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28 April 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
Launched in October 2003,
Cageprisoners is a human rights organization dedicated
to raising the "awareness of the plight of prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay" and other War on Terror victims. As
a "comprehensive resource," six words explain its
mission: "education, campaign, support, motivation,
co-operation (and) prevention" for its efforts to
educate the public, campaign for Guantanamo and other
detainee repatriations or their asylum, and have
prisoner rights guaranteed under international law,
including humane treatment not to be:
-- tortured;
-- indefinitely detained;
-- disappeared; or
-- denied proper legal
representation, due process, judicial fairness, and
access to the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), medical personnel and families.
In April 2009, its report titled,
"Fabricating Terrorism II: British Complicity in
renditions and torture" followed its same-titled 2006
report. Part I covered 13 cases with evidence based on
detainee testimonies, interviews with security service
officials, and other research.
Part II updated it (including 16
other cases - 29 in all), focusing on Britain's claim
to be a human rights leader. Stating it ratified the
Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (OPCAT) in 2003, its practices belie its
commitment.
Prior to 9/11, Britain became
complicit in America's War on Terror, and the worst of
its crimes, including renouncing the rule of law, due
process, and judicial fairness in persecuting innocent
people, subjecting them to barbaric torture, other
abuses, and long internments.
Muslims were targets of choice
for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, activism, and
at times charity. They've been singled out, hunted
down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in
isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to
counsel, tried on secret evidence and bogus charges,
convicted in sham proceedings, then incarcerated as
political prisoners for practicing Islam at the wrong
time in America and Britain.
Targets were kidnapped, illegally
detained, then extrajudicially disappeared to black
sites, called extraordinary or irregular rendition, or
the practice of forcibly transferring someone from one
nation to another. The term is undefined in law.
Sourcewatch calls it
"transferring or flying captured terrorist suspects
from one country to another for detention and
interrogation without the benefit of formal legal
proceedings."
Others say it's "torture by
proxy" in secret US or foreign black sites where
anything goes and commonly does. According to the
ACLU, current policies trace back to the Clinton
administration, then were broadly expanded post-9/11
to Guantanamo, Bagram, Afghanistan, and facilities in
Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Diego Garcia, prison ships, and
elsewhere. According to former CIA agent Robert Baer:
"If you want a serious
interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you
want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. It
you want someone to disappear - never to see them
again - you send them to Egypt."
In 2005, the British All Party
Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPG)
was established to investigate charges of UK
involvement, because "more likely than not (targets)
may be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment." Made up of a "cross party
grouping of MPs and Peers from the British
parliament," it calls the practice:
"a process by which a detainee is
transferred from one state to another, outside normal
legal processes (where they're held in) secret
detention....for the purposes of interrogation, often
in circumstances where they face a real risk of
torture, inhuman or degrading treatment."
"This applies to the UK as it
does to the US - as the authors state plainly that:
seemingly innocuous acts (e.g.
allowing refueling at airports of aircraft of another
State) can become wrongful under international law if
those acts facilitate Extraordinary Rendition."
Besides being illegal, "the moral
case is unassailable: there is simply no justification
whatsoever for the UK or the US engaging in torture,
whether by direct or indirect means." Nor can it
provide reliable information or combat terrorism. Yet
the practice continues unabated.
In November 2009, APPG published
its "legal proposals to criminalise UK involvement in
extraordinary rendition" in a report titled,
"Extraordinary Rendition: Closing the Gap."
It called the practice "illegal,
immoral, a stark breach of the rule of law and
ineffective as a counterterrorism tool." It's
unaddressed sufficiently in British law, so it called
for "effective legislation to ensure that the UK does
not facilitate or support such a practice now or in
the future."
It stated that:
-- evidence shows that
extraordinary rendition is longstanding, but more
frequent during America's War on Terror;
-- it expressed great concern
about Britain's involvement; clear evidence shows it,
but "no prosecutions have taken place to date;"
-- it called for new legislation
to criminalize specific practices, including providing
transport facilities like airports or planes at home
or in British territories;
-- it stated "There is no doubt
that the UK has been involved with the US rendition
programme," but the government has been silent on the
practice even though there's been "direct involvement
of MI5 officers;"
-- it cited a Joint Committee on
Human Rights report titled, "Report on Allegations of
UK Complicity in Torture" providing evidence it's
true;
-- it mentioned other evidence as
well, including detainee testimonies, interviews with
legal representatives and insiders, investigative
journalists' accounts, exhibits, parliamentary
inquiries, and information gotten under Freedom of
Information legislation;
-- it cited Manfred Nowak, the UN
Special Rapporteur on Torture saying he received
"credible evidence from well-placed sources familiar
with the situation" of Britain's involvement; and
-- it affirmed that "It is
unlawful to aid, abet, counsel or procure the
commission of a criminal offence" like illegal
renditions and torture, calling for complicit
government officials to be held accountable.
