Bush Commission Evidence Online
Audio of the witness speeches and other evidence submitted to The Second Session of the Bush War Commission can now be accessed here
Monthly archives: February 2006
Torture flights landed in UK, admit air controllers
From The Independent
CIA jets suspected of flying terrorist suspects to secret prisons for torture have landed at commercial British airports and received help from UK air traffic control, the authorities have admitted for the first time.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats) confirmed that three planes with CIA tail numbers have travelled through Britain “on a number of occasions”.
MPs last night seized on the letter as the first formal acknowledgement that British authorities were aware that CIA flights associated with “extraordinary rendition” have travelled through UK airspace.
They said it showed that ministers could no longer claim they had no knowledge of CIA flights that have been linked to the policy of sending terrorist suspects for interrogation in countries that carry out torture.
Henry Porter: Blair’s new laws leave us at the mercy of future tyrants
From The Observer
Osama bin Laden’s achievement was not to mastermind the flying of jets into the Twin Towers, not to franchise his brand of terrorism to a lot of savage young men, not even to inspire the invasion of Iraq. No, it was to spook the West and to fill our minds with fear so that we let security oppress liberty and turn us away from the abuse and torture occurring in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
Clare Short: I weep for our errors in Iraq
From The Independent
Not many years ago, I used to say that our troops were some of the best peacekeepers in the world. Having learned their lessons in Northern Ireland, their performance in Bosnia, East Timor, and Sierra Leone – and in leading the establishment of the peace-keeping force in Kabul – was exemplary.
The Department for International Development, of which I was Secretary of State, provided some funding, and the troops worked in ways that enabled them to get to know the local people. They helped with emergency repairs, set up football clubs, and got involved in other activities. The secret of the troops’ success was that they treated local people with respect. And so – despite all the deceit on the road to war in Iraq – it was easy to believe the claims that life was better in Basra than Baghdad partly because our troops knew how to behave.
We can no longer be under that illusion. The video footage that came to light last week showing the beatings of young men by British troops – and the decision of the people of Basra to refuse all contact with British forces – suggests that all is not as we were led to believe. We can no longer feel the same pride in the performance of our armed forces. And their loss of reputation makes them more vulnerable in Iraq and Afghanistan.
*INTERNET EXCLUSIVE*: UK police arrest stars of award-winning film “The Road to Guantanamo” under the Prevention of Terrorism Act
Citing the “Prevention of Terrorism” act, British Police have arrested and interrogated three of the stars of the award-winning film “The Road to Guantanamo”, together with the three ex-Guantanomo detainees on whose story the film is based.
Acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom (“A Cock and Bull Story”, “24 Hour Party People”, “Welcome to Sarajevo”) had been showing the film at the Berlin Film Festival, where it has won a number of top awards.
“The Road to Guantanamo” traces the true story of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed, three Muslim friends from Birmingham who were picked up as aliens in Afghanistan by US forces and ended up in Guantanamo for three years, where they suffered brutal and humiliating treatment.
Extensive interrogation established that they had no connection with al-Qaida, and despite their plight being ignored by British authorities, eventually they were returned home. The UK media covered live the return of these “Suspected terrorists” and the massive police convoy that brought them in to Ventral London for questioning. Their release after the UK police also found they had no connection with terrorism was, naturally, hardly mentioned.
Last week the three ex-detainees travelled to the Berlin Festival with the Winterbottom party, and were arrested on Friday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as the party were returning. They were held by Special Branch and questioned for several hours about where they had been and who they had met. They were also questioned on Michael Winterbottom’s politics.
Even more worrying, the three actors who portrayed them in the film were also arrested and questioned. The actors have no particular political or religious affiliation and were also arrested apparently purely on the basis that they were Asian. None of the white members of the group were arrested.
Following legal intervention by Gareth Peirce, the group were eventually released. Special Branch claimed they had not been arrested, merely detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
On Saturday the party will be returning to Berlin again to accept the film’s awards. We wait to see what will happen when they come home this time.
