Guantanamo Lawyers Launch Urgent Appeal To Obama

Open letter to the President (attached) reveals how one juvenile and 19 other prisoners remain dangerously brutalised in Guantánamo despite federal courts ordering their release.

Lawyers acting for Guantánamo prisoners today launched an urgent appeal to President Obama to halt the abuse of 20 men declared ‘free’ by the Government.

In an open letter to President Obama, lawyers from WilmerHale, Bingham McCutchen and Reprieve will urge the President to intervene immediately to stop the escalating mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay.

The letter reminds the Obama administration to honour the decisions handed down by the federal courts of the United States, which order the immediate release of 20 men.

The group includes Mohammed el Gharani, who was imprisoned at 14 years old. Judge Leon ruled that Mohammed is not and never has been an enemy combatant, and was wrongfully held at Guantánamo Bay. Two months later, he remains in one of the most brutal wings of the prison.

It also includes the Uighurs, whose resettlement efforts have been stifled by being falsely branded ‘terrorists’ in defiance of the court’s ruling. The Boumediene petitioners are further proof that winning a habeas case is a far cry from winning freedom.

Help those working on the front line to reveal the truth about current conditions at Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve attorneys are available for interview in both London and Washington DC. Please contact Katherine O'Shea at the Reprieve Press Office on +44 7931592674.

All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition Press Release

Andrew Tyrie calls on the Government to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into its involvement in the US rendition programme, following the MOD’s admission that people captured by UK Forces were rendered to Afghanistan for interrogation by the US.

“Since the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition was created, I have made a number of specific allegations: that the UK has facilitated rendition; that Diego Garcia was used for this purpose; that our Armed Forces were dragged into rendition.”

“Each of these was categorically denied. A recent MOD review of detention practices condemned as ‘baseless’ speculation that the MOD was complicit in rendition. Yet all of them have turned out to be true, confirmed in three Ministerial Statements over the past year, and a High Court judgment.”

“US assurances that it does not use torture are unreliable, as the Foreign Affairs Committee concluded in its Human Rights Annual Report published last year.”

“Given that all previous assurances have been baseless, we can have no confidence in the ones we are being given now. The Government must now carry out a comprehensive inquiry in order to bring closure to this sorry business.”

Ends.

Notes to editors

The APPG has been investigating this issue since 2007.

The Statement today sets out that two people, captured by UK Forces, were rendered to Afghanistan by the US: “Two individuals were captured by UK forces in Iraq. They were transferred to US detention, in accordance with normal practice, and then moved subsequently to a US detention facility in Afghanistan. This information was brought to my attention on 1 December 2008… Following consultations with US authorities, we confirmed that they transferred these two individuals from Iraq to Afghanistan in 2004. They remain in US custody there.”

“officials were aware of this transfer in 2004. It has also been shown that brief references to this case were included in lengthy papers that went to the then Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary in April 2006… In retrospect, it is clear to me that the transfer to Afghanistan of these two individuals should have been questioned at the time. We have discussed the issues surrounding this case with the US Government. They have reassured us about their treatment…”

This is the third branch of Government caught up in the US rendition programme. On 21 February 2008 the Foreign Secretary was forced to reveal that two rendition flights had used the British island of Diego Garcia. The High Court has confirmed that UK Security Services were involved in the rendition of Binyam Mohamed. Today the Defence Secretary has confirmed that two individuals captured by UK Forces in Iraq were transferred to US detention and subsequently rendered to Afghanistan.

As early as 2005 Andrew Tyrie asked the first PQ on this, on 20 December 2005:

Andrew Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any detainees originally held by UK (a) armed forces and (b) other agencies and subsequently transferred to United States responsibility has been rendered to (i) Egypt, (ii) Syria and (iii) other countries.

Kim Howells: We are unaware of any individuals originally detained by UK authorities and subsequently rendited by the USA to any country.

The MOD’s initial unsatisfactory position on this when the APPG took up the issue in late 2007, in response to a Parliamentary Question and further correspondence, was that “Whenever we have passed an individual from UK jurisdiction into the jurisdiction of the Iraqi, Afghan or US authorities, we have had in place an understanding that they would not transfer that individual to a third country without first seeking our consent or at least informing us of their intention.” (Letter of 31 January 2008).

Ben Griffin

Today’s statement does not substantially refer to the allegations made by Ben Griffin, set out below. As the statement sets out: “UK forces have undertaken operations to capture individuals who were subsequently detained by the US. These individuals do not feature in the data I set out above…”

The allegations that the UK was capturing people and handing them over the US, essentially in attempt to avoid legal obligations to the detainees, were first made by former SAS soldier Ben Griffin on 25 February 2008 (statement attached). He alleged that people captured by the UKSF would not be officially ‘arrested’, but quickly handed over to the US in an apparent attempt avoid any UK legal obligations in relation to them. He is currently under an MOD injunction not to speak about any of this:

“…it has been British soldiers detaining the victims of Extraordinary Rendition in the first place. Since the invasion of Afghanistan in the autumn of 2001 UKSF has operated within a joint US/UK Task Force. This Task Force has been responsible for the detention of hundreds if not thousands of individuals in Afghanistan and Iraq. Individuals detained by British soldiers within this Task force have ended up in Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, Bagram Theatre Internment Facility, Balad Special Forces Base, Camp Nama BIAP and Abu Ghraib Prison… As UK soldiers within this Task Force a policy that we would detain individuals but not arrest them was continually enforced. Since it was commonly assumed by my colleagues that anyone we detained would subsequently be tortured this policy of detention and not arrest was regarded as a clumsy legal tool used to distance British soldiers from the whole process.”

MOD Responses

In responses to the APPG’s correspondence, PQs and Freedom of Information Act requests the MOD has generally refused to comment on the actions of the Special Forces, and refused to confirm or deny that such a policy exists or existed.

They did carry out a review of detention practices, and disclosed a very limited amount of this review (just 4%) to the APPG following a FOIA request. It was annexed to Des Browne’s letter to Andrew Tyrie of 7 July 2008. The information disclosed demonstrated that the review was based on a mere 48hr visit to Iraq, and the conclusion was that: “The picture is a positive one. The UK has met its obligations by a combination of assurances, operational judgement, and record keeping. The Department will always be open to baseless speculation that we have been complicit in rendition or ill treatment. To end all speculation would require us to prove a negative. We can say, however, that we have no evidence of unlawful rendition and we have looked”.

As recently as 13 January 2009, John Hutton wrote to the APPG and set out that “I remain confident that the processes currently in place are in accordance with UK policy and legal obligations.” These conclusions may be contradicted by any statement tomorrow.

Freedom of Information Requests

The APPG appealed against the MOD’s FOIA refusals in October 2008, and is still waiting for a determination. In the meantime the APPG has made FOIA requests in the US (to the FBI, CIA, Dept of Defense, etc) about this policy in the hope of getting more information on all of this. A full list of Freedom of Information Act requests is attached.

Legal Advice

In September 2008 the APPG commissioned and published a Legal Opinion on detainee transfers by Michael Fordham QC and Tom Hickman of Blackstone Chambers. This Opinion set out that detainee handovers could breach the HRA and ECHR in certain circumstances. It was passed to the MOD. The Opinion stated that any assurances given by the US authorities, that an individual handed over by UK forces to the US authorities would not be mistreated or unlawfully rendered, would not absolve the UK government of the obligation to examine whether the assurances provide a sufficient guarantee that the individual will be protected against the risk of ill-treatment. Furthermore, the Legal Opinion highlights “specific concerns about the legality of the UK having accepted such assurances” from the US.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has also highlighted that US assurances that it does not use torture cannot be relied upon, as set out in submissions by the APPG, in its Human Rights Annual Report 2007, published in July 2008.

Select Committee Involvement

The APPG passed this information to the Defence Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee (see, for example, Andrew Tyrie’s letter of 15 May 2008 to the Defence Committee) and asked them to look into these allegations.

In a Joint Evidence Session on 28 October 2008 they quizzed John Hutton on this. He was unable to confirm how many detainees had been captured by the UK in Iraq. He stated that no-one ‘detained’ by UK Forces had ever ultimately found themselves at Guantanamo.

