Covert words that paint a vivid picture of complicity in torture

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Covert words that paint a vivid picture of complicity in torture
• Foreign Office and No 10 interventions revealed
• Emails and memos began months after September 11

Ian Cobain and Owen Bowcott guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 July 2010 20.43 BST

Early January 2002. The Taliban regime in Kabul had been toppled, Nato forces were spreading out across Afghanistan, and the initial military response to the events of September 11 appeared to be running smoothly.

But in Whitehall – and particularly at the Foreign Office – there were the first signs of nervousness over the proposed manner of dealing with one problem that had arisen in the country: a small number of British citizens and residents, all Muslims, had been detained by US forces.

A mass of documents disclosed during high court proceedings show how rapidly the government became involved in the abduction and torture of these individuals in its attempts to secure the UK against attack by al-Qaida.

They also appear to show how little regard was given within the government to the illegality of its own actions.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/14/torture-documents-foreign-office-government

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[sabrina 1]

2. I hope this goes all the way to Tony Blair. What went on

during this period, and some of it is still ongoing, will go down in history as yet another disgraceful stain on both the British Government and ours. At least in Britain they are looking into it.

These investigations have to be making some people here pretty nervous.

I remember that in Britain at least, there were some decent people trying to put a stop to these crimes.

Whatever happened to Leahy's Committee looking into torture here? And did Karl Rove ever respond to the subpoenas he received?

Around the world, there does seem to be some movement towards bringing war criminals to justice, even if here in the U.S. we have decided to forget about it. Maybe it will be catching, or evidence of wrong-doing here will be revealed through these investigations. I'm sure the Brits are hearing from this country, frantically trying to influence them to drop the whole thing.

[Hydra]

3. 50/