+Rights+Perspective+

IHRC PRESS RELEASE:
Annual Al-Quds Day March

Assembly Time: 1.00pm march proceeds from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square for a Rally
Speakers: Yvonne Ridley, Daud Abdullah, Massoud Shadjareh, Taji Mustafa, Les Levidow and Rabbi Ahron Cohen

The Annual Al-Quds Day March and Rally is a time to reflect on the oppression of millions world-wide through the symbolism of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle for justice.

Speaking on behalf of the Committee, Massoud Shadjareh said:

“Those protesting Israeli aggression will attend to show their commitment to peace with justice for all oppressed peoples of the world. At a time when Israeli atrocities are being defended world-wide in the name of self-determination, this event makes clear that people of conscience object to all forms of racism – including racist states – and wish to see them eliminated. It is no less or different than the struggle for justice in South Africa or ‘Rhodesia’. To claim otherwise is simply mischievous.”

For more information please call (+44) 7958 522196 or (+44) 7903 053362

Source: www.ihrc.org

Life & Death

When it becomes obvious to the rest of the country that we are truly locked into a life or death struggle the people will rise-up from their easy chairs and demand answers. If we cannot make them aware of the obvious fateful track we are now on before then, then it will be too late for us all.

The life or death struggle I am referring to is not with some shadowy terrorist group, or with an axis of foreign governments, but with our own government. We are in an existential struggle with the Bush Administration and everyone in government who supports the violence they carry-out upon the world.

The struggle is between the American people and an out of control administration determined to visit world war III upon the world before its allotted time is up. For their own reasons (which are transparent to the discerning eye), Bush and Cheney are going to find a politically feasible way to attack someone else before their power is taken away.

This attack plan risks the survival of the planet and all life upon it, to carry-out the neocon war. Our two co-presidents are so committed to their obviously catastrophically failed war plan to seize all the resources of South Asia that they cannot allow their time to expire without taking irreversible actions. They think that they can threaten, bribe, intimidate and selectively nuke key governments in the region (including Russia and China) to have their way with them.

This most distrusted government in our history wants us to trust their judgment that they can "shock and awe" the world into submission to American demands, without destroying the world in the process. This most incompetent government ever elected by the American people, diddled while the economy was crushed by the weight of its insane economic and military policies, and enacted police state laws in an illegal manner, and now intends to kill many millions more innocents than it already has for the sake of total control.

This most devious and malign administration to ever curse the White House threshold thinks that it would be a good thing to kill millions as "collateral damage" in their plan to create a global American empire. They are either so foolish that they think that America would survive in a post-nuclear war world, or they have other plans for themselves so that they do not care whether this Nation survives the ravages of their scheme to reap absolute wealth. Perhaps this gives credence to the rumor from the Latin American press about a recent Bush family purchase of a large portion of Paraguay –

"...a few short miles from the US Mariscal Estigarribia Military Base...

[Sitting atop the] Acuifero Guaraní...one of the largest underground water reserves in South America."

The solutions being discussed (to this life or death struggle between the American people and a malignant administration determined to risk the fate of the world) range from impeachment to outright revolution. I am of the opinion that violent revolution is wrong, unless government actions turn it into a matter of self-defense, and that impeachment is too slow and weak to stop Bush from pushing the button when the opportunity arises. The opportunity may arise very soon in the mountains of Pakistan, as American troops making illegal incursions are now being repelled by Pakistani military forces.

This administration cannot be trusted to possess the powers that it has usurped. The Bush Administration has to have its hands tied now, even before it is removed from office. Congress must know whose side in this life or death struggle the American people are on.

We the people have to assume our rightful power and show our hand now, as we find the means to legally bind the bloody hands and force the issue to a head, before Bush or Cheney acts. Congress must witness an aroused population that is "mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore!"