In a subsequent letter to the Defence Committee, John Hutton committed to make a statement to the House on this issue – which I imagine is tomorrow’s statement. He also wrote that “the UK does not have legal obligations towards the treatment of individuals we have detained once they have been transferred to the custody of another state”. This appears to contradict his oral evidence to the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees, and the MOU which sets out that the Detaining Power retains full rights of access to any detainee following a transfer; that the Detaining Power must agree to any onward transfer of a detainee; and that the Detaining Power can demand the return of a detainee from the Accepting Power.

All correspondence on this issue is available at www.extraordinaryrendition.org.

______

Andrew Tyrie is Conservative MP for Chichester and Chairman and founder of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition. Mr Tyrie can be contacted on 020 7219 6371. His office email is bennetter@parliament.uk. The website of the All Party Group is www.extraordinaryrendition.org

Bail Order Detainees Face Prison

All ten men living under bail conditions facing deportation orders to Algeria and Jordan are facing having their bail revoked by the Home Office. Nine Algerian men ( which include Mr Y and Mr U) and one Jordanian Mr VV will have their cases heard in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission on Thur 25 Feb and Fri 26 Feb. The Home Office have decided that the bail should be revoked and the SIAC judge will make the final judgement. If he accepts this, ALL nine men will be detained indefinitely in either Belmarsh prison or Long Lartinn. None of the men have breached their bail conditions. No other reason has been given as to the reason for the revoking of the bail conditions.

Following the House of Lords announcement of their decision that it was safe to return Abu Qatada and two Algerians back to their countries of origin, despite the fact they will be detained and could face torture-an order to revoke the bail was submitted for the entire group.

If the bail is revoked these men face further indefinite detention, without charge or trial, which could span years.

Try to attend SIAC tomorrow: Britain's secret court.

Date: Thursday 26th February
Time: 9.30am
Venue: Fields House Breams Building, left off Chancery Lane (nearest underground Chancery Lane)

Public are able to attend.

Be prepared to hear a lot about 'closed' evidence-it is secret evidence that has put these men where they are today.

Guantánamo: The Forgotten Prisoner

Finally, Binyam Mohamed is coming home. But Shaker Aamer is also a British resident – don't abandon this gentle family man

- Moazzam Begg

Perhaps the most heart-breaking thing a child whose father is in prison will ever have to do is to explain to his – or her – classmates why daddy never comes to collect him from school. The very mention that daddy is in jail will, at least in some cases, elicit the puerile jeering and mockery expected in any school playground. Society – schools included – tells us that people in prison must be bad. That may be the case for those found guilty of heinous crimes. But, how does a seven-year-old – who has never seen his father, except through old photographs his tormented mother shows him – explain to his peers the iniquitous nature of the removal of habeas corpus? How does he argue his father's case when he doesn't even know what a father is? How will he explain all this to his classmates when we cannot even explain it to adults? This – and much more – is what one chid and his three older siblings in London have experienced daily since the incarceration of their father more than seven years ago.

Since the early 90s, Shaker Aamer had resided in the UK, where he worked as a translator at a legal firm and later met his wife. In the summer of 2001, Aamer made the decision to live and work in Pakistan and Afghanistan, along with his wife and children, to undertake projects to support a girls' school and build wells. Shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Aamer, it is believed, like hundreds of others, was sold for a bounty of $5,000 by tribal warlords eager to receive the lucrative rewards offered for foreign Muslims by the US military. His family managed to return safely to the UK, but Aamer was sent to a series of secret prisons and eventually to Guantánamo Bay.

Guantánamo has become a major embarrassment for the US administration, and President Barack Obama's call to close the place – along with the CIA detention sites – is welcome. We have already seen how the torture meted out before and during our incarceration in Guantánamo has become a source of altercation and unease between two of the world's closest allies, especially through the case of Binyam Mohamed, who is now finally being returned to his place of residence in the UK. Having been subjected to some truly horrific torture, Mohamed undoubtedly deserves to be afforded the dignity of rehabilitation and reintegration into normal life. If this is true in the case of Mohamed, then it is even more so in the case of Aamer and his family.

Aamer was a very well-known and liked person among his community; he left an indelible impression on most of the people who met and conversed with him. He is faithful, brave, charismatic, kind, polite and full of life. All of us in Guantánamo knew his qualities, including the men guarding us.

Terry Holdbrooks, one of Aamer's guards, serving in a military police unit from 2003-04 in Guantánamo, said about him: "He's a wonderful character – unbelievably intelligent, very polite, very well-mannered, great etiquette … no matter whom the guard was he was working with – whether it was a very ignorant uncaring American with no recognition for his situation or me … He was a wonderful person – I absolutely enjoyed spending time with him.

There has been some confusion as to where Aamer should be sent to since he was cleared for release and transfer over a year ago. The Americans wanted to send him to Saudi Arabia, since he is a citizen of that country, but he has leave to remain in the UK and his family are all here. His UK lawyer, Gareth Peirce, commented: "He's not charged with anything. Where is the problem? His family's all in the UK and the UK has accepted that it has called for his return here. The new US administration wants to close down Guantánamo. Bringing Aamer home tomorrow wouldn't be soon enough."

Aamer has never been designated for trial by military commission and there is no intention to prosecute him. He has lost more than half his body weight due to several hunger strikes he has participated in, agitating for better conditions and the right to be charged and tried – or released. But ultimately, Aamer is a father and a husband who simply wants to come home. Zachary Katznelson from Reprieve, on organisation that legally represents a large number of the men still in Guantánamo said: "Shaker's primal concern has always been about his family: how he could return to being a father again, how he could return to being a husband again."

Aamer's wife has been hospitalised a number of times due to the terrible strain his absence has placed upon her and her children. Her words haunt all who know his case:

Your disappearance isn't natural

Is that what was written in my fate?

What kind of departure was it?

Your commemoration in my mind

Faaris Aamer, the child who has yet to meet his father, still patiently awaits the day that the man in the photographs he sees holding his older sister and brothers – Juhayna (12), Mish'al (10) and Abdur-Rahman (9) – all those years ago, walks through the door and finally says, "As-salaamu alaikum kids – I'm your father. I'm home.

It is high time Aamer came home.

On behalf of the family of Shaker Aamer and former Guantánamo prisoners: Shafiq Rasul, Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Tarek Dergoul, Jamal al-Harith, Richard Belmar, Martin Mubanga, Feroz Abbassi, Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil Elbanna, Omar Deghayes and Abdenour Sameur

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...binyam-mohamed

‘I Was Victim of Medieval Torture,’ Says Freed Guantanamo Detainee

The seven-year ordeal of a British resident who claims he was brutally tortured before being sent to Guantanamo Bay was brought to an end last night during an emotional reunion with his family.

Binyam Mohamed’s sister, Zuhra Mohamed, said she was “overcome with joy” as she watched her brother shuffle down the steps of the RAF transport plane which had carried him from the notorious US detention camp in Cuba to Northolt airfield, west London.

She said: “When I saw him he looked like he is OK, but he will plainly not be the man I remember all those years ago.” Almost as soon as Mr Mohamed had taken his first steps on British soil, the former computer and engineering student made it clear that he had unfinished business with both the US and UK governments. In a carefully worded statement he said he intended to hold to account those he blamed for his alleged rendition, torture and unlawful imprisonment: “I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured.”

Last night Mr Mohamed’s release from US custody reignited calls for the British Government to publish secret documents that would shine further light on the involvement of MI5 agents in his interrogation and alleged torture.

William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, and the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, Ed Davey, joined with human rights groups in calling for the Government to come clean about British complicity in Mr Mohamed’s alleged torture. Mr Mohamed, wearing a cream pullover, navy-blue trousers, white trainers and a white cap pulled over the top of his head, was accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers as he shuffled down the steps of the military aircraft steps. Unaided, he was taken to an airport interview room and detained under Port and Border Controls, part of the Terrorism Act 2000.

After further questioning by UK Border Agency officials, who will now consider renewing his British residency status which expired in 2004, he was released without charge.

