US anger at UK release of CIA torture secrets

[Bangyai]

Binyam Mohamed: release of secrets will harm relations with Britain, warns US

The United States has warned relations with Britain will be harmed by a court decision to reveal that Binyan Mohamed was deprived of sleep, shackled and made to think he might “disappear” while detained at Guantánamo Bay.



By Gordon Rayner and Duncan Gardham
Published: 7:18AM GMT 11 Feb 2010


Link to this video

The White House expressed its dismay at the decision by the Court of Appeal to release information that the CIA had passed to Britain, saying it could hamper future intelligence co-operation.
The seven-paragraph summary of the US treatment of Mr Mohamed was published after David Miliband, the foreign secretary, lost a bid to prevent senior judges from disclosing it.
"We're deeply disappointed with the court's judgment ... because we shared this information in confidence and with certain expectations," said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for President Barack Obama.

"As we warned, the court's judgment will complicate the confidentiality of our intelligence-sharing relationship with (Britain), and it will have to factor into our decision-making going forward," he added.
In Britain, however, political fury was aimed in the other direction as branches of government were accused of systematically covering up their involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects in an extraordinary attack by the country’s second most senior judge.
The Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, said there was such a “culture of suppression” in MI5 and the Foreign Office that the public and the courts should “distrust” any assurances from them that they respect human rights.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, had fought the disclosure, warning that making public information from US intelligence agencies could endanger future co-operation between London and Washington.
But judges ruled there was "overwhelming" public interest in publishing the material and that the risk to national security was "not a serious one."
Mr Mohamed, 31, who came to Britain in 1994 seeking asylum from Ethiopia, spent nearly seven years in US custody or in countries taking part in the US-run rendition program of terror suspects.
After a lengthy campaign by his supporters, he became the first prisoner to be released from Guantánamo Bay and returned to Britain in February last year.
Lord Neuberger also bluntly accused MI5 officers of lying to parliament about the Service’s role in the torture of Mr Mohamed and said civil servants in the Foreign Office deliberately withheld information from the Foreign Secretary.
His comments prompted such alarm in Government that the Foreign Office took the unprecedented step of secretly asking the judge to remove them from a Court of Appeal judgment, in direct contravention of a 400-year-old legal principle. Legal precedent prevents lawyers from secretly communicating with the courts.
The successful bid to remove the full detail of the judge's comments led to accusations that the Government had displayed “contempt” for the law by intervening in the legal process in a cynical attempt to stifle the truth.
Three senior judges agreed to remove the most damning passage, but Lord Neuberger later admitted he may have been “overhasty” in removing his comments at the request of Jonathan Sumption QC, working on behalf of Mr Miliband.

Full article :
Binyam Mohamed: release of secrets will harm relations with Britain, warns US - Telegraph

[panama hat]

The White House expressed its dismay at the decision by the Court of Appeal to release information that the CIA had passed to Britain,

Isn't it terrible that an independent judiciary is allowed to function in this day and age

[Belepheron]

Well it is nice to know that these judges are so keen that all our institutions fully recognise the human rights of people they get hold of.

Now all we need is for those same erudite and upstanding judges to get these people to also recognise the human rights of the rest of the population not to follow these thugs chosen religion and to travel to work on public transport without being blown to pieces.

Anyway it all showed the guy up as a lying little toerag. His torture consisted of sleep deprivation (normal during any interrogation), shackled (like all the others at Gitmo) and was led to believe he might "disappear" if he didn't cooperate (so answer the questions and no problem). So no waterboarding, no electric shocks, in fact no physical stuff at all.

[BobR]

Sadly Obama appears to be no different whatsoever than Bush. Any hope that the disgusting course that America took after the 9-11 attacks might be reversed with the election of a new President and that America might actually start behaving like a democracy which values the rule of law again appear to be gone. The American Constitution specifically forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment and affords a right of due process to all arrestees, and Obama seems almost as determined to ignore these basic human rights as Bush was.

[Tom Sawyer]

The White House expressed its dismay at the decision by the Court of Appeal to release information that the CIA had passed to Britain,

Isn't it terrible that an independent judiciary is allowed to function in this day and age

Yes so true.

But it won't affect anything - just like Thailand. The US is an ultra-right wing country pursuing an ultra-right-wing ideology and the mirage is that a Democratic President somehow changes that. As long as it's "Allies" are playing by the same rules (with the same agenda - they don't care).

The CIA's biggest enemies are people lile Naomi Klein (she revealed how the US has become a coporate state via the ongoing connection with torture and 'shock therapy' and hedgemony ) and Noam Chomsky (how the US Govt has no interest in promoting democracy for the people - only profit for corporations) and a few others like Chris Hedges who detail the complicity in puposeful dismantling of American society and values for short-term profit.

The CIA and the other US agencies are now running after anyone who challenges these systems. Pretty sad for a country as great as that. But that's where we're at.

[nikster]

Sadly Obama appears to be no different whatsoever than Bush. Any hope that the disgusting course that America took after the 9-11 attacks might be reversed with the election of a new President and that America might actually start behaving like a democracy which values the rule of law again appear to be gone.