“The Road to Guantanamo” will premiere on Channel 4 on 9 March.
If you are concerned about this latest abuse of “anti-terrorism” powers, please write to your MP free of charge via the website www.writetothem.com.
UPDATE – Craig Murray says:
“On both www.craigmurray.co.uk and Blairwatch people have been questioning my source for this, and particularly querying why it is not in the mainstream media if it is true.
Well, I was in Winterbottom’s office yesterday, and heard it first hand, from people who were there when it happened. Nowadays the real news isn’t in the mainstream media, I am afraid. Leave them to their celebrity stories, and if you want to know what’s important, come to the web.”
New calls for UK inquiry into secret CIA flights
By Ben Russell in The Independent
Ministers are facing fresh pressure for an independent inquiry into claims that Britain has been involved in secret CIA torture flights.
Tony Baldry, the chairman of the Commons International Development Committee, called on the Foreign Office to demand answers from the US about claims that British airports had been used as stop-off points for flights transporting terror suspects to countries across the world.
He told a parliamentary debate that so-called extraordinary rendition was “well documented… There is compelling testimony from people who claim to have been shipped abroad by the US and tortured. The UK government shows no inclination to investigate reports of US aircraft using UK airports or airspace for rendition purposes.”
Ukraine: Uzbek Asylum Seekers Sent Back to Face Abuse
I am very worried about this development. After the Andijan massacre a large number of Uzbek activists, including several of my personal friends, fled to Ukraine, which is as close as Uzbeks can get to the West without a visa. It is further evidence of the collusion which the Karimov regime is able to obtain throughout the Former Soviet Union. It is also yet another count against the government of President Yevchenko, who have turned out to be as appalling as the lot they replaced, Orange revolution or no.
Craig
From Human Rights Watch
(New York, February 17, 2005) ‘ Ukraine has deported 10 asylum seekers to Uzbekistan, where they face torture and abuse, Human Rights Watch said today. These deportations violate international law.
On the night of February 14-15, a group of 10 Uzbek men was deported to Uzbekistan, apparently pursuant to an Uzbek extradition request. An eleventh detained man was not deported, apparently because he had relatives in Ukraine. Nine of the 11 Uzbeks had registered as asylum seekers with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kiev. Human Rights Watch learned prior to their deportation that the other two wanted to lodge asylum requests, but had not been able to do so. UNHCR issued a statement today deploring the forced return of the entire group.
‘Ukraine had a duty to protect these people and instead it sent them back to almost certain torture and abuse,’ said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘Now the government needs to find out how it could have happened that asylum seekers registered with UNHCR were deported. And it must take steps to ensure that it never happens again.’
EU Parliament reveals plans for its investigation into extraordinary rendition
From Forbes.com
A European Parliament committee investigating allegations that the CIA had secret prisons in Europe will contact senior CIA and Bush administration officials in the next few days – and ask them to testify on the matter, an official said Tuesday.
Italian Socialist deputy Giovanni Claudio Fava said the committee will start its work by questioning non-governmental and human rights organizations such as the New-York based Human Rights watch, which said it has circumstantial evidence indicating that the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.
Fava said EU lawmakers would then seek to speak to high-ranking CIA officials, including director Porter Goss, probably by mid-April, before drafting a preliminary report on their findings.
Other people on the list include former CIA director George Tenet, U.S. Senator John Kerry and U.S. Senator John McCain. Previously, EU deputies suggested U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could be asked to testify.
UN calls for the closure of Guantanamo Bay
Five independent investigators of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights are calling on the United States to close immediately the detention centre in Guant’namo Bay and bring all detainees before an independent and competent tribunal or release them.