Torture Becomes
Official US Policy - Britain Endorses It
On September 17, 2001, a secret
White House finding empowered the CIA to "Capture,
Kill, or Interrogate Al-Queda Leaders," authorizing a
covert (black site) global network to detain and
interrogate them without guidelines on proper
treatment. In response to an ACLU lawsuit, George Bush
acknowledged its existence without revealing program
specifics, such as detainee locations or details of
their confinement.
Claiming "the United States does
not use torture," he admitted that "an alternative set
of procedures" were involved for information not
gotten by conventional means.
According to former CIA
Counterrorism Center chief, Cofer Black (in September
2002): "After 9/11, the gloves came off - old"
standards no longer apply. They never did but
Washington now officially endorses them. UK officials
are less forthcoming, but willingly partnered in
America's high crimes and abuses, undermining their
commitment to human rights and the rule of law.
According to Britain's Lord
Bingham, "English common law has regarded torture and
its fruits with abhorrence for over 500 years."
The 1984 UN Convention against
Torture defines it as:
"any act by which severe pain or
suffering, whether or physical or mental, is
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes
as obtaining from him or a third person information or
a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third
person has committed or is suspected of having
committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third
person, or for any reason based on discrimination of
any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by
or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person
acting in an official capacity."
Article 3 states:
"No State Party shall expel,
return ('refouler') or extradite a person to another
State where there are substantial grounds for
believing that he would be in danger of being
subjected to torture."
Article 4 says:
"Each State Party shall ensure
that all acts of torture are offences under its
criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to
commit torture and to an act by any person which
constitutes complicity or participation in torture."
In his book titled, "Enemy
Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo
and Back," Moazzam Begg wrote:
"The sad fact is (the UK
government) acted duplicitously, immorally and
unlawfully. It is not just their uncritical acceptance
of and obedience to torturous conditions, regimes, and
physical restraint or worse. They were there by
choice." They were complicit "in breach of
international law (but remain) unperturbed in using
information" known to be worthless and "abhorrent to
the British way of life."
Fabricating Terrorism II covers
29 case studies "mostly detailing the experiences of
British citizens and British residents granted asylum
(showing how they) passed through a subterranean
system of kidnappings, ghosted to 'black sites,'
suffering abuse and torture" to extract information
and confessions known to be unreliable and false." In
addition, no one was charged with terrorism or other
crimes. UK authorities knew it before their rendition,
yet allowed it and their torture to happen.
Cageprisoners "found systematic
violations of international law," showing senior
government officials lied to Parliament, its
committees and the public regarding their complicity
with America. UK security forces were present during
torture interrogations. They supplied falsified
evidence leading to kidnappings, renditions, illegal
detentions and torture. No evidence proves their
direct participation, but they're "unequivocally
guilty of facilitating" the above practices and
enlisting other States as willing partners. "Not
exactly a clean pair of hands."
Cageprisoners published its
report in April 2009. Torture, abuse and degrading
treatment continue unabated globally under the Obama
administration despite promises to end them.
Treatment at
Guantanamo and Other Torture Prisons
Despite no involvement in
terrorism, prisoners are subjected to horrific
torture, abuse, and humiliating treatment as "unlawful
enemy combatants" - now called "unprivileged enemy
belligerents," defined as anyone (with or without
evidence) suspected of "engag(ing) in (or materially
supporting) hostilities against the United States or
its coalition partners."
International law expert Francis
Boyle calls it this legally nihilistic
"quasi-category....where human beings (including US
citizens) can be disappeared, detained incommunicado,
denied access to attorneys and regular courts, tried
by kangaroo courts (with no right of appeal,
convicted), executed, tortured, assassinated and
subjected to" unspeakable treatment.