Family and friends were then granted access to Mr Mohamed, who will spend some time away from the media glare. The 30-year-old Ethiopian national, who came to Britain in 1994, was held in Karachi in 2002 by American and Pakistani secret agents before being allegedly sent to Morocco, where he says he was tortured. He is the first of 250 Guantanamo detainees to be transferred under a review ordered by President Barack Obama. Ms Mohamed, 38, who had flown from America to be reunited with her brother after more than 10 years apart, described last night the family’s own ordeal in trying to find out what had happened to him.

Ms Mohamed said in an interview with The Independent that she had been repeatedly told by the US and Pakistani governments that they had no information relating to her brother – whom she had spent three years living with in Ethiopia and then two more years in America.

After he disappeared in 2002, Ms Mohamed and her other brother, Benhur, went to the FBI to ask for help to find him.

She remembers: “They first said, ‘It looks like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ But then they later denied knowing anything about him at all and suggested we contact the Pakistani government. When I spoke to the Pakistani embassy, they said they didn’t know where he was either. It was only when the Red Cross contacted us in 2004 that we were aware that Binyam had been taken to Guantanamo Bay. It is now clear that all the time they [the US government] were involved in his interrogation.”

Ms Mohamed described both countries’ attitudes as “shameful”. Behur Mohamed, who came to west London in search of his brother after his disappearance, said yesterday: “It was very disheartening to know that the British had something to do with his suffering.”

Mr Hague said it was “high time the UK Government asked the new US administration for permission” to release information relating to Mr Mohamed’s case which was withheld by the High Court earlier this month.

Medical Treatment: Matters of the Mind

*Binyam Mohamed is expected to be referred to the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, in London, which has helped other Guantanamo detainees deal with the psychological effects of their experiences. Alex Sklan, a clinician who has worked with torture survivors at the foundation for more than 10 years, says it is essential that Mr Mohamed is assessed as soon as possible. “Once out of the media spotlight, Mr Mohamed will need help in addressing the serious long-term consequences of his ordeal,” says Mr Sklan. “Long after they are released, survivors of torture can suffer with nightmares related to their ordeal, intrusive thoughts about their torture, outbursts of anger and intense feelings of hopelessness.”

Source: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/8216i-was-victim-of-medieval-torture8217-says-freed-guantanamo-detainee-1630317.html

Guantanamo Detainee Back In UK

An aircraft carrying Binyam Mohamed, 30, landed at RAF Northolt in north west London just after 1pm.

In a statement released today, the former detainee said the worst moment of his captivity was when he realised his "torturers" were receiving questions and material from British intelligence agents.

Concerns had been expressed about Mr Mohamed's health after he recently went on hunger strike, but he was able to walk off the aircraft without needing support.

He was dressed in casual clothes and clutched what appeared to be a document holder as he made his way to the terminal building surrounded by officials.

Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed lived in London before his arrest in Pakistan in 2002. He was held at the controversial US military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba from September 2004.

The former detainee alleges that he was tortured into falsely confessing to terrorist activities and claims MI5 officers were complicit in his abuse. The Government requested his release, and a team of British officials went to Guantanamo Bay recently to check that he was well enough to travel back to the UK.

In his statement, Mr Mohamed said: "I have to say, more in sadness than in anger, that many have been complicit in my own horrors over the past seven years. "For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was pleased the former detainee had returned to the UK.

He said: "This is the direct result of our request for his release and return, and follows intensive negotiations with the US government. "Mr Mohamed was accompanied by Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials, officers of the Metropolitan Police and the doctor who visited him at Guantanamo Bay last week.

"We have been in touch with Mr Mohamed's family and legal representatives to inform them of his return. "The UK Government requested the release and return of all former legal UK residents detained at Guantanamo Bay in August 2007. "In reaching this decision we have paid full consideration to the need to maintain national security and the Government's overriding responsibilities in this regard."

Mr Mohamed will spend the next few days with his family and legal team, away from the media spotlight.

In his statement, he said: "I hope you will understand that, after everything I have been through, I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain.

"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. "Before this ordeal, torture was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. "It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways - all orchestrated by the United States government.

"While I want to recover, and put it all as far in the past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers. "My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten."

Speaking about his period of torture in Morocco, Mr Mohamed said: "I have met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers."

He went on: "I am not asking for vengeance, only that the truth should be made known so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, called for an independent inquiry into Britain's role in secret detention and rendition programmes. "We're pleased that we have Binyam back today but it has taken the British Government far too long to be arguing for these men," she said.

Mr Mohamed's UK lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said he was "absolutely" convinced of the former detainee's innocence. "If anyone wants to put him on trial, in the immortal words of George Bush, bring them on," he said.

Gordon Brown today declined to say whether Mr Mohamed will face any restrictions on his liberty when he returns to the UK.

Speaking in Southampton, where he is attending a Cabinet "awayday", the Prime Minister said: "What I can say is that at all times the security of the country will be protected. "Of course, we have got to look at the details of the arrangements, but at all times the security of the British people comes first."

He added: "My first concern is the security of people in this country and we will do everything in our power to protect the security of people in our country and the Home Secretary will take whatever action is necessary."

Source: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/guantanamo-detainee-back-in-uk-1629907.html

Reprieve Press Release
Binyam Mohamed Will Be Released Back To Britain

Reprieve is delighted at the news that Guantánamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed will be released back to Britain

Reprieve welcomes the Foreign Office announcement that Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain as soon as practicable.

"This is truly wonderful news for Binyam Mohamed, who wants nothing more to return to normal life in Britain," said Reprieve director Clive Stafford Smith. "The Foreign Office have worked long and hard to secure Binyam's release from Guantanamo Bay. We thank them for their efforts on Binyam's behalf and to those in the Obama administration who assisted them."

Reprieve will issue a further release when the details of Binyam's return have been confirmed.

For further information, please contact Clive Stafford Smith (07940 347125; clivess@mac.com); or Katherine O'Shea at Reprieve's Press Office on 020 7427 1099.

Note for Editors:

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person's right to a fair trial and saving lives. Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve's current casework involves representing 33 prisoners in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, working on behalf of prisoners facing the death penalty, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of 'ghost prisoners' in the so-called 'war on terror.'

Reprieve, PO Box 52742, London EC4P 4WS / Tel: 020 7353 4640 / Fax: 020 7353 4641 / Email: info@reprieve.org.uk / Website: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/

Imagine



www.hhugs.org.uk

I Shot Blindfolded Iraqi Prisoner At Point-Blank Range

A U.S. soldier confessed to military investigators that he shot a bound and blindfolded Iraqi prisoner point-blank in the back of the head, according to a video played at his murder trial today.

Sgt Michael Leahy, 28, told the Germany-based investigators that after shooting the first prisoner, he turned his 9mm pistol on another captive.

‘The detainee I shot fell back on me,’ he said in the videotape of the January 2008 interrogation played at his trial in the Army's Rose Barracks' courtroom. ‘I turned to the right and saw the other detainee flinch, and turn his head after he heard the shot. My weapon was pointed toward him, my weapon was anywhere from a foot to a couple of inches away. I hit him in the side of the head, the face, anywhere from the ear forward.’

But the shot didn't kill the second man, so Master Sgt John Hatley, 40, finished him off with a shot to the chest, Leahy said. ‘I'm ashamed of what I've done,’ he said in the video, occasionally wiping tears from his eyes and holding his face in his hands. ‘I don't consider myself a murderer. I made a huge mistake. I'll accept the consequences.’

Leahy has pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice in the deaths of a total of four Iraqi prisoners, who were dumped in a Baghdad canal in 2007 after they were killed. Leahy is also being tried for the alleged murder of another Iraqi who was shot while in his care as a medic in January of 2007.

The Illinois man faces a possible life in prison and dishonourable discharge if convicted.

Six soldiers including Leahy are accused of involvement in the slaying of the four prisoners sometime between March 10 and April 16, 2007. All were with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, which is now part of the Germany-based 172nd Infantry Brigade. Leahy, Hatley and Sgt 1st Class Joseph Mayo, 27, are accused of pulling the trigger.

According to testimony at the court-martial, which began Tuesday, at least four Iraqis were taken into custody in spring 2007 after a shootout with a patrol that included five other accused soldiers.