If you won't stand-up for the sake of your own children's lives, then what will you take a stand for?

peter.chamberlin@yahoo.com

Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20794.htm

Interview with CCR Attorney Maria LaHood and Maher Arar

Please tune in this Wednesday, September 17, 2008 to hear an interview with Canadian rendition survivor Maher Arar and CCR attorney Maria LaHood on Fresh Air from WHYY.
Hear Arar and LaHood speak to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about how U.S. officials sent Arar to Syria to be tortured, his struggle for justice, and the Second Circuit Appellate Court's extremely rare order last month that approximately 12 judges will rehear Arar's case on December 9, 2008. To find out the broadcast schedule for your town or city, click here.

Mr. Arar and CCR seek to hold accountable the high-level administration officials responsible for sending him to be tortured and detained in Syria for a year - a practice known as extraordinary rendition. For more information on Maher Arar's case, click here. In 2002, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was detained at a New York airport on his way home from a family trip. He was interrogated by U.S. officials about alleged links to al-Qaeda and was prevented from getting assistance from a lawyer. He was then delivered to Syria, a country renowned for torture. Mr. Arar was interrogated, brutally tortured and held in a grave-like cell in Syria for over ten months. No country, including the U.S., has ever charged him with any crime.

CCR originally filed the case in the Eastern District of New York in January 2004; the first ruling, in February 2006, dismissed the case because letting it proceed might harm national security and foreign relations. CCR appealed the decision, arguing before a three-judge panel in November 2007, but the Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision in June 2008 along similar lines. The dissenting judge found that the majority decision gives federal officials the license to "violate constitutional rights with virtual impunity."

In stark contrast to the response of the U.S. government, the Canadian government conducted an exhaustive inquiry in response to public outcry, found that Mr. Arar had no connection to terrorism, and, in January 2007, apologized to him for its role in what happened and awarded him $10 million compensation. For more information on Maher Arar's case, click here: http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/arar-v.-ashcroft

__________

On the Air with WHYY's Fresh Air - Major Cities
Thursday, September 18, 2008

CITY STATION TIME
Chicago WBEZ 91.5 FM 11 AM - 12 PM
Los Angeles KPCC 89.3 FM 7-8 PM
New York WNYC 93.9 FM 3-4 PM
Washington, DC WAMU 88.FM 3-4 PM

To find out the broadcast schedule for your town or city, click here

Or, listen live online at NPR's Fresh Air website.

Starbucks St James Street: Get out of Brighton, Get out of Guantanamo

As many of you know Starbucks have set up shop in St James Street without planing permission. There is a vibrant demonstration against Starbucks and its emprire eroding local economies and people's control of their local spaces every Saturday starting at 12 noon. The next demo is Saturday 20th September

Starbucks provide coffee to the US military in Iraq and Guantanamo; the multi-national is part of the infrastructure of the so called 'war on terror' and a beneficiary of the spolis of this illegal war. Following in the wake of the US army it gets a bigger and bigger slice of the market.

Brighton Against Guantanamo have been invited to joined the St James Street protest in our trademark orange boiler suits.

The suits are kept at Jackie's studio, Under the Bridge Studios, Beaconsfield Road, Tel: 07799 564620.

US Army General Warns Pakistan Of New War

A new war could begin if Pakistan does not step up its fight against terrorists, Maj Gen Jeffrey J Schloesser of the US Army said in a report published in an American weekly on Sunday.

“If militants escape into Pakistani territory and Islamabad does not step up, a new kind of war could well begin,” he said.

According to the report, Gen Schloesser, who leads 19,000 US soldiers operating on the frontier, estimates that his forces are facing some 7,000-10,000 insurgents in eastern Afghanistan – a higher number than previously disclosed by any US commander.

He said he planned to keep his troops operating deep inside Taliban territory this winter. He hoped they would be able to take advantage of the mobility to seek out any safe havens and facilitation areas and any places the terrorists can go for ‘rest and recreation’ in Afghanistan. He said he would give terrorists the options to flee, get killed or captured, or reconcile.