Whatever its wording, the notion
is "a long-defunct World War II era legal category of
dubious provenance....superseded by the Four Geneva
Conventions of 1949" and their Common Article 3,
requiring detainees to be treated humanely and
prohibiting:
-- "violence to life and person,
in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel
treatment and torture (and) degrading treatment."
No longer under the bogus War on
Terrorism where imperial rights replace human ones.
Of the original 517 Guantanamo
detainees:
-- few at most committed violent
acts;
-- many were randomly seized,
guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong
time;
-- 95% were sold for bounty -
$5,000 per claimed Taliban and $25,000 for alleged Al
Queda members; and
-- 20 were children, some as
young as 13, yet were treated as horrifically as
adults.
Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed was victimized, despite no evidence of
his involvement, yet in custody, he:
-- was initially held in
Afghanistan;
-- had no lawyer;
-- was isolated at black sites
for over two years, including the secret "Dark Prison"
near Kabul International Airport, infamous for its
brutalizing torture in total darkness;
-- another north of Kabul called
the "Salt Pit," where in 2002, a detainee was stripped
naked and left chained to the floor in frigid
temperatures until he died;
-- in Afghanistan, Mohammed was
hog-tied, stripped naked, hooded, and repeatedly
abused in numerous ways, including being:
-- kept in prolonged isolation
for months;
-- waterboarded numerous times;
-- chained naked to a metal ring
in his cell in a painful crouch in intense heat and
extreme cold;
-- subjected to deafening sounds
round the clock for weeks;
-- forcefully thrown against
walls, a procedure called walling;
-- suspended from the ceiling by
his arms so his toes barely touched the ground;
-- beaten with electric cables;
-- given electric shocks; and
-- forced to endure a variety of
stress positions for extended periods, causing
excruciating pain until -
-- in 2006, he was sent to
Guantanamo where his torture continued, including
being waterboarded over 180 times and subjected to
numerous other tortures.
Since its 2002 opening, the
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) represented
hundreds of Guantanamo detainees, publishing detailed
accounts of their treatment that remain unchanged,
appalling, and illegal. Besides the above listed ones,
they include:
-- 20 or more daily hours in tiny
cells with virtually no human contact;
-- severe discipline for the
slightest infraction;
-- holes for toilets;
-- burning lights 24 hours a
day;
-- sleep deprivation;
-- painful shackling;
-- physical attacks by guards;
-- confinement in boxes in
extreme stress positions causing severe physical and
psychological pain and trauma;
-- under restraint for hunger
strikers, force feeding through their noses and
throats abrasively enough to draw blood - a procedure
causing excruciating pain;
-- instances of severe beatings
causing deaths; in some cases, willful murders; and
-- to exact confessions, some are
told they won't be killed, but will taken to the brink
of death and back repeatedly.
War on Terror
Rendition and Torture Case Studies
Examples of UK involvement in
several are recounted - subjecting innocent victims to
barbarous tortures. They're explained to arouse public
outrage enough to stop them and hold those involved
(in America and Britain) accountable and punished.
Farid Hilali -
A British Resident of Moroccan Nationality
Initially detained in 1999 in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), he was tortured and
interrogated at the behest of Britain's security
services, then sent to Morocco for more. After
release, he came to the UK, was arrested on
immigration charges, then re-arrested when Spain
charged him with terrorism, specifically for alleged
9/11 involvement. The evidence was entirely bogus, but
it stuck.
During his UAE interrogation, a
British government representative was present.
Introducing himself, he explained: "If you want to
come out of this problem, you have to cooperate with
the British government;" that is, tell what you know
meaning say what they wanted to hear, no matter how
false.
Failing to "cooperate," Hilali
was violently beaten for an extended period, isolated
in a dark cell for three days with no food or water,
had no human contact, was told it was only the
beginning, and it continued in Morocco - not to learn
about him, but about Britain and others there, alleged
terrorists despite no evidence.
In testimony to his lawyers,
Moazzam Begg said MI5 agents first visited him in
1998. Hilali wrote him from Dubai explaining he was
arrested in Pakistan, transfered to Dubai authorities,
and severely tortured to confess that he belonged to
the Armed Islamic Group (GAI) connected to bin Laden.
His case is significant in one
respect. It occurred pre-9/11, showing rendition and
outsourced torture predated it, but intensified
greatly thereafter, Britain very much involved as it
remains today.
