Miliband faces new 'torture cover-up' storm

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Guardian

Miliband faces new 'torture cover-up' storm

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Monday 16 February 2009

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was last night facing fresh pressure over torture allegations after it was revealed that his officials asked the US for help in suppressing crucial evidence.

The Foreign Office solicited a letter from the US to back up its claim that if the evidence was disclosed, Washington could stop sharing intelligence with Britain. The claim persuaded two high court judges earlier this month to suppress what they called "powerful evidence" relating to the ill treatment of Binyam Mohamed, the British resident being held in Guantánamo Bay.

In response to the British request, John Bellinger, the state department's chief legal adviser, said in a letter to the Foreign Office last August: "We want to affirm the public disclosure of these documents is likely to result in serious damage to US national security and could harm existing intelligence information-sharing arrangements between our two governments".

In their judgment, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones made it clear that without Miliband's claim about what they called the "gravity of the threat" from the US, they would have ordered the evidence to be revealed. Though the judges repeatedly used the word "threat", Miliband subsequently denied the US had threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Britain.

Miliband's denial last week led lawyers for Mohamed and the media, including the Guardian, to ask the judges to reopen the case on the grounds that the foreign secretary had fundamentally undermined his case. The judges agreed, against Foreign Office opposition, to reopen the case next month.

Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, the legal charity which represents Mohamed, said yesterday: "This just isn't going to go away unless both the US and the UK stop trying to suppress evidence of torture


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/16/miliband-torture-us-guantanamo

[EFerrari]

1. Kick their torturing @sses, Clive!

K&R

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. All roads will lead to Bushcheneyrummy. Bring it on...

[chill_wind]

6. "You bet."

(more pics) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/dec/04/guantanamo-bay?picture=340338259

[IndianaGreen]

8. Ahhh, a nice photo of Himmler visiting Dachau

or is that Rumsfeld?

[Moosepoop]

3. So it was John Bellinger -- a Bush appointee -- who sent the letter

to the Foreign Office (at their request).

Here's the Wikipedia entry for John Bellinger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Bellinger_III

Did President Obama know the letter was being sent? The article doesn't address that. :shrug:

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[chill_wind]

5. The British are not bluffing. UK officials are in Guantanamo right now

to take Binyam home if U.S. will release him. There are no charges holding him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/15/guantanamo-foreignpolicy

Bring Binyam home

The greatest injustice I fear is that Binyam Mohamed is still being held at Guantánamo only to suppress evidence of his torture


o Yvonne Bradley
o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 February 2009 13.57 GMT

I am a lawyer and a soldier, and I act for Binyam Mohamed, who is currently on hunger strike in Guantánamo Bay. I came to England to ask everyone to work as hard as possible to get Binyam home. The new administration in the US has said that it wants to close Guantánamo. The UK government says that it has been asking for Binyam's return since August 2007. Despite that, and despite England being the US's closest ally, Binyam is still in a cell in Guantánamo Bay. I believe that now is the time to press the new administration.

Guards told Binyam that he was going home in December, and so he is on hunger strike (together with 50 or so other prisoners). This means that he is tube-fed while strapped to a chair, twice a day. Binyam has lost so much weight that he speaks of the pain he suffers from being strapped to the chair for hours each day – he speaks of feeling his bones against the chair. I am really worried that if Binyam does not come home soon, he will leave Guantánamo Bay in a coffin.

The Joint Task Force, which runs Guantánamo Bay, gives me no information about Binyam. When I called to enquire about his condition, they said first, that they would look into it and then that they would tell me nothing and that I should make a Freedom of Information request, which would have taken months to process. Therefore, whenever I want information about Binyam, I have to make the 5-hour trip to Guantánamo. Each time, he asks why he is still there.

It is worth bearing in mind that all charges against Binyam have been dropped and that Binyam's chief prosecutor resigned, citing the unfairness of the system.

I profoundly hope that he is not being kept in Guantánamo to avoid information surrounding his rendition and torture coming out. Clive Stafford Smith and I are testifying at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition in Portcullis House, Westminster today, which is open to members of the public. I understand that a number of intelligence agents and politicians will also speak in an attempt to get Binyam home. I am meeting with David Miliband , this Thursday, and I hope that he will assure me that Binyam is coming home.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/11/binyam-mohamed-guantanamo-torture

[Titonwan]

11. Thank you for caring about this.

Our dream of justice for Bush Crime Inc. has just stepped a pace forward! K&R! It's coming true!

[chill_wind]

13. Hello Titonwan. Yes, this feels like a precipitous moment.

Obama had signaled that he would fast-track the man's release, according to the UK papers.
It's a high profile case there, and I cannot imagine there won't be further heaps of litigation.
It may be the template for much more to emerge. The U.S. will have to cooperate, in time, or risk even greater international condemnation. Think both legal and possibly other kinds of sanctions.

John Dean has some good reading (recent):

Legal Jeopardy For American Torturers Here and Abroad?
A Q & A Session With An Expert on the Issue, Philippe Sands

In light of persuasive evidence of former Bush Administration officials' complicity in detainees' torture, John W. Dean, a FindLaw columnist and former counsel to the president, considers whether that complicity will be punished -- either by American prosecutions initiated by the Obama Administration, or through prosecutions abroad, particularly if suspects travel outside the country. In explaining how the situation may unfold, Dean draws on his Q & A with Philippe Sands, the author of the book "Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values." Sands, a British professor specializing in international law, explains the legal basis upon which other countries may take action against former U.S. officials based upon evidence of their role in torturing detainees.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/

Welcome to DU. :-)

[chill_wind]

7. .

[ShockediSay]

9. Sullivan, a panelist on Stephanopoulos Sunday today nailed it

It's not going to go away because administrations might want it to.

It will come to the surface when the courts are brought in by lawsuits

from those tortured wrongfully {or words to that effect}

[Titonwan]

12. My heart leapt when I heard him say that!

We may see justice for eight years of arrogant smirking! This cabal are truly War Criminals.

[Titonwan]

10. THIS IS FANTASTIC! (Please learn about this)

Do you realize this is KEY? If we can establish that Britain is trying to hide the truth of CIA torture, THIS WILL BE MORE DAMNING EVIDENCE OF BUSH AND RUMSFELD'S COMPLICITY!!!
Please K&R! We simply can't have TOO much evidence! This will compel people in Washington to take notice, regardless how hard they're trying to ignore this! K&R!