Source: http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C09%5C15%5Cstory_15-9-2008_pg7_29

Annual Iftar In Support Of Muslim Prisoners

Let them know that its only a wall that separates us

Date: 21st September 2008
Time: 4pm - 7pm
Venue: Outside Belmarsh Prison, HMP Belmarsh, Western Way, Thamesmead, SE28 0EB
Speakers: Abu Mujahid
Moazzam Begg
Yvonne Ridley
And Others
With Quran Recitation and Qunoot Du'aa

For further information contact 07949178942 or e-mail: woolwichdawah@hotmail.co.uk

"A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. He does not oppress him, nor does he leave him at the mercy of others." Sahih Muslim.

Please try to attend and offer your support to our brothers locked up in Belmarsh this Ramadhan. Jazaak Allah khair.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission Welcomes The Recent Release Of Sami Al-Arian On Bail

1. Summary

IHRC welcomes the release on bail of Sami Al-Arian on 02 September 2008, coming after 5 years of detention in federal custody. This gladdening news is indeed long-awaited since the statements of a federal judge clearly expressing that Dr Al-Arian poses no danger to anyone, and on the contrary should be allowed bail until his trial.

2. Background

Dr Sami Al-Arian is a Palestinian peace-activist and former University of South Florida professor who was convicted in 2003 on charges of funding terrorists. His conviction has received much media attention, and has been referred to as a ‘federal witch hunt’ by some. After a 2005 court win in which a Florida jury rejected federal charges linking Al-Arian to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, his attorneys struck a deal whereat he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge to face only deportation.

Dr Al-Arian had spent more than 5 years detained in federal custody, and had recently been under 23-hour solitary confinement at the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Virginia, despite the fact that 23-hour solitary confinement is considered a violation of the current UN Convention against Torture. On 29 August 2008, a trial for a contempt charge was indefinitely postponed until the Supreme Court looks into the case.

The release of Dr Al-Arian on bail is indeed gladdening news and most appropriate in light of the fact that a federal judge has stated clearly that Dr Al-Arian poses no danger to anyone, and on the contrary should be allowed bail until his trial. IHRC, who had written to the Pamunkey Regional Jail regarding his 23-hour solitary confinement, welcomes this decision.

Source: www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3606

Ramadan & Eid Collection For Muslim Prisoners In London

Since 2004 my friends, family and I have been collecting items to send to brothers and sisters in London prisons. Items in the past have included prayer mats, Quraans, miswaak, du'a books, tasbeehs, CDs and monetary donations, which we have then used to purchase food snacks for Ramadhan and make packs for Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha.

This time inshaAllah we would like to request people to donate items such as: Fortress of a Muslim du'a books, CDs of Quraan recitation, and contributions towards iftar snacks and Eid packs, which will consist of some sweets, Quraan, du'a book, etc. This work is purely for the sake of pleasing Allah (swt) and references from Imams of prisons that I have worked with can be provided.

For more information on how to donate please contact Nosheena: Tel: 07984 433 288 / E-mail: nosheena_jj@hotmail.com

Briton Held In Guantanamo Hits Out At 'Disgraceful' UK Government

Britain's last resident being held in Guantanamo Bay has spoken for the first time about his sense of betrayal over the Government's refusal to release evidence which he claims will help prove his innocence.

In statements exclusively released to The Independent, Binyam Mohamed, 30, accuses MI5 agents of lying about what they knew of CIA plans to transfer him to a prison in north Africa, where he claims he was subjected to horrendous torture.

The Ethiopian national, who won asylum in the UK in 1994, has been charged with terrorism-related offences and awaits a decision on whether he is to face trial at the US naval base.

Mr Mohamed, who complains that his health is suffering badly, says: "To leave me in these conditions and, to add insult to injury, to defend the rigged process I am facing here, is a disgrace."

At the same time it has also emerged that the Government has written to the High Court in London, making it clear that ministers will not hand over the relevant evidence to Mr Mohammed's lawyers.