Binyam Mohamed
- a British Resident of Ethiopian Nationality
After being granted UK asylum in
1994, he converted to Islam, then travelled to
Pakistan and Afghanistan to learn more about his new
faith. Post-9/11, Pakistani authorities arrested,
interned, and abused him in the presence of MI6
officers.
He was then renditioned to
Morocco, held from July 2002 - January 2004, and
reported the following abuse:
-- numerous penis mutilations;
-- sustained, severe beatings;
-- sensory deprivation in
solitary confinement;
-- deafening music for days; and
-- being administered
mind-altering drugs intravenously.
British authorities gave
interrogators questions and were kept informed,
apparently directing the entire process.
In January 2004, Mohamed was
flown to Afghanistan, held at the "Dark Prison" near
Kabul airport, and remained there until May for more
torture, including:
-- soldiers smashing his head
against a wall;
-- being hung by his wrists for
days so his toes barely touched the ground;
-- deafening hip hop music and
other harrowing sounds, and throughout the process,
CIA operatives, doctors and psychiatrists were
present.
He was then taken to Bagram
Airbase, forced to sign a confession that he planned a
dirty bomb attack on a US city, so to end his abuse he
said "whatever they wanted to hear."
In September 2004, he was
transferred to Guantanamo, placed in "super maximum"
Camp V, further abused, explaining MI6 officers were
very much involved, and at one point said he'd be
tortured.
"Mohamed's case is one of the
most disgraceful examples of how the rendition process
(is) used by (America, Britain, and other) governments
in order to extract information (detainees have no
knowledge of or involvement in) through illegal and
inhuman means."
He was an innocent victim, later
released, and now resides in Britain.
Jamal Al-Harith
- A British Citizen
After converting to Islam, he
spent years abroad learning about his new faith. On
October 2, 2001, he attended a Pakistan religious
retreat, feared he'd be suspected as a British spy,
tried leaving for Turkey, but Taliban forces seized
and imprisoned him. After the Afghan invasion, he
contacted Britain's Kabul embassy, then followed ICRC
advice to remain where he was while they tried to
arrange for his UK return.
However, US Special Forces
intercepted him, said he could fly home, yet took him
to Kandahar Airbase where he was stripped naked and
beaten, then sent to Guantanamo where he was:
-- shackled up to 15 hours a
day;
-- confined to open-air cells and
exposed to extreme temperatures, rats and snakes;
-- physically beaten by guards;
-- psychologically tortured;
-- denied medical treatment;
-- served rotten food and unsafe
drinking water; and
-- subjected to religious abuse.
MI5 operatives had full knowledge
of his treatment, abandoned one of their subjects, and
tried to get him to confess to terrorism, even after
checking his background and finding nothing
incriminating.
In March 2004, Al-Harith was
released, is currently, with other detainees, suing
top Bush administration officials for redress,
saying:
"They deprived me of my liberty,
interrogated and tortured me and let me go without
even a word of apology."
Omar Deghayes -
A British Resident of Libyan Nationality
Like Moazzam Begg, Deghayes
wanted to experience life under Taliban rule after
seeing how western media distorted it. When war broke
out, he left for Pakistan, was arrested and visited
numerous times by British officials who said they'd
help but didn't, even though they knew he was
innocent.
In mid- 2002, he was taken to
Bagram Airbase, then to Guantanamo, where torture and
abuse took his sight in one eye. He was falsely
charged with fighting for the Chechen mujahideen and
traveling to Iran with other alleged terrorists.
After six years of incarceration
without charge or trial, he was released and now lives
in Britain where he's involved in projects helping
others at Guantanamo and elsewhere - innocent victims,
detained without charges, tortured, and abandoned by
their governments.
Shaker Aamer -
A British Resident of Saudi Nationality
Working as an Arabic translator
in Britain, he went abroad to earn more, and performed
charity work in Afghanistan where, post-9/11, an
Afghan family kidnapped him, sold him to the Northern
Alliance, who turned him over to Americans for
bounty.
He was badly abused, taken to
Bagram Airbase, starved for nine days, horrifically
treated, then moved to Kandahar, beaten, and deprived
of sleep. Two British agents visited him, knew he was
innocent, witnessed his torture, and didn't help.
