Pressure grows for Binyam inquiry

[struggle4progress]

Source: BBC

A senior Tory MP has joined calls for an inquiry into whether UK resident and former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed was tortured.

David Davis said he was "convinced" that Mr Mohamed was tortured and that the government may have known about - or even colluded with - the torture ...

Mr Davis, a former shadow home secretary, told the BBC's Andrew Marr: "I am convinced... that Binyam Mohamed was actually tortured ...

He said he favoured a "judge-led inquiry" into the torture claims, echoing calls from Lord Carlile who accused ministers of providing only a "limited" account of the UK's role in the abduction and alleged torture of terror suspects ...

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7917543.stm

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Watchdog urges inquiry into UK's rendition role
Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Monday 2 March 2009

... Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government's independent reviewer of terror laws, said a judicial inquiry should be set up to investigate alleged complicity by British officials in the practice. He said ministers had provided only a "limited" account of the UK's role.

He said any inquiry should investigate the case of former British resident and Guantánamo Bay prisoner Binyam Mohamed, who was questioned by an MI5 officer while held in Pakistan in 2002. UK officials provided the CIA with information used in Mohamed's interrogation in Morocco, where he says he was tortured.

High court judges last month suppressed "powerful evidence" relating to his treatment after foreign secretary David Miliband said the US might stop sharing intelligence with the UK if American documents were disclosed. Miliband has since said he has no objection to their disclosure, saying it is for the US to decide.

Next month the high court will hear arguments by the Guardian and other media organisations in favour of publishing material which the judges said did not include sensitive intelligence secrets, despite the government's claims. Carlile told the Sunday Times: "An independent inquiry should be appointed, to be conducted by a senior judge or a retired judge or someone similar" ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/02/binyam-mohamed-rendition-inquiry



UK lawmaker calls for inquiry into torture claims
By DAVID STRINGER – 13 hours ago

... A lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer, a Saudi-born former British resident, alleged for the first time Sunday that a British security officer was present as Aamer was beaten while held by U.S. forces at Baghram air base in Afghanistan.

"He says that during this abuse a member of the British security services was present in the room who witnessed what was happening," lawyer Zachary Katznelson of the human rights group Reprieve was quoted as saying by the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

Katznelson was not immediately available for comment Sunday.

President George W. Bush's administration had refused to release Aamer to Britain from Guantanamo, citing security concerns ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFL180sgT0Tc4CKGXoo6U3U59w_gD96L88LO2

[Idealism]

1. The people must know what the US and UK governments have done.

If the US is reluctant to hold themselves accountable and continue to be in defy international treaties that they are a party to, then the UK must step in, as they are complicit in these crimes.

[Titonwan]

4. This is very important, agreed.

I have a feeling Britain will reveal more than our sorry country will, but
I also think there are entrenched people in the Military and CIA that won't take kindly
to letting this come to daylight. It's going to be very dangerous getting the truth out.
For that reason, I'm giving Barack some time to work this huge puzzle, for now.

[MasonJar]

2. Good, keep the news out there front and center.

[pmorlan1]

3. "The Truth Is On The March and Nothing Shall Stop It"

To quote Emile Zola - "the truth is on the march and nothing shall stop it".

I hope the Obama administration and the Congress recognize that it would be far more preferable for our country to get at the truth of what our government did in our own legal procedures then it would be to have the information spill out in a UK investigation.