The press release is here
The PDF of the full report can be read here
Connecting the Dots
ACLU renews its call for investigation of US abuse and torture
From the American Civil Liberties Union
NEW YORK – In response to newly released images of abuse at Abu Ghraib, the American Civil Liberties Union today renewed its call for an independent investigation into widespread and systemic abuse in U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guant’namo Bay.
“We continue to see undeniable evidence that abuse and torture has been widespread and systematic, yet high level government officials have not been held accountable for creating the policies that led to these atrocities,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “We need to look up the chain of military command, because when the rule of law is not followed all of our personal freedoms are threatened. President Bush should appoint an independent counsel to uncover the full truth about the extent of the abuse and who is ultimately responsible.”
Glorification?
The House of Lords is once again left in the position of trying to defend us from the excesses of the lower house. Democracy? – but only as we know it. See:
Amnesty International USA Launches Online Discussion Series: Lives torn apart
Join Jumana Musa on Wednesday, February 15th from 1:00-2:00 PM EST for the first of a three-part online discussion series on the impact of indefinite detention and extraordinary rendition on detainees and their families.
Jumana Musa is Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Human Rights and International Justice and has traveled to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in August and November 2004 and January 2006 as part of a delegation of rights groups observing preliminary proceedings for detainees facing trial by military commission.
Submit questions and join the discussion here
The Flying Iman on ‘Fighting for the rights of others’
From Mathaba.net and Mustaqim – Musings of a flying Imam
The British government is having its way with ID cards as the opposition to the ludicrous scheme has died down, a leaked UN report on evidence of torture in Guantanamo Bay is hardly making waves, a video showing British soldiers in Iraq having fun with kicking young protesters senseless is not raising many eyebrows, and preparations for an attack on Iran are continuing unabated. Meanwhile, cartoons are all the rage.
Muslims, unfortunately, are still busy organising marches to protest the abuse of freedom of speech, and thereby providing the distraction and diversion desired by the perpetrators of the above-mentioned infinitely more serious abuses of people and their liberties. It is ironic that it was Danish Muslims who played into the hands of the provocateurs since they are not exactly known for being too meticulous about their Islamic duties. For many years Denmark exported stunned meat certified by Danish Muslim organisations as ‘halal’ to all corners of the world to complement their revenue from Danish bacon.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the days of the Rushdie affair. Labour, with Muslim support, came to power in Britain and re-kindled the colonial adventure. In return for their unwavering blind support the Labour government turned Muslims into the outcast threat and danger from within. Muslim organisations latched on to a few popular causes like the demonstrations organised by the anti-war movement in the run-up to the Iraq invasion and supporting Galloway’s break-away party when he was thrown out of Labour. But on the whole they have learnt little and hardly left a mark of their own.
When in 1989 the Islamic Party of Britain was set up out of a realisation for the need of Muslim political involvement and in the hope that the post-immigrant generation of Muslims in Britain would be mature enough to provide political leadership for a country increasingly without direction those hopes were soon dashed when the Muslims of Bradford elected the very first Mormon MP into parliament for Labour in preference over his Islamic Party rival. The party gradually downscaled from a potential movement to a think tank, and British Muslims are still paying the price of this failure to turn things around.
When it comes to standing up for one’s convictions and fighting for the rights of others the situation remains that enlightened and principled non-Muslims will stick their necks out to defend Muslim causes, whereas opportunistic and na’ve Muslims continue to hope for favours and hand-outs. The former British ambassador Craig Murray is one such brave man standing up to the steamrolling power of the establishment: He is defying state censorship to exercise his freedom of speech by publishing his book ‘Murder in Samarkand’ about British and American collusion in abhorrent human rights abuses against Muslims in Uzbekistan. I doubt whether British Muslims are going to get excited about problems so far away ‘ there is another demo about cartoons being planned for next weekend.
Leaking of the draft UN Guantanamo Report puts pressure on the US
By Bronwen Maddox in Times Online
A UNITED NATIONS investigation has declared that the US committed acts amounting to torture at Guantanamo Bay and has called for it to close its holding pen for suspected terrorists…
‘The legal regime applied to these detainees seriously undermines the rule of law and a number of fundamental universally recognised human rights, which are the essence of democratic societies,’ the report said.