After transfer to Guantanamo,
torture and abuse continued for another four years.
"The complicity of the British government in Aamer's
situation is undeniable...."
Yet he was respected for being
kind and leading others in a hunger strike to stop
horrific, abusive treatment. It took its toll,
reflected in his own words, saying:
"I am dying here every day,
mentally and physically. This is happening to all of
us. We have been ignored, locked up in the middle of
the ocean for many years....I have many problems from
the filthy yellow water....I have lung problems from
the chemicals they spread all over the floor....I am
already arthritic at 40 because I sleep on a steel
bed, and they use freezing air conditioning as part of
the interrogation process. I have ruined eyes from the
permanent, 24-hour fluorescent lights. I have tinnitus
in my ears from the perpetual noise....I have ulcers
and almost permanent constipation from the food. I
have been made paranoid, so I can trust nobody, not
even my lawyer. I was over 250 lbs. I dropped to 130
lbs in the hunger strike."
On February 19, 2010, the London
Guardian's Adam Gabbatt headlined his article, "Shaker
Aamer: last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay."
Now aged 42, he's a former
Londoner with a British wife and four children, in US
custody since 2001 after traveling to Kabul to do
charity work in June. In December 2007, his release
was thought imminent, but he's still incarcerated.
After leading a 2005 hunger strike, he was isolated in
a six by eight foot cell where he remains, innocent,
abused, and guilty of being Muslim in the wrong place
at the wrong time.
Tarek Dergoul -
A British Citizen
In July 2001, he took an extended
holiday to Pakistan, then Afghanistan for a
prospective business opportunity. While there,
Northern Alliance fighters sold him for bounty to
Americans. Britain was complicit from the start.
Incarcerated at Bagram, UK
representatives participated in interrogations,
understood his situation, yet facilitated his transfer
to Guantanamo. In March 2004, he was released,
arrested on arrival in Britain, then let go without
charge the next day. His experience traumatized him
enough to remain silent for months. Finally he spoke
publicly, explained his ordeal, and that he suffers
from migraines, memory loss and depression.
Moazzam Begg -
A British/Pakistani National
In July 2001, he moved to Kabul
with his family to continue work on a girls school he
helped fund. In October, they left for Islamabad,
Pakistan for safety where, in January 2002, Pakistani
intelligence and CIA agents abducted him, took him to
Kandahar, then Bagram and Guantanamo. He was falsely
called an enemy combatant and al-Qaeda member, charges
he categorically denies.
During internment, he was kicked,
beaten, suffocated with a bag over his head, stripped
naked, chained by his hands to the top of a door, left
hanging, and led to believe he'd be executed. Mostly
in isolation, he was tortured, interrogated over 300
times, threatened with death, and witnessed the murder
of two detainees.
After his 2005 release, he
documented his experiences in two books: "Enemy
Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo
and Back," and "Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at
Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar," explaining his
experiences and Britain's complicity, saying:
"one of the hardest truths I've
had to face since my return has been the complicity of
my own government in what happened. For me the
questions remain. Who provided false information to
the US, and allowed my detention in the first place?
Who exploited my situation to the maximum at every
stage of my ordeal in Islamabad, in Kandahar, in
Bagram, and in Guantanamo? Who was then, as now, the
closest ally of the US? (Contrary to Foreign Office
letters to his father, he) was interrogated by British
intelligence in these very places - places where
people, in the same situation as me, were tortured to
death."
Zeeshan
Siddiqui - A British Citizen
In May 2005, he was arrested in
North West Pakistan, allegedly for involvement with UK
Islamic militants, but he was never charged. After his
2006 release, he told the BBC:
"I was drugged. I was forcibly
injected with chemicals. I had chemicals injected up
my nose which burnt my nasal passage and burnt my
throat. I was forcefully inserted with a feeding tube
and forcefully fed, even though I was capable of
feeing myself. I was chained to a bed for
approximately 11 days in a row and was not allowed to
even use the bathroom. I had a catheter forced up me,
only in order to stop me using the bathroom, then this
catheter was forcefully pulled out and I was made to
bleed.
Then I had the shackle pressed
into my wrists so tightly that it slit (them). Then I
was threatened with sexual abuse. For example, one
person came along and started opening up my clothes.
They forcefully stripped me and started touching up my
body and telling me that they would commit sexual
abuse if I did not cooperate."