Last month two judges ruled that the British authorities still held secret material that might help confirm Mr Mohamed's story and that ministers should reconsider the decision.

The court said his allegations of torture were at least "arguable" and that MI5 had information relating to him that was "not only necessary but essential for his defence".

Government lawyers argue that Mr Mohamed's lawyers will be given any evidence by the US military commission and ordering the Foreign Office to hand over the documents to Mr Mohamed would harm relations between the US and UK intelligence services.

But Mr Mohamed asks: "How can they possibly be taking this position? Lord Steyn [the former law lord] himself called these [military] commissions 'kangaroo courts'. And I understood the official UK position to be that the commissions were illegal, and Britons should never be forced to go through them."

He adds: "So how, then, can they say that the very people who tortured me, rendered me, and now want to try me in a kangaroo court will just hand over the evidence of their own criminal acts? For the UK to say this is naïve, at best, and a betrayal, at worst."

Mr Mohamed also talked about the claim by MI5 "Agent B" in his High Court case that he had not threatened Mr Mohamed with rendition and torture. He says there was a second agent who heard the suggestion that Mr Mohamed would need more sugar in his tea "for where you are going". He claims: "I had two interrogators in Pakistan. 'B' was interrogating, but it was the other unknown agent who made the threat about the tea. This person – we'll call him 'Agent X' – walked in with 'B' at the start of the session. That was when he made the threat, and 'B' was there to hear it."

Reprieve, the British legal charity representing Mr Mohamed, described him as "very frail and depressed".

In his statements, which were declassified by the US authorities this week, Mr Mohamed alleges: "Not only am I denied my medical requests – and indeed any other request – I am held in a wing of Camp V where abuse is the order of the day."

He told his lawyer, Cori Crier, that last month he witnessed a prisoner who had been hunger-striking for over 20 days being dragged from his cell for force-feeding. "On day three this man had his head slammed into the floor. On day four, he was beaten so badly before the force-feeding that it seemed his leg broke."

In the High Court ruling last month, the judges said the "conduct of the Security Service facilitated interviews by or on behalf of the US when Binyam Mohamed was being detained by the US incommunicado" in 2002 in Pakistan. Working with the US, British authorities sent an officer from MI5 to interview him. The officer told him he could expect no help from Britain unless he fully co-operated with his US interrogators.

A government spokesman added: "We have never contested that Mr Mohamed's lawyers should have access to information which would assist his defence in any trial at Guantanamo Bay. It remains for the court to consider whether any benefit to Mr Mohamed from disclosure outweighs the damage caused to intelligence-sharing between the UK and the US, and national security."

Source: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/briton-held-in-guantanamo-hits-out-at-disgraceful-uk-government-924512.html

Cageprisoners Press Release
US Government Admits to Holding 'Grey Lady of Bagram'

Press Conference
Time: 12 NOON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 2008
Place: FIELDEN HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, LONDON
Who: LORD NAZIR AHMED & REPRESENTATIVES OF CAGE PRISONERS
Subject: THE GREY LADY OF BAGRAM/PRISONER 650

Lord Ahmed and representatives of Cage Prisoners will be responding to some new developments over the mystery surrounding the so-called Grey Lady of Bagram, otherwise known as Prisoner 650.

Until recently, the US has denied keeping any female detainees in its airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan despite media enquiries to the contrary.

Lord Ahmed, who with Pakistan political leader Imran Khan, led growing calls for the truth about Prisoner 650 in response to a Cage Prisoners campaign (www.cageprisoners.com) has now received some official news from the US.

The British Peer will be discussing this latest development and further possible action. He will be joined by Cage Prisoners Director Saghir Hussain and Cageprisoners Patron Yvonne Ridley to give a statement and take questions from the media. A statement is also expected to! be released on behalf of Imran Khan at the conference along w! ith copi es of official US and British Government responses to Lord Ahmed's inquiries.