The prisoners were taken to the U.S. unit's operating base in Baghdad for questioning and processing though there wasn't enough evidence to hold them for attacking the unit. Later that night patrol members took the Iraqis to a remote area and shot them in retribution for the attacks against the unit, according to testimony.

Three soldiers are scheduled for later courts-martial. Sgt Charles Quigley, 28, of Providence, Rhode Island, faces one charge of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. Mayo and Hatley are charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, and obstruction of justice.

Two more soldiers – Spc (specialist) Steven Ribordy, 25, of Salina, Kansas, and Spc Belmor Ramos, 23, of Clearfield, Utah - pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1150362/I-shot-blindfolded-Iraqi-prisoner-point-blank-range-confesses-U-S-soldier.html?ITO=1490

Abu Qatada Has Rights Too

The law lords' decision to uphold the Home Office appeal to deport Mohamed Othman, also known as Abu Qatada, to face a military trial on terrorism charges in Jordan marks a low moment in British justice. The meaningless George Bush phrase "war on terror" may have now been expunged from the official discourse, but, in their different ways, figures as distinguished as the former head of MI5, Stella Rimington, and the former senior law lord Lord Bingham have pointed out this very week, the erosion of civil liberties in Britain under the justification of combating terrorism continues apace.

Othman's civil liberties, and the right to respect for private and family life embodied in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, are no different from anyone else's. The Othman family came here as refugees. Othman has never been charged or tried for any crime in this country. The evidence on which the law lords made their decision was heard in secret, and neither Othman nor his lawyers have the right to know what it is so that it could be challenged. This system of secret evidence against Muslims accused of terrorism is manifestly unjust, and should be denounced by parliament, along with torture, Guantánamo, secret prisons around the world and renditions.

The law lords' judgment joined Othman's case with that of two Algerian men known as Mr U and Mr RB, whom the Home Office wants to deport to Algeria, and who, like him, have spent most of the last seven years in Belmarsh or Long Lartin prisons, or under the effective house arrest regime of control orders. (The two Algerians still have an appeal pending in the court of appeal, unlike Othman, whose lawyers immediately lodged in the European court in Strasbourg an appeal for a stay on his 72 hours for deportation as a result of today's judgment.)

The British security services and the media have successfully demonised these men, and in particular mythologised Othman as posing a super-danger to our society. No proof of any of the damning things repeatedly said and written about him has ever been produced. The fact that he condemned both 9/11 and the London 7/7 bombings has been conveniently forgotten.

Since Othman's bail was revoked in December after a November hearing with secret evidence, he has been in Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. The day he returned, access to gym and education facilities were withdrawn without explanation from those in the special security wing for Muslim prisoners. Othman's family visits were made in a special secure room where his conversations with his wife and children were taped.

The three men were referred to as "aliens" in the judgment, underlining the attitude that led to the law lords deciding that the issue of torture in the countries where these people are being deported is not the business of the court, and that diplomatic assurances that they will not be tortured are satisfactory. Human rights organisations have repeatedly named both Algeria and Jordan as countries where torture is routine.

The casual racism that allows our society to treat these men's human rights as different from our own is an old cancer in Britain that we prefer to forget. We cannot afford to.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/feb/18/civil-liberties-law-abu-qatada

Israel Leaders Mull Prisoner Swap

Israel's security cabinet is discussing a possible prisoner exchange with the Palestinian group Hamas, as talks continue for a long-term truce in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners might be freed, including senior militants, for the release of Cpl Gilad Shalit.

The cabinet will also discuss whether to make his release a condition of the truce, which would include the opening of Gaza's border crossing with Egypt. Hamas leaders say the border crossing and prisoner issues cannot be linked.

Cpl Shalit was seized by Palestinian militants in June 2006 while he was on duty on the edge of the Gaza Strip.

In recent days the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has demanded the resolution of the Shalit issue before looking at "reopening the crossings and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip".

Correspondents say a vote to support his position risks further complicating Egyptian efforts to broker a lasting truce around the Gaza Strip.

'Insult to Egypt'

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, in exile in Damascus accused Mr Olmert of trying to block Egyptian-mediated truce efforts.

Even Israel's top negotiator in the talks, Amos Gilad, was quoted offering outspoken criticism of the prime minister. "Suddenly, the order of things has been changed... I don't understand that. Where does that lead, to insult the Egyptians? To make them want to drop the whole thing?" he was quoted saying in the Maariv daily.

Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, including ones involved in attacks on Israelis who have mostly been kept out of past swaps.

Under an Israeli blockade, little more than basic humanitarian supplies are allowed into Gaza. Aid agencies say Gaza needs the crossings reopened to people and a much greater volume and range of goods if it is to rebuild after Israel's 22-day air, sea and land bombardment which inflicted heavy damage on the territory's infrastructure and destroyed some 5,000 homes.

The Israeli authorities believe Cpl Shalit is still alive. In the past they have been prepared to exchange hostages and the remains of soldiers for large numbers of Arab prisoners.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7896506.stm

Whitehall Devised Torture Policy For Terror Detainees

A policy governing the interrogation of terrorism suspects in Pakistan that led to British citizens and residents being tortured was devised by MI5 lawyers and figures in government, according to evidence heard in court.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been detained without trial in Pakistan say they were tortured by Pakistani intelligence agents before being questioned by MI5. In some cases their accusations are supported by medical evidence.

The existence of an official interrogation policy emerged during cross-examination in the high court in London of an MI5 officer who had questioned one of the detainees, Binyam Mohamed, the British resident currently held in Guantánamo Bay. The officer, who can be identified only as Witness B, admitted that although Mohamed had been in Pakistani custody for five weeks, and he knew the country to have a poor human rights record, he did not ask whether he had been tortured or mistreated, did not inquire why he had lost weight, and did not consider whether his detention without trial was illegal.

Mohamed is expected to return to Britain soon after ending a five-week hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay, where he was being force-fed. After he was seen by British officials and a doctor over the weekend, the Foreign Office said he was medically fit to travel.

Cross-examined in the high court last year, Witness B acknowledged that Mohamed was in "an extremely vulnerable position" when he questioned him in Karachi in 2002. The MI5 officer admitted telling him that "he would get more lenient treatment if he cooperated", and said that he knew he was to be transferred to US custody.

Witness B was asked by Dinah Rose QC, for Mohamed: "Was it your understanding that it was lawful for Mr Mohamed to be transferred to the US authorities in this way?" Witness B replied: "I consider that to be a matter for the security service top management and for government."

Asked then whether the transfer concerned him, Witness B replied: "I was aware that the general question of interviewing detainees had been discussed at length by security service management legal advisers and government, and I acted in this case, as in others, under the strong impression that it was considered to be proper and lawful." He denied that he had threatened Mohamed and said the prisoner appeared well enough to be questioned.

Mohamed was eventually able to tell lawyers that before being questioned by MI5 he had been hung from leather straps, beaten and threatened with a firearm by Pakistani intelligence officers. After the meeting with MI5 he was "rendered" to Morocco where he endured 18 months of even more brutal torture, including having his genitals slashed with a scalpel. Some of the questions put to him under torture in Morocco were based on information passed by MI5 to the US.

The Guardian has learned from other sources that the interrogation policy was directed at a high level within Whitehall and that it has been further developed since Mohamed's detention in Pakistan. Evidence of this might emerge from 42 undisclosed US documents seen by the high court and sent to the MPs and peers on the intelligence and security committee (ISC).

Lawyers representing Mohamed went to the high court in an attempt to secure the disclosure of the documents, but the court reluctantly refused earlier this month after David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said such a move would damage national security and UK-US relations.

Miliband's position in the affair came under renewed attack yesterday after it emerged that his officials solicited a letter from the US state department to back up his claim that if the evidence was disclosed, Washington might stop sharing intelligence with Britain. The claim persuaded the high court judges to suppress what they called "powerful evidence" relating to Mohamed's ill-treatment.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, today described the move as possibly "one of the most outrageous deceptions of parliament, the judiciary and the British people. There must be an immediate investigation, with all related correspondence made public."

