A deliberate torture policy

[bemildred]

Source: Guardian UK

The House of Lords yesterday put an end to this government's shameful efforts to shirk responsibility for multiple acts of torture and abuse - sometimes fatal - of Iraqi civilians detained during the occupation of their country. The Lords held by a four-to-one majority that the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights did apply in south-east Iraq in detention cases, including that of Baha Mousa, who died in British military custody in September 2003 after sustaining 93 separate injuries. Following yesterday's damning verdict, there must now be a full, independent and public inquiry.

It is now clear that Britain went into Iraq with a written policy allowing hooding, which reflected verbal and written Nato policy. This despite the fact that, three decades earlier, in 1972, the Heath government had banned hooding, along with other interrogation techniques used in Northern Ireland, including stressing and sleep deprivation. Ahead of the war in Iraq, British interrogators and tactical questioners had been trained in all these methods, and they were used by all battle groups.

In temperatures that rose as high as 140F, hooding could involve up to three sandbags or even old plastic cement bags. It wasn't primarily about security - the 11 Iraqis in the Mousa incident were introduced into the camp without hoods - but reflected a policy of prolonging the shock of capture: keeping detainees fearful and vulnerable prior to interrogation.

Not even an appeal by the army's senior legal adviser in Iraq could derail the appalling policy on torture. In March 2003 Nicholas Mercer wrote to his bosses objecting to the hooding techniques, but was sharply rebuked. He was told that the attorney general had advised that the Human Rights Act did not apply but much lower legal standards did, and that if he thought he knew better he should apply for the attorney general's job.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2102625,00.html