Moazzam Begg, former Bagram detainee and Cageprisoners spokesman, commented:

"As the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui gains wider public attention, the matter of US detention policy pertaining to women in Afghanistan is once again the focus of controversy and outrage. Since hearing the screams of a woman many years ago, when I was detained in Bagram, I have always believed that women held there were brutalised. I made this belief clear to visiting British intelligence agents at the time - so they too were aware. Despite recent repeated denials by the US administration of the existence of Prisoner 650, many of us imprisoned in Bagram prayed for a day when the truth would come out. That day is here."

____________

Cageprisoners is a human rights organisation that exists to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainee s h eld as part of the War on Terror. We aim to give a voice to the voiceless.

Media

Email: contact@cageprisoners.com
Phone: 0044 (0) 7836 370 649 /0044 (0) 7973264197

Boycott Israeli Dates Campaign

"This Ramadan there is no excuse for any Muslim in the world to open their fast with an Israeli date." Innovative Minds and the Islamic Human Rights Commission are calling on campaigners to create more awareness in their communities about the boycott of Israeli goods, and in particular, Israeli dates, this Ramadan.

In order to educate our communities on this issue two videos and a leaflet have been produced. Zaynab's Story explores the connection between an ordinary person living in Britain and what is happening in Palestine ñ how our actions as consumers in this country affects what happens to the Palestinians. It's a heart wrenching video that exposes the brutality of the occupation as it touches the lives of ordinary people in Palestine. It then traces exactly how our buying habits help sustain this occupation, and ends by exploring ways in which we can start supporting Palestinians. The boycott of Israeli dates forms its central theme.

Its premier both in this country and overseas has been very well received. Its duration is around 36 minutes and it is available both as a DVD or as a downloadable AVI for screening in a mosque, community centre or student society, as well as a streaming video on Youtube for personal viewing.

Please help us reach the widest possible audience by making copies of the videos and DVDs and passing them on to friends. Also place them on your websites, etc.

For further information please contact:E-mail: edwardhill1@yahoo.co.uk / Website: www.inminds.com/boycott-israeli-dates.ph

As Sabeel Presents In Conjuction With Cageprisoners & HHUGS
Charity Iftar & Fundraiser

Prisoner 650: Sister Afia Siddiqui

Date:14th Sept 2008
Time: 4pm - 9pm
Tickets : Adults £10
Children aged 3 - 12 - £5
Venue: Pakistani Community Centre, Park Hall, London Rd, Reading

For tickets please call 0118 966 4141 or email:info@as-sabeel.net or visit the book shop at 12 Wokingham Road, Reading, RG6 1JG

IF no reply to the above number or email message me and i will book your ticker

The event is a charity fund raiser set to raise money for hhugs and cage prisoners and high light the case of sister Afia Siddiqui

Speakers on the day
Moazzam Begg (ex Guantanamo detainee)
Uthman Lateef (abu mujahid) From the hittin institute
Tipton Three (ex Guantanamo detainees)
Dr Omer Butt ( accused of being Al qeada bail bonds man)
Tazneem Akunjee (Lawyer and Terrorism expert)

All Welcome

Who Is Aafia Siddiqui?

* Detained Incommunicado for five years
* Abused physically and psychologically
* 11 year old son in custody in Afghanistan
* Her two youngest children remain missing

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the American educated Pakistani scientist and mother of three was detained for years by the US in Bagram. She has been the victim of the US programme of secret detention for five years since having been kidnapped in Karachi by Pakistan security services in 2003 along with her three children.

On Monday 4th August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Aafia Siddiqui was extradited to the US from Afghanistan where they allege she had been detained since mid-July 2008. The US administration claims that she was arrested by Afghani forces outside Ghazni governor’s compound with manuals on explosives and ‘dangerous substances in sealed jars’ on her person. They further allege that whilst in custody she shot at US officers and was injured in the process.

According to her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, “We do know she was at Bagram for a long time. It was a long time. According to my client she was there for years and she was held in American custody; her treatment was horrendous.”

