MI5 colluded with CIA over suspect sent to torture jails

[cal04]

LAWYERS for a former pupil at a top British independent school have accused the government of colluding with the CIA to send him to a series of prisons where he was abused. The claims relating to Bisher al-Rawi, a former student at Millfield now being held at Guantanamo Bay, will raise fresh questions about British involvement in the controversial American practice of “extraordinary rendition”.

The procedure, in which prisoners are secretly flown by the CIA to countries where they may face torture during interrogation, has sparked a string of investigations across Europe. The government has faced mounting criticism from human rights groups and opposition politicians since it emerged that CIA-operated planes had landed at British airports on dozens of occasions.

Al-Rawi, 37, an Iraqi national who has lived in Britain since 1985, and his business partner Jamil al-Banna, a Jordanian who was granted refugee status in Britain in 2000, were detained three years ago in Gambia. They were later flown by the CIA to Afghanistan and then to Cuba in March 2003. The men are accused of being associated with Al-Qaeda and Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who has been described as Osama Bin Laden’s European ambassador. Qatada is in a British jail pending deportation to his native Jordan.

In Cuba one interrogator is alleged to have told al-Banna: “Why are you angry at America? It is your government, Britain, the MI5, who called the CIA and told them you and Bisher were in Gambia and to come and get you. Britain gave everything to us. Britain sold you out to the CIA.” The comments, recounted by al-Banna, 43, to Clive Stafford Smith, his British lawyer, are outlined in transcripts of interviews recently declassified by the Pentagon.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1938203,00.html

[OneBlueSky]

1. don't these idiots realize that sending captives off for torture . . .

invites others to treat American captives exactly the same way? . . . that's the purpose of the Geneva Conventions, which BushCo seems more than willing to completely ignore . . .

not to mention that, since they constitute a treaty to which the US is a signatory, they are part of US law, and violating them is therefore an impeachable offense . . .