The FCO said it asked the US to make its position clear in writing "to inform both us and the court". It said it was "both perfectly sensible and the correct thing to do".

The high court said it was now up to the ISC to "hold those in charge of the secret intelligence service and security service and her majesty's government to account".

In a letter to the committee, Clive Stafford Smith, the director of Reprieve, says: "The ISC would want to know whether the intelligence services brought the issue of Mr Mohamed's abuse to the attention of the prime minister (then Mr Blair) – and, if not, why not." He said if the evidence had been brought to Blair's attention, "the ISC would want to know what, if anything, was done about it. If nothing was done, that would raise serious questions about the respect that the UK government has for its obligations under the convention against torture."

Evidence heard by the court in-camera – once the public and the media had been excluded – resulted in Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, asking the attorney general, Lady Scotland, to investigate "possible criminal wrongdoing" by both American and British security and intelligence officers.

Witness B's testimony is expected to be considered by MPs and peers on parliament's joint committee on human rights, which has begun an inquiry into allegations of British collusion in the torture of detainees in Pakistan, and is asking Miliband and Smith to give evidence.

A number of British terrorism suspects have been questioned by British intelligence officials, including MI5 officers, after periods of alleged torture by Pakistani interrogators. Last year Manchester crown court heard that MI5 and Greater Manchester police passed questions to Pakistani interrogators so they could be put to Rangzieb Ahmed, 35, from Rochdale. MI5 officers also interviewed him while he was in custody, although the head of the consular division at the British high commission was not informed about his detention for nine months. By the time Ahmed was deported to the UK 13 months later, and successfully prosecuted for terrorism offences, three of his fingernails had disappeared from his left hand. He says they were removed with pliers while he was being questioned about his associates in Pakistan, the July 2005 terrorist attacks in London, and an alleged plot against the United States.

While other detainees have also subsequently been prosecuted or deported to the UK and made subject to control orders, one vanished in bizarre circumstances and was subsequently said to have been killed in a US missile attack, although his family has not been given his body. A number have been released without charge.

A medical student from London who was held for almost two months in a building opposite the offices of the British deputy high commission in Karachi says he was tortured while being questioned about the 2005 London bombings before being questioned by British intelligence officers. He was released without charge and is now working at a hospital on the south coast of England, but is thought to remain deeply traumatised.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/16/pakistan-torture-mi5-agent-binyam

UK To Shift Anti-Terror Strategy

The UK government is preparing a major shift in its counter-terrorism strategy to combat radicalisation, the BBC's Panorama programme has learned. Conservative Muslims who teach that Islam is incompatible with Western democracy will be challenged as part of a new approach, Panorama has been told.

A senior Whitehall source said that Muslim leaders who urge separation will be isolated and publicly rejected. He also said this would occur even if their comments fell within the law.

This will include those who argue that Muslims should not vote and that homosexuals should be condemned on religious grounds.

Panorama's source said that Britain "needs to identify and back shared values" and that this new thinking will be central to a new counter-terrorism policy called Contest 2 due to be launched this Spring.

Intelligence Gathering

Panorama has been looking at the issue of Islamic extremism for its programme Muslim First, British Second, which will be broadcast on 16 February. Panorama has also been told by a separate counter-terrorism source that more emphasis will be placed on gathering intelligence about extremism from inside the Muslim community.

The Home Office is currently spending £80m on community projects designed to stop young Muslims from being radicalised and the source said that some of these projects are being targeted by intelligence analysts. However, this was denied by the police.

Sir Norman Bettison from the Association of Chief Police Officers, who, when asked if community projects are being used as "Trojan horses" to gather information, told the programme there was "no dedicated intelligence gathering" as part of the Prevent community work.

The government's counter-terrorism strategy is based on what officials call the "Four Ps" - prevent, pursue, protect and prepare. The "prevent" element of the strategy aims to block radicalisation and reduce the supply of terror recruits by working with local communities. But Sir Norman accepted that as part of the "pursue" element of the strategy, police and other officials would use "any means available to get the information that is required to prosecute people committing criminal acts".

Labour peer Lord Ahmed said he would welcome a tougher approach. "Those who preach hate, those who preach divisions, those who create hatred within societies, I think they need to be isolated," he said. "We need to empower the mainstream Muslim leadership and the scholars so they can actually hold the arguments and debates within the Muslim society."

Influence On The Young

Up until now Britain's counter-terrorism policy has only targeted those who preach support for violent extremism. But according to Panorama's Whitehall source this will now change: "We want to move away from just challenging violent extremism. We now believe that we should challenge people who are against democracy and state institutions", he said.

The shift in position will be welcomed by those who believe that Islamic extremism feeds off religious separatism and intolerance.

There are some well-known preachers, many of them especially popular amongst the young, who condemn terrorism, yet also emphasise Islam's incompatibility with the West.

Sheikh Khalid Yassin, one of the stars of the preaching circuit, has lectured about his contempt for homosexuals saying:"If you prefer the clothing of the Kaffirs [non-believers] other than the clothing of the Muslims - most of those names on most of that clothing is faggots, homosexuals and lesbians."

Another influential preacher, Abdurraheem Green, whose internet lectures receive hundreds of thousands of hits, preaches that "Islam is not compatible with democracy" and that to prevent a wife committing "evil" a husband has the right to "apply some type of physical force... a very light beating" - though he says this should not leave any marks.

Problem Or Solution

Despite these conservative views the Metropolitan Police has sought Abdurraheem Green's advice recently. And the preacher himself insists that in spite of his conservative views about life in Britain he is "part of the solution" to extremism because young people listen to him.

"I surely have said some pretty radical things and maybe even written some radical things in the past," he told Panorama. "But one thing I have been very consistent on is terrorism, participating in terrorist activities, violent revolution - is not something that I have ever thought was part of the religion of Islam."

Some senior police officers argue it is vital to work with radicals because they have credibility amongst young British Muslims. But some moderate scholars warn this is a dangerous road.

Sheikh Musa Admani, imam at London Metropolitan University, says if advice is sought from the radicals, or if they are funded with public money, then "Muslims are going to endorse them as a whole and so there's the danger".

Panorama: Muslim First, British Second is on BBC One on Monday, 16 February at 2030 GMT.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7889631.stm

Emergency Demonstration: Bring Binyam Back!

Date: Tuesday 17 February
Time: 1-2.30pm
Location: US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair W1A 1AE (nearest tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch)

At the beginning of the month, a US military lawyer, Yvonne Bradley, visited Binyam Mohamed in his cell at Guantánamo Bay and reported that he was just "skin and bones" and is close to death: if action is not taken quickly, it is likely that he will leave Guantánamo Bay in a body bag, she reported.

Binyam has been on hunger strike since the beginning of the year with several dozen other detainees and is currently being force fed. His situation is desperate. As diplomatic manoeuvres continue to return him to the UK (the UK having sought his return in August 2007), Binyam is deteriorating. Time is running out! After almost seven years of arbitrary detention on three continents, torture and abuse for crimes no one has been able to prove or provide evidence for (he does not even currently face charges), President Obama must now release Binyam Mohamed and return him to the UK.

Please join the London Guantánamo Campaign and Brighton Against Guantánamo as we protest outside the US Embassy on Tuesday lunchtime calling on President Obama to deliver on his promises and his commitments to human rights and the rule of law by releasing Binyam Mohamed immediately.

In the event that Binyam is released and returned to the UK before Tuesday 17 February, we will cancel the demonstration. Please look out for further notices.

For more details, please email london.gtmo@googlemail.com or call Aisha on 07809 757 176

More on Binyam's hunger strike: www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...d-1606319.html

Latest news on Binyam by Andy Worthington: www.andyworthington.co.uk/200...om-guantanamo/

Defence Role In CIA's Secret Jails

Three human rights groups have obtained documents that confirm US Department of Defence involvement in the CIA's "ghost" detention program, and the existence of secret prisons at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

The documents obtained as part of a long-running legal battle using freedom-of-information laws were released by the Department of Defence to Amnesty International USA, the Centre for Constitutional Rights and the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice last week.