Aafia’s claim is contrary to the heavily contested position of the US administration that she was detained in July by Afghan forces while attempting to bomb the compound of the governor of Ghazni. The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment in July 2008.

Aafia Siddiqui now faces trial in the US in circumstances that can only be described as strange at best. Questions remain as to her own whereabouts over the last five years and still that of her children; the US government have recently acknowledged that her eldest son Ahmed, an 11 year old US national, is in Afghan custody. The whereabouts of her youngest two children remain unknown.

Aafia's health has deteriorated since her transfer to the US on August 4th. She suffered multiple bullet wounds whilst in custody, the loss of part of her intestine, and extensive surgical incisions resulting in multiple layers of external and internal stitching prior to her extradition. There are a number of other healths concerns and subsequently her medical condition condition needs to be fully investigated by several different specialists. Physical injuries aside, Aafia’s psychological injuries obviously leave deeper scars. Her ordeal is heightened by the degrading and humilating strip and cavity searches she is forced to endure before every legal visit.

Alert Update: Slovakia – Algeria Extradition Cancelled For Mustafa Labsi

1. Summary

On 7 August 2008, Slovakia’s Supreme Court decided to cancel ‘terror’ suspect Mustafa Labsi’s planned extradition to Algeria. This decision followed a 26 June Constitutional Court (ECHR) ruling in Labsi’s favour and a subsequent European Court of Human Rights decision on 18 July, also siding with Labsi. The Algerian native complained that his fundamental human rights could not be guaranteed in Algeria, whose government demanded his extradition to carry out criminal prosecution on terror-related charges and his suggested links with al-Qaeda. Labsi, who is to be compensated for all court costs, was freed on 7 August in Bratislava and then immediately recaptured by Slovak Foreign Police.

2. Background

Although the Algerian government had assured Slovak authorities that Labsi would be allowed a new and fair trial upon his return, the Slovak Supreme Court’s prior decision to allow Labsi to be returned to Algeria had essentially placed him under serious risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in light of their long history of human rights violations.

Labsi was suspected to be involved with Al-Qaeda and was reportedly arrested by Slovak police on 4 May 2007 on the request of the Algerian government. He was ‘tried in absentia in Algeria and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges related to terrorism’, according to reports received by Amnesty International. Thus, since his arrest he had been detained in Bratislava, awaiting the court‘s decision on his possible extradition.

Upon the ECHR court win, Labsi's lawyer Maria Kolikova stated: "In my opinion, in a democratic society the only higher goal is a legal state – including a fair trial, and the maintaining of human rights. It's necessary to prosecute crimes, including terrorism and I'm convinced that it's possible to do so while observing human rights". IHRC thanks campaigners who wrote to the Slovak Ambassadors in their countries, urging them to call on the Slovak Minister of Justice, Stefan Harabin, to stop Mustapha Labsi’s extradition to Algeria.

For further background information about Labsi’s extradition trials, please visit*:
www.tasr.sk/30.axd?k=20080807TBB00503
www.tasr.sk/30.axd?k=20080722TBB00546
www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3249

You may also view our previous related alerts at:
www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3250
www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3181

For more information, please contact the office on the numbers or email below:

IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

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For more information, please contact the office on the numbers or email below.

“And what reason have you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.”
Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verse 75

Join the Struggle for Justice. Join IHRC.

Islamic Human Rights Commission, PO Box 598, Wembley, United Kingdom / Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222 / Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183 / Email: info@ihrc.org / Web: www.ihrc.org

Iraq To Rebuild Notorious Prison

Iraq says it plans to rebuild the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, which was closed in 2006 after a scandal over the abuse of prisoners by US troops.

A spokesman gave no date for reopening the jail, but said a committee had been formed to oversee reconstruction.

He said part of the new site would be given over to a museum showing the crimes committed under the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

However, no mention will be made of the facility's more recent history.