The UN team calls on the US to revoke all special interrogation techniques authorised by the Defence Department.
The full article can be read here
Keeping the video from Iraq in perspective
I feel the need to comment on the video of brutality by British soldiers released at the weekend, purely because so much rubbish has been spouted in the mainstream media on the subject.
I may surprise you by starting with the observation that, on the scale of violence we have visited on Iraq, this was a negligible incident. People on all sides are dying every day. I have heard enough first hand accounts, from British diplomats and military, from journalists and NGO worker martialled. Actually, I blame them very little. What are they supposed to do to disperse a crowd which, plainly, was trying to inflict actual violence on the troops? If every Iraqi who threw a stone at coalition forces was interned, you would keep millions of prisoners. There are no Iraqi authorities to whom prisoners can be turned over who will deal with them sensibly. The British don’t want prisoners, and the UK military now have a de facto policy of not turning prisoners over to the US authorities because of their inept and violent handling of them.
The British troops are in a completely impossible situation. Their role is to support a corrupt and inefficient Iraqi puppet administration which is incapable of exercising control, and would do little for good if it did have control. The vast majority of the Iraqi population do not want us there. The real good that this video might have done is in driving home to the British public, against the ceaseless propaganda of the mainstream media, that we are not wanted. That stone-throwing crowd were Shias, for God’s sake. The official propaganda says that they are on ‘our’ side.
So our troops are being sniped at, blown up or facing violent mobs. They can do little about it. Their own military leadership are convinced that they should not be there. They are not the ones reaping the benefits of huge income from the new US and UK oil contracts, though they will be giving their lives to protect the carpetbaggers who have descended on Iraq like locusts. Is there any wonder that this boils over in frustration?
The disgraceful actions in that video were not the product of intrinsic evil on the part of the British troops involved. This incident was one of the more minor consequences of the illegal war of aggression and occupation launched by George Bush and Tony Blair. It is Blair and Bush, not the troops, who should be in the dock.
Craig
CIA chief sacked for opposing torture
By Sarah Baxter and Michael Smith, in The Times Online
The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as ‘water boarding’, intelligence sources have claimed.
Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, was relieved of his post after a year in the job. One intelligence official said he was ‘not quite as aggressive as he might have been’ in pursuing Al-Qaeda leaders and networks.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism at the agency, said: ‘It is not that Grenier wasn’t aggressive enough, it is that he wasn’t ‘with the programme’. He expressed misgivings about the secret prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists.’
Grenier also opposed ‘excessive’ interrogation, such as strapping suspects to boards and dunking them in water, according to Cannistraro.
Italy may put CIA agents on trial in absentia
By Phil Stewart from Reuters
Milan prosecutors expect to launch procedures within a month that could put 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan on trial in absentia, a senior judicial source said.
The source, who asked not to be named, said prosecutors were growing tired of perceived foot-dragging by Washington and Rome over requests that would advance their investigation — one of several European probes into suspected U.S. covert operations.
EU justice commissioner addresses new committe on extraordinary rendition
From the EU Observer
EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini will on Monday (13 February) in Strasbourg address a new, temporary parliamentary committee assigned to investigate allegations of CIA illegal “extraordinary rendition” and European governments’ complicity.
The temporary committee was set up following accusations from a Council of Europe (CoE) special investigator, Swiss lawyer Dick Marty, saying it was “highly credible” that European governments condoned CIA abduction of suspected terrorists for transportation from European airports to countries in which torture is used.
The Marty report also stated that governments in Eastern European countries may have let the CIA use camps in to interrogate terrorist suspects.
Justice commissioner Frattini has earlier indicated that EU member states as well as candidate countries such as Romania could face sanctions if the allegations are found to be true.