The groups received about 1000 documents from Defence out of more than 12,000 that have been identified as coming within their request but which are still being withheld by agencies including the CIA and the Department of Justice.

The groups said these documents confirm the existence of secret prisons at Bagram and in Iraq; affirm the Defence Department's co-operation with the CIA's "ghost" detention program; and show one case where Defence sought to delay the release of Guantanamo prisoners who were scheduled to be sent home by a month and a half in order to avoid bad press.

The document from the transport division recommended "hold(ing) off on return flights for 45 days or so until things die down. Otherwise we are likely to have hero's welcomes awaiting the detainees when they arrive."

The email also recommended transfer in a smaller, more discreet plane. Around that time a UN report on Guantanamo had been released.

The groups said the documents also revealed that Defence had a policy not to register prisoners with the Red Cross for 14 days and sometimes for 30 days in the interests of collecting intelligence and that this policy was known to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"These newly released documents confirm our suspicion that the tentacles of the CIA's abusive program reached across agency lines," said Margaret Satterthwaite, director of New York University's International Human Rights Clinic. "In fact, it is increasingly obvious that Defence officials engaged in legal gymnastics to find ways to co-operate with the CIA's activities."

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Patrick Leahy, is pushing for the establishment of a "truth commission" answerable to both chambers of Congress to investigate the actions of the Bush administration and departments.

Senator Leahy called his proposal a "middle ground" between those critics of the Bush administration seeking to prosecute officials, and others wishing to concentrate on the future as opposed to investigating the past.

But on Sunday, President Barack Obama was non-committal. While he repeated his line that torture was wrong and would cease under his Administration, he also noted that he was of a mind to look forward not backwards.

Source: www.theage.com.au/world/defence-role-in-cias-secret-jails-20090213-875d.html

Guantanamo Detainee Close To Returning To UK

A UK resident held in Guantanamo Bay for four years could return to Britain within days after the Government said that Foreign Office officials would be visiting the US naval base in Cuba to help arrange a "swift" release.

Binyam Mohamed, 31, an Ethiopian, came to Britain as an asylum-seeker at the age of 16 and was given temporary residence. He worked as a caretaker in west London before going to Afghan-istan and Pakistan in 2001, in order, he said, to resolve his drug addiction.

Pakistani forces held him in April 2002 as he tried to return to the UK. He was questioned by CIA and MI5 officers before being flown by the Americans to Morocco, where he claims he was tortured. Eighteen months later he was sent to a prison in Afghanistan, then taken to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. Last year, the terror charges against him were dropped.

He is one of three remaining detainees who claim British residency held in the "war on terror" detention camp.

In a statement released after a meeting with Mr Mohamed's US military lawyer, Lt-Col Yvonne Bradley, the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said Mr Mohamed's return would depend on the outcome of a review of Guantanamo cases begun by President Barack Obama. But he said the US administration had agreed to treat Mr Mohamed's case as "a priority".

In his statement, Mr Miliband revealed that the team of Foreign Office officials due to visit Mr Mohamed "as soon as possible" will be joined by a Met Police doctor, who will accompany the detainee to the UK if he is released.

Mr Mohamed has said he falsely confessed to a "dirty bomb" plot while being tortured in a Moroccan prison. He has claimed that Britain was complicit in his rendition and torture. The torture claims were at the heart of a row last week after High Court judges said Mr Miliband had blocked them, for national security reasons, from making papers relating to his case public.

Source: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/guantanamo-detainee-close-to-returning-to-uk-1607231.html

Take Action to Stop the Abuse of the State Secrets Privilege

On Monday, the Justice Department under President Obama stated that it would attempt to bar victims of torture from seeking justice in U.S. courts by continued use of the "state secrets" privilege in Mohamed et. al. vs. Jeppeson Dataplan, Inc. This is a key case for ending the practice of extraordinary rendition - the policy of outsourcing torture. Join us today to tell Attorney General Eric Holder to stop abuse of the state secrets privilege to cover up torture and other crimes.

In Mohamed v. Jeppeson, filed by our allies at the American Civil Liberties Union, five victims of extraordinary rendition, including current Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, filed suit against Jeppeson, a flight-planning company and subsidiary of Boeing, that allegedly served as the CIA's contractor for its program of extraordinary rendition in which victims were flown to be tortured at secret sites abroad.

At "torture sites" in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Morocco, Mr. Mohamed was subject to torture, including horrific beatings that resulted in unconsciousness and broken bones. He was sliced on different parts of his body, including his genitals, and hot liquids were then poured on his wounds. He was threatened with rape, electrocution and death. Mr. Mohamed has not be charged with any crime, but remains detained Guantanamo to this day.

In its first trial case, the government continued to argue that the case be thrown out because revealing evidence of torture would reveal "state secrets." The Obama administration has chosen to follow the last administration's policy of secrecy rather than the pursuit of justice. The Bush administration invoked the state secrets privilege more frequently than any other administration in history in order to keep cases demonstrating U.S. human rights violations in the dark and out of court. Will President Obama roll back the illegal expansion of executive power he has inherited?

Make your voice heard - call upon Attorney General Holder to stand for justice and put an end the abuse of the state secrets privilege: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/383/t/4089/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26673

Source: www.ccrjustice.org

Cageprisoners Press Release:
Former Guantanamo Guard Became Muslim During Deployment At Base

Cageprisoners today publishes an exclusive interview with Terry J Holdbrook, a former guard at the notorious prison camps in Guantanamo Bay .

During his term at the base, the former guard came into contact with a number of those detained. He eventually embraced Islam in the presence of former British resident, Ahmed Errachidi, known by the Guantanamo guards as "The General".

Spokesman for Cageprisoners and former prisoner, Moazzam Begg, said,

"We, the prisoners, always knew there were a few US soldiers who abhorred our treatment and conditions. Still, who could have imagined, amongst the quagmire of steel cages which separated us - the men in orange and the men and women in khaki and combat greens - that one day some of our guards would speak out about Guantanamo ? Even now, with the impending closure of 'Gitmo' it requires a certain level of rare courage to expose the abuses that occurred there. I hope the words of Chris Arendt and Terry Holdbrooks will open the floodgates so others can follow."

Holdbrook has now spoken publicly due to his outrage at the policies taking place in Guantanamo and the continued unlawful detention of prisoners.

The full transcript of the interview can be found at the following link: www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=27892

________

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.

Terry Holdbrook will be available for interview upon request.

Media

Contact: Maryam Hassan
Email: contact@cageprisoners.com
Number: 0044 (0) 772 852 7911

Top US Lawyer Warns Of Deaths At Guantánamo

Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London tomorrow and demand the release of her client - a British resident who claims he was repeatedly tortured at the behest of US intelligence officials - from Guantánamo Bay. Bradley will also request the disclosure of 42 secret documents that allegedly chronicle not only how Binyam Mohamed was tortured, but may also corroborate claims that Britain was complicit in his treatment.

But first, Bradley, a US military attorney for 20 years, will reveal that Mohamed, 31, is dying in his Guantánamo cell and that conditions inside the Cuban prison camp have deteriorated badly since Barack Obama took office. Fifty of its 260 detainees are on hunger strike and, say witnesses, are being strapped to chairs and force-fed, with those who resist being beaten. At least 20 are described as being so unhealthy they are on a "critical list", according to Bradley.

Mohamed, who is suffering dramatic weight loss after a month-long hunger strike, has told Bradley, 45, that he is "very scared" of being attacked by guards, after witnessing a savage beating for a detainee who refused to be strapped down and have a feeding tube forced into his mouth. It is the first account Bradley has personally received of a detainee being physically assaulted in Guantánamo.

Bradley recently met Mohamed in Camp Delta's sparse visiting room and was shaken by his account of the state of affairs inside the notorious prison.

She said: "At least 50 people are on hunger strike, with 20 on the critical list, according to Binyam. The JTF [the Joint Task Force running Guantánamo] are not commenting because they do not want the public to know what is going on. "Binyam has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist, they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not witnessed this before. Guantánamo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening.