For many people, the name Abu Ghraib became synonymous with the worst aspects of America's involvement with Iraq.

In 2004, pictures emerged of US soldiers standing proudly over hooded Iraqi prisoners.

Many inmates were forced to commit humiliating and degrading acts.

The prison, which is located to the west of Baghdad, was handed over to Iraqi control, and then closed in 2006.

The United States has made considerable efforts to improve the conditions at its remaining prisons in Iraq.

Almost 20,000 people are still being held by the US. Only a tiny number are ever charged or convicted of any crime.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7595763.stm

"Fifty Quid for Dinner?!!!"

"Fifty Quid for Dinner?!!!" the brother almost screamed at me.

I realised the problem – he had scanned the leaflet and mentally totted up the list of speakers, the venue, the three course meal against half a dozen other Muslim entertainment events in his mind - a mixed bunch of Nasheed concerts, Halal Comedy nights, I-Soc dinners and Eid celebrations and felt that he was being short changed.

The problem was he was comparing apples with oranges and just didn't know. He looked at the names on the flyers and didn't recognise half of them.

He had failed to comprehend that this was not just another event – it was something quite unique.

Who are Cageprisoners?

Cageprisoners are a small human rights organisation dedicated to working for Muslim Prisoners caught up in the 'War on Terror.'

Our raison d'etre is the prisoners – and we have been working tirelessly for them since the photos of prisoners arriving in Guantanamo in orange jumpsuits were imprinted in our minds in 2003.

It is far from easy to think of individuals in 2008 who would have the courage and commitment to make their focus of concern the circumstances of detained Muslims in Britain and beyond.

The work done by the small collective that consititutes 'Cageprisoners' is quite remarkable; there is not an individual whose plight that escapes their notice; where little is known, Cageprisoners conducts its own research, takes statements, conducts interviews, generates debate and consistently produces a flow of reliable information that is otherwise unobtainable.

The world inhabited by prisoners is intended by their jailers to be secret and silent; Cageprisoners gives a voice to the voiceless, and refuses to allow those who are not detained, the complacency of ignorance.

Their work is achieved on a shoestring, and yet matches and surpasses that of many organisations by comparison massively resourced organisations which barely scratch the surface of the same area.

The Cageprisoners website is or should be required reading for the public at large, writers, broadcasters, academics, lawyers and politicians and all who believe that it is their duty to be properly informed.

- Gareth Peirce, August 13th 2008

Ticket price is Sadaqah in Ramadan

This is a fundraising dinner. This means that every penny raised goes straight back to helping the prisoners. Our sponsors have helped us to keep costs to a bare minimum so we can maximise the money we raise (don't worry – the food at the iftar will not disappoint insha'Allah.)

What does this mean to you – the £50 ticket is Sadaqah, pure and simple.

You will be giving the sadaqah in Ramadan, the recipients of the sadaqa are working to free and help the oppressed.

The Prophet, SAW, was asked, 'Which type of charity is best?' He responded, 'Charity done during Ramadan.' " [1]

Dua of the Oppressed

Now let us talk about the prisoners, both the released and soon to be released (insha'Allah.)

We all know that 'If Allah loves a people, He tests them.'[2]

Can anyone claim that our brothers have not been tested? Isolated from their families, caged like animals in the searing tropical heat, forcefully shaven and stripped naked, humiliated by their oppressors.

So can you imagine their rank in front of Allah? These are people who Allah has declared those whom He loves, these are a people Allah has singled out to purify from their sins like fire purifies steel.

"...that He may make them taste a bit of that which they have done, in order that they may return." [3]

These are a people who have faced almost seven years isolated from the outside world.

People who have learnt a lesson you cannot learn on a weekend seminar or from a book. They have had every hope and assistance stripped away from them until they tasted the sweetness of abandoning all reliance on anything other that Allah

If these are Allah's beloved – wouldn't you want them making dua for you? What would you give for it – money alone?