British and Pakistani
intelligence interrogated him. According to his
lawyer, he was severely tortured to extract false
confessions of Al Qaeda movements and other terrorist
networks. After release, he returned to Britain, was
put under a control order restricting his travel, and
requiring that he report regularly to local police,
even though authorities knew he was innocent. In
Pakistan, he performed humanitarian work and had no
terrorist connections.
Mohammed Naeem
Nor Khan - A Pakistani Citizen
In July 2004, Pakistani
authorities arrested him in Lahore after two Malaysian
students claimed he was involved in an Al-Qaeda cell.
After 18 months of incarceration, he was denied legal
representation, the right to defend himself in court,
and became a "ghost detainee," despite no
incriminating evidence against him.
Allegedly his computer science
background made him suspect. In June 2005, the UK
Telegraph said MI5 officials interrogated him,
obtaining a confession of his involvement in a London
cell planning to attack London's Heathrow Airport. It
was gotten under duress, the result of torture and
abuse.
Never charged or tried, Kahn was
released in 2007 after three years of lawless
detention and serious abuses.
Abu Faraj
Al-Libbi - A Libyan Citizen
After his May 2005 arrest, George
Bush called him Al-Qaeda's No. 3, declared a "critical
victory in the war on terror," but intelligence
officials had doubts. He wasn't one of the FBI's most
wanted or on the State Department's "Reward for
Justice," list offering up to $25 million for
capturing alleged terrorists.
After internment, he was
disappeared, taken to a secret Islamabad location, and
interrogated by US and Pakistani authorities. Also by
UK officials about the July 7, 2005 London transport
system bombings and other information he had. He was
later taken to Guantanamo where he remains.
Alam Ghafoor -
A British Citizen
On a business trip to Dubai with
three friends, British authorities asked local
authorities to detain and interrogate him. Ghafoor
explained:
He was "confronted by a group of
unidentifiable men (who) didn't say who they were (and
he didn't know). I was taken into a building, put into
a room, sat down, and there was this deathly
silence."
He was then "surrounded by six or
seven Arabs, two or three shouting in English, two or
three shouting in Arabic, and one trying to speak in
Urdu. There are all these fingers pointing with them
saying to me, 'You are the bomber, you are linked to
London bomb, we want information from you now.' I was
totally gobsmacked, I was like, 'I don't know anything
about this.' "
He tried explaining to no avail.
They kept him in detention, deprived him of sleep for
four days. He felt he was losing his mind and the
walls were closing in, finally saying he divulged all
he could, but if they'd provide pen and paper he'd
write whatever they wanted.
After a few days, they let him
shower, shave, and dress in his own clothes. At that
point, a British Embassy member met him, saying she'd
get him out as soon as possible. He explained he'd
been tortured, humiliated and degraded. Throughout
questioning, he asked why he was there and was told
that British intelligence requested it.
Azhar Khan - A
British Citizen
On arrival in Cairo in July 2008,
Egyptian authorities detained and subjected him to
cruel and inhuman treatment, revealing Britain's
involvement. He was held for two days, got no food or
water, and couldn't make calls or leave the room.
He was then cuffed, hooded,
covered with a blanket, and taken to a secret prison
for interrogation, at which time he was subjected to
electroshocks, beatings, starvation, sleep
deprivation, and painful stress positions for extended
periods. He was asked nothing about Egypt, only about
Britain and people he allegedly knew there. MI 5 was
involved.
Later released to the UK, he was
never charged and remains free.
All 29 detainees were innocent
and uncharged, yet were victimized by horrific
torture, abuse, and the involvement of their own
government - serious crimes against humanity under
Fourth Geneva's prohibitions against "violence to life
and person (including) cruel treatment and torture" as
well as provisions for the rights of "protected
persons."
Complicit with America, Britain
still denies them, in breach of Geneva and other
international laws. Post-9/11, War on Terror
priorities supercede human rights and civil liberties.
Muslims became targets of choice, and still do for
their faith at the wrong time in both countries.
Yet writing in the Daily
Telegraph in early February 2010, Jonathan Evans, MI5
director-general in 2007, said:
"We in the UK agencies did not
practice mistreatment or torture (earlier) and do not
do so now, nor do we collude in torture or encourage
others to torture on our behalf."
He lied as do his American
counterparts.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site
at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio
Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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