"It is so bad that there are not enough chairs to strap them down and force-feed them for a two- or three-hour period to digest food through a feeding tube. Because there are not enough chairs the guards are having to force-feed them in shifts. After Binyam saw a nearby inmate being beaten it scared him and he decided he was not going to resist. He thought, 'I don't want to be beat, injured or killed.' Given his health situation, one good blow could be fatal," said Bradley.

"Binyam is continuing to lose weight and he is going to get worse. He has been told he is about to be released, but psychologically and physically he is declining."

It is conceivable that Mohamed himself may shortly return to London, heralding yet another political embarrassment for Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who already faces a tumultuous week over claims that he was keen to suppress evidence of torture.

On Tuesday, the unprecedented dispute between Miliband and the judiciary is set to reignite when High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones decide whether to reopen the case which Mohamed believes substantiates his torture claims.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a little-publicised court case into the treatment of Mohamed will open. American civil liberties lawyers are hoping to shine a light on the defence firm that allegedly carried out the practice of "rendition" on behalf of the CIA. Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, helped to arrange rendition flights for several terror suspects, including Mohamed, to nations where they claim they were tortured.

The case was originally dismissed after the Bush administration asserted "state secrets privilege", indicating that it would endanger national security - the same argument used by Miliband. However, Obama has repeatedly stressed his willingness to be less secretive than his predecessor and a similar decision would lead to claims that the current administration is bent on suppressing evidence of torture.

Closer to home, the Observer has found evidence suggesting a broader unwillingness by Britain to confront the US over its war on terror programme. The Attorney General says it is "actively considering" possible criminal wrongdoings against MI5 and the CIA, but sources claim the government's senior lawyer has failed, after almost four months of looking into the issue, to request material from the US that may substantiate allegations of MI5 complicity in Mohamed's torture.

Suspicion is also growing that some sections of the US intelligence community would prefer Binyam did die inside Guantánamo. Silenced forever, only the sparse language of his diary would be left to recount his torture claims and interviewees with an MI5 officer, known only as Witness B. Such a scenario would also deny Mohamed the chance to personally sue the US, and possibly British authorities, over his treatment.

But if Mohamed survives to come back to London, his experiences of the past six years promise a harrowing journey through the dark underbelly of the war on terror. For Miliband, the questions concerning Britain's role may have only just begun.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/08/binyam-mohamed-torture-guantanamo-bay

Gaza Activist Detained In Egypt

A German-Egyptian activist has been detained north of Cairo during a rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Philip Rizk has been an outspoken activist on Palestinian issues and lived in Gaza for two years. He previously worked on aid projects with Canon Andrew White, special envoy to the Middle East for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Eyewitnesses said he was bundled into a white van with no licence plates, which then sped off. The German embassy has been informed of his detention and is trying to locate him. His family say they have been tipped off that he is now being held by Egyptian secret police at an undisclosed location.

Over the weekend a delegation of lawyers and activists filed charges with the public prosecutor's office, relating to his kidnapping by three state security officers.

Mr Rizk writes a popular blog, "Tabula Gaza", and has just completed a short documentary about non-violent protest against Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

It is not known why he would be of special interest, though in past weeks a number of bloggers and activists from the Muslim Brotherhood - who campaigned for the re-opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza - have been formally charged with "forming a criminal group belonging to Hamas".

One of those arrested was Gamal Abdel Salam, who heads the Egyptian Doctors' Syndicate Relief Committee, which organised a number of convoys to the Gaza Strip.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7878067.stm

Key Bush Gitmo Advisers Still On Job At Pentagon

A senior judge who has not followed President Barack Obama's order to halt military trials at Guantanamo Bay is among Bush administration appointees still overseeing how the Pentagon deals with terror captives. Two other senior Pentagon officials have been shunted into civil service jobs. As a result, they cannot be summarily fired because of the change in presidential administrations.

Susan J. Crawford is the top legal authority running military trials at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. She is a Bush political appointee who has remained idle since a lower-ranking military judge ordered a week ago that at least one trial of a terror detainee could go forward.

Obama's executive order, dated Jan. 22, suspended all Guantanamo tribunals pending a review of the cases of the estimated 245 terror suspects detained there. Without action from Crawford, however, the arraignment of suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is scheduled for Monday.

Dozens of Defense Department officials, along with relatives of the Cole victims, were on standby Thursday for a weekend flight to Guantanamo for the court hearing. Asked Thursday if Crawford would halt the al-Nashiri case, Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. J.D. Gordon said, "It remains to be determined."

The Pentagon has reviewed the cases of all three appointees, whom President George W. Bush's White House vetted and approved for political posts in 2007. A spokesman said defense officials concluded that none "burrowed" into the system — or improperly transferred from political to career jobs.

But their ongoing influence over one of Obama's first and most sensitive national security decisions raises questions by critics — within and outside the Pentagon — about whether those who championed the controversial Guantanamo military court system can now be depended upon to help shut it down.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. He was not initially aware of the Bush administration's three Guantanamo policy holdovers when asked about them earlier this week.

"Just because your shirt changes, doesn't mean you change sides here," said Colby College political scientist G. Calvin Mackenzie, an expert on presidential transitions. "Where you've got a new administration that campaigned against the policy you were working on — I'd be pretty skeptical about expecting you to do the opposite tomorrow of what you're trying to do today."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the only Cabinet-level holdover from the Bush administration, told Congress last week he would look into whether political appointees have "burrowed" into the U.S. military work force. None of the three Guantanamo policy officials is on a list of about 150 political appointees cleared to keep working for Gates.

Crawford declined to comment. She is a former Pentagon inspector general who worked for Dick Cheney when he was defense secretary during President George H.W. Bush's administration. Crawford was recently in the news when she said interrogation methods used on one suspect at Guantanamo amounted to torture. The Bush administration had maintained it did not torture. Asked how long Crawford would remain on the job, Gordon said, "Until we're told otherwise."

The two other Bush appointees are now in civil service Pentagon jobs. One of them, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Sandy Hodgkinson, was already a career employee at the State Department when she took the job that is usually a political post, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Les' A. Melnyk. She was allowed to keep her career employee status, Melnyk said.

Hodgkinson oversees the Pentagon's detainee affairs policy. She is expected to remain in that office, if not in the political job, according to a military official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"To be clear, Ms. Hodgkinson is not and has not been a political appointee," Melnyk said.

Hodgkinson could not be reached for comment.

Also staying in the Pentagon's policy office is Tara Jones, a special assistant. Jones' last day as a political appointee was Jan. 16, but she recently returned as a temporary civil service employee though Sept. 30, Melnyk said. Those jobs can be used to transition into permanent government careers.

Earlier this week, Jones escorted three GOP senators during a visit to the Guantanamo detention center. All three — Sens. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Richard Burr of North Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana — oppose Obama's plans to shut down the prison. However, Melnyk said, Jones is specifically tasked to work on Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction issues in her new job.

Before joining the policy office, Jones worked several years on a Pentagon public affairs program aimed at persuading military analysts to generate favorable news coverage on the war in Iraq, conditions at Guantanamo and other efforts to combat terrorism.

The program has since been shut down amid fierce Capitol Hill criticism and investigations into whether it violated Pentagon ethics and Federal Communication Commission policy.

Jones declined to be interviewed.

Source: http://kdka.com/national/guantanamo.bay.war.2.928013.html

Obama CIA Pick Backtracks On "Torture" Charge

President Barack Obama's pick to head the CIA retreated on Friday from a charge that the United States sent terrorism suspects to other countries so they could be tortured under questioning.

"On that particular quote, that people were transferred for purposes of torture, that was not the policy of the United States," Leon Panetta told a Senate hearing on his nomination to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. "To that extent, yes, I would retract that statement."

Panetta has long written of his opposition to abusive interrogations and torture. On the first day of his Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday, he was asked whether the CIA would continue "extraordinary renditions," where prisoners are sent outside the United States for questioning.

He replied that Obama had banned the use of secret "black sites" for questioning last month. "That kind of extraordinary rendition, where we send someone for the purposes of torture or for actions by another country that violate our human values, that has been forbidden by the executive order," he said.

He said he was uncertain of the validity of charges that terrorism suspects were tortured under questioning, but suspected that they were true, based on public reports.