Can you imagine that they are standing in Qiyam, in the last third of the night, in the last ten days of Ramadan in their metal cages weeping and begging their Lord for deliverance?

"... And be afraid of the duaa of an oppressed person because there is no veil between him and Allah." [4]

Imagine no veil between them and Allah, a direct line unsullied by sins or haram!

Do you not think that they are asking Allah for forgiveness for those who help them?

Do you not think that they are asking Allah to shower His mercy upon those who help them?

How can you not want to be counted amongst their helpers and those for whom they are making dua for?

What would you give for that opportunity?

Largest gathering of ex-detainees in Europe

Now let us get back to the dinner itself. The dinner will have the largest gathering of ex-Guantanamo detainees from all around Europe to date.

You will be able to meet those that Allah has tested and you will see that they are flesh and bone just like you or I.

Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: "We believe," and will not be tested.

And We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allah will certainly make (it) known (the truth of) those who are true, and will certainly make (it) known (the falsehood of) those who are liars, (although Allah knows all that before putting them to test).[5]

If a speaker can inspire you, how about a room of people whom Allah has tested, and have remained steadfast?

You will be listening to the likes of Moazzam Begg and Imam Anwar Al Awlaki, in his first live public address since his release from prison, less than a year ago. You will have the opportunity to take away with you the letters that they wrote in Guantanamo, previously unseen sketches conceived in the cages of Camp Delta, bid for books and DVDs signed by these inspirational brothers.

If seeing these brothers and meeting them does not fill your heart with ambition and jealousy at the favour Allah has bestowed upon them with the rank He has given them – I wonder what else will?

Taraweeh

People flit from mosque to mosque, searching for the Qari with the most melodious recitation, the one who will soften their dead hearts so they will be moved to tears.

Imagine this then: let us go back to the cages in Camp Delta, Guantanamo.

It is Ramadan, two hours before Fajr, the last third of the night. Each prisoner is standing in his cell – one of his two thin white towels laid flat, facing the Qibla. His beard has started to return after the Americans forcefully shaved him on his arrival.

A row of men identically dressed in their orange jumpsuits, the straightness of their line interrupted by the walls of their cages – praying Taraweeh in unison.

Our Imam for Taraweeh is Hafidh Moussa Zemmouri, a man detained in Cuba for 3 years on the accusation that he wore a Casio wristwatch known to be popular amongst 'terrorists.' Imagine being held for three years of your life on such a ludicrous accusation!

Our rows will (Insha'Allah) be filled with ex-detainees united again for Taraweeh, an event that last occurred thousands of miles away in Guantanamo, a different existence to our own – except this time YOU get to join their taraweeh, and join your feet to theirs.

"Fifty pounds for dinner!!," he exclaimed to me. I regret now, I should have said to him, "No, brother –the fifty pounds is sadaqah – the food is incidental, it will grant you admission (bi'dhnillah) to benefits that you have not yet realised, and which, if you knew you had missed, you would regret for years to come."

"A Muslim is a brother of (another) Muslim, he neither wrongs him nor forsakes him. If anyone fulfils his brother's needs, Allah will fulfil his needs; if one relieves a Muslim of his troubles, Allah will relieve his troubles on the Day of Resurrection…" [6]

"Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and free the prisoner!"

Book your seat now for Another Ramadan 2008 online here: www.cageprisoners.com/campaigns.php?id=783

Friday 7th September 2008, 6pm, Wandsworth Civic Suite, The Town Hall, Wandsworth, London. With contributions from Imam Anwar Al Awlaki, Moazzam Begg, Yvonne Ridley, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Moussa Zemmouri and Hassen Rasool.

1. Bukhari, #1863, and Muslim, #3028
2. Hasan, at-Tirmidhi (4/2396). 'Sahih al-Jami'' (275).
3. Surah ar-Rum; 41
4. Sahih Bukhari: Volume 2, Book 24, Number 573.
5. Surah Al Ankabut 29:2-3
6. Bukhari and Muslim.