One of the first things the Obama administration did is to make torture illegal to use. For the CIA and anyone else.

This case is from the pre-Obama era, though I haven't really read about actual torture being used. The white house is protesting that the information would be shared. A bit childish IMO.

Unfortunately Obama has granted CIA operatives protection from prosecution since they were explicitly encouraged to torture suspects at the time. IMO that might turn out to be a mistake. Because somebody somewhere needs to be held responsible for that heinous infringement on human rights, otherwise an out of control CIA is always just an executive order away. I guess that's the way that secret service has always been though. It's fundamentally wrong, and I think the track record of CIA fuckups proves that. What has the USA ever gained from propping up right wing dictators? Nothing.

[elche]

Obama fully realizes the contraventions of human rights at Guantanamo Bay, but for him to open this up would make Bush and his administration responsible for it in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Obama may see no gain in pursuing this matter for the American people or for himself. But for the sake of the rest of the world, I think this matter needs to be investigated, and those responsible for giving the orders for torture be brought to justice. The United Nations has a responsibility to investigate the matter and the world court to pursue the matter, both organs of which are influenced by the United States. This is what we call a "culture of corruption".

[AntRobertson]

Well it is nice to know that these judges are so keen that all our institutions fully recognise the human rights of people they get hold of.

Now all we need is for those same erudite and upstanding judges to get these people to also recognise the human rights of the rest of the population not to follow these thugs chosen religion and to travel to work on public transport without being blown to pieces.

Anyway it all showed the guy up as a lying little toerag. His torture consisted of sleep deprivation (normal during any interrogation), shackled (like all the others at Gitmo) and was led to believe he might "disappear" if he didn't cooperate (so answer the questions and no problem). So no waterboarding, no electric shocks, in fact no physical stuff at all.

First of all righs are there and protected for a reason. If you start arbitrarily deciding that they don't apply to person Y because of Z then sooner or later there will be a reason found not to apply them to persons A through X either.

Secondly you seem to be justifying this on the basis that Binyan Mohamed is guilty of something. He isn't, in fact all charges against him were dropped:

He was alleged to have played a role in what American counter-terrorism analysts characterized as a "dirty bomb plot" with Jose Padilla, despite the fact that it became clear, almost from the moment that Mohamed was seized, that the plot never existed. In June 2002, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy to US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, admitted that "there was not an actual plan" to set off a radioactive device in America, that Padilla had not begun trying to acquire materials, and that intelligence officials had stated that his research had not gone beyond surfing the internet

So he was basically arrested, subjected to extraordinary rendition, and held for 5yrs with no due process for something he didn't do and was, if the allegations are proven to be true and they do look likely to be, he was tortured during this time. Safe bet that he's not the only one to have gone through this either.

Lastly 'torture' doesn't have to be physical. Even the mere threat of physical violence can be used as a torture technique.

[corned dog]

Makes the noble prize a bit of a joke

[Tom Sawyer]

What has the USA ever gained from propping up right wing dictators? Nothing.

Nothing? Think they did it for nothing? - and more to the point - do you really think they're not doing it now?

They are in a big way responsible for the counter to Hugo Chavez, Peru - even Lula in Brazil...you think they didn't have a hand if turning Chile away from social democracy and back to the dark days of conservatism? And the laughable continuation of this girly hissy fit against Cuba.

ALL UNDER OBAMA - Nothing has changed - nor will it. Because the President (and any president) is a puppet of the corporate state.

[panama hat]

What has the USA ever gained from propping up right wing dictators? Nothing.

I missed this little gem . . .

I do hope it is nikster being sarcastic

[good2bhappy]

endanger future co-operation between London and Washington.

sounds like a good idea

[panama hat]

endanger future co-operation between London and Washington.

sounds like a good idea

Less dead Brits . . .

[Tom Sawyer]

^
Britain's 'special relationship' with the US is a one-sided wankfest. Jerking over someone who doesn't even know you're watching...it's special only to the UK - isn't even recognised by the USA

[thehighlander959]

Obama is a yes man to the Corporations as stated before, the only difference is that he is the first elected Black yes man and current President of the USA.

Did anyone on here ever believe that when GWB left office things were going to change for the better. Not a hope in f*ck..
He is a politician which makes him a liar. Just another rich self righteous scumbag who is in it for his own and his corporate sponsors ends.

We have the same issues in the UK, the only difference is that we are no longer a self proclaimed super power and the worlds policemen.

The bottom line is America is owned.. Just ahve a look at who is sponsoring the President and the Democratic Party.

[elche]

^ I concur. My country, Canada, has become a running dog of the USA. We have the equivalent of GWB in power here, and he is nothing more than a mouth piece for the corporate powers.

The other serious problem Canada faces is that it is economically tied to the slow demise of the USA empire. It amazes me that less than a third of all voters who support this right wing party govern as if they have majority. The concepts of democracy and consensus are foreign to this party.

[Bangyai]

^
Britain's 'special relationship' with the US is a one-sided wankfest. Jerking over someone who doesn't even know you're watching...it's special only to the UK - isn't even recognised by the USA

Best keep their mouths shut then or swallow some pommy sperm