UK complicit in US torture

[Robert]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7870049.stm

a High Court ruling on Wednesday alleged that Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident held in the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, had been tortured.
The ruling also said the US threatened to withdraw intelligence help from the UK if details were released.

Not that I imagine anyone will be surprised by this....

 

[Robert]

More on this disgrace....

The judges emphasised that there is a "very considerable public interest in making the [proof of abuse] public, particularly given the constitutional importance of the prohibition against torture". Despite this, they ruled that the foreign secretary has the power to suppress the evidence by claiming "national security".

Ahh, that old chestnut, 'national security'; so overused it will never be taken seriously again, even if it's use is genuine.

Binyam, the Guantánamo prisoner represented for years by Reprieve, has described how he was abused in Pakistan, then rendered to Morocco where a razor blade was taken to his genitals. We know – from the judgment – that the UK has documents authored by the Americans themselves that would help prove some of his mistreatment.

The judges repeat no fewer than eight times that the Bush administration threatened the British that if the judges made this evidence public, the US would retaliate with sanctions.

The expression "stationary US aircraft carrier" has never been a more apt description of the UK.

The British government led the court to believe that the Obama administration has adopted the same line as its predecessor.

Plus Ca Change.... we can believe in? ;-)