Although Obama banned the "black site" program, the CIA might continue to send suspects to third countries for questioning, provided there are verifiable assurances they would be treated humanely, Panetta said.

The committee's vice-chairman, Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri, grilled Panetta on the torture comments on Friday and cautioned him against making "rash judgments based on hearsay."

Last year, Panetta accused Bush of supporting torture on the grounds that it would prevent another September 11 attack.

"Torture is illegal, immoral, dangerous and counterproductive. And yet, the president is using fear to trump the law," he wrote in an opinion article. He said on Thursday he viewed "waterboarding," a form of simulated drowning the CIA acknowledged using on three suspects, as a form of torture.

Panetta also told the committee he supported restricting the CIA's use of outside contractors to conduct interrogations, which it has done in the past. Panetta, a former Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, is expected to easily win confirmation.

Source: www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BarackObama/idUSTRE5147TA20090206

Court Pressed On 'Torture' Case

The High Court has been asked to reconsider a ruling that US intelligence material relating to claims of torture should remain secret. It documents the treatment of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, who says UK agencies were complicit in torture.

Judges said there had been a US "threat" about future intelligence sharing if it was published. But the man's lawyers argue David Miliband had said there was no threat and had effectively misled the court. Solicitors acting for Binyam Mohamed, 30, - an Ethiopian national who had been in the UK since he was 15 - have now asked the High Court to reconsider its decision.

Case 'Undermined'

A spokesman for Leigh Day & Co said: "In an astonishing sequence of events following the judgement, the foreign secretary conceded that the new regime [in America] had not actually been approached and stated that in fact no threat had ever been made by the US."

That seemed "to undermine the whole basis of the court's reluctant decision to refuse to publish those details," they said. They have lodged an application with the High Court requesting the judgement be reopened.

The US material, disclosed to the High Court on the grounds it would not be published, was described by judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones as a US summary of Mr Mohamed's treatment "which made no disclosure of sensitive intelligence matters".

They had wanted to publish the material in the interest of safeguarding the rule of law and democratic accountability but said: "We had no reason ... to anticipate there would be made a threat of the gravity of the kind made by the United States government that it would reconsider its intelligence sharing relationship."

They also said they had been informed by lawyers for the foreign secretary that the threat to withdraw co-operation remained, even under President Barack Obama's new administration.

'Lobbying Campaign'

However in a Commons statement on the case on Thursday Mr Miliband told MPs the word "threat" was used by the Court of Appeal - but he described what the Americans had said as "a simple affirmation of the facts of intelligence co-operation". "For the record, the United States authorities did not threaten to "break off" intelligence co-operation with the UK," he said.

They had pointed out that disclosing the documents would be "likely to result in serious damage to US national security and could harm existing intelligence information-sharing...between our two governments".

Pressed to raise the issue again with the US, in the light of the new administration and changes to CIA personnel, he added: "I am not going to join a lobbying campaign against the American government on this decision. It is a decision that they have to make."

Clive Stafford Smith, of legal action charity Reprieve, said: "It seems unfair for the British government to pretend that Obama has ratified the retrograde policies of Bush without even asking him."

Mr Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held by the US at Guantanamo Bay since September 2004. The US authorities accused him of conspiring with Al-Qaeda leaders to plan a series of terrorist attacks but charges against him were dropped in October.

He says evidence against him is based on confessions extracted by torture and ill treatment - claims denied by the US. Mr Miliband said British efforts to get him returned to the UK are being pursued "at the highest level". The attorney general has been asked to investigate claims Mr Mohamed was tortured and British agents were complicit in it.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7874133.stm

The War on Terror is a Hoax

According to US government propaganda, terrorist cells are spread throughout America, making it necessary for the government to spy on all Americans and violate most other constitutional protections. Among President Bush’s last words as he left office was the warning that America would soon be struck again by Muslim terrorists.

If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly.

The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated. I do not approve of assassinations, and am ashamed of my country’s government for engaging in political assassination. The US and Israel have set a very bad example for al Qaeda to follow.

The US deals with al Qaeda and Taliban by assassinating their leaders, and Israel deals with Hamas by assassinating its leaders. It is reasonable to assume that al Qaeda would deal with the instigators and leaders of America’s wars in the Middle East in the same way.

Today every al Qaeda member is aware of the complicity of neoconservatives in the death and devastation inflicted on Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Gaza. Moreover, neocons are highly visible and are soft targets compared to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Neocons have been identified in the media for years, and as everyone knows, multiple listings of their names are available online.

Neocons do not have Secret Service protection. Dreadful to contemplate, but it would be child’s play for al Qaeda to assassinate any and every neocon. Yet, neocons move around freely, a good indication that the US does not have a terrorist problem.

If, as neocons constantly allege, terrorists can smuggle nuclear weapons or dirty bombs into the US with which to wreak havoc upon our cities, terrorists can acquire weapons with which to assassinate any neocon or former government official. Yet, the neocons, who are the Americans most hated by Muslims, remain unscathed.

The “war on terror” is a hoax that fronts for American control of oil pipelines, the profits of the military-security complex, the assault on civil liberty by fomenters of a police state, and Israel’s territorial expansion.

There were no al Qaeda in Iraq until the Americans brought them there by invading and overthrowing Saddam Hussein, who kept al Qaeda out of Iraq. The Taliban is not a terrorist organization, but a movement attempting to unify Afghanistan under Muslim law. The only Americans threatened by the Taliban are the Americans Bush sent to Afghanistan to kill Taliban and to impose a puppet state on the Afghan people.

Hamas is the democratically elected government of Palestine, or what little remains of Palestine after Israel’s illegal annexations. Hamas is a terrorist organization in the same sense that the Israeli government and the US government are terrorist organizations. In an effort to bring Hamas under Israeli hegemony, Israel employs terror bombing and assassinations against Palestinians. Hamas replies to the Israeli terror with homemade and ineffectual rockets.

Hezbollah represents the Shi’ites of southern Lebanon, another area in the Middle East that Israel seeks for its territorial expansion. The US brands Hamas and Hezbollah “terrorist organizations” for no other reason than the US is on Israel’s side of the conflict. There is no objective basis for the US Department of State’s “finding” that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations. It is merely a propagandistic declaration.

Americans and Israelis do not call their bombings of civilians terror. What Americans and Israelis call terror is the response of oppressed people who are stateless because their countries are ruled by puppets loyal to the oppressors. These people, dispossessed of their own countries, have no State Departments, Defense Departments, seats in the United Nations, or voices in the mainstream media. They can submit to foreign hegemony or resist by the limited means available to them.

The fact that Israel and the United States carry on endless propaganda to prevent this fundamental truth from being realized indicates that it is Israel and the US that are in the wrong and the Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Afghans who are being wronged.

The retired American generals who serve as war propagandists for Fox “News” are forever claiming that Iran arms the Iraqi and Afghan insurgents and Hamas. But where are the arms? To deal with American tanks, insurgents have to construct homemade explosive devices out of artillery shells. After six years of conflict the insurgents still have no weapon against the American helicopter gunships. Contrast this “arming” with the weaponry the US supplied to the Afghans three decades ago when they were fighting to drive out the Soviets.

The films of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza show large numbers of Gazans fleeing from Israeli bombs or digging out the dead and maimed, and none of these people are armed. A person would think that by now every Palestinian would be armed, every man, woman, and child. Yet, all the films of the Israeli attack show an unarmed population. Hamas has to construct homemade rockets that are little more than a sign of defiance. If Hamas were armed by Iran, Israel’s assault on Gaza would have cost Israel its helicopter gunships, its tanks, and hundreds of lives of its soldiers.

Hamas is a small organization armed with small caliber rifles incapable of penetrating body armor. Hamas is unable to stop small bands of Israeli settlers from descending on West Bank Palestinian villages, driving out the Palestinians, and appropriating their land.

The great mystery is: why after 60 years of oppression are the Palestinians still an unarmed people? Clearly, the Muslim countries are complicit with Israel and the US in keeping the Palestinians unarmed.

The unsupported assertion that Iran supplies sophisticated arms to the Palestinians is like the unsupported assertion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. These assertions are propagandistic justifications for killing Arab civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in order to secure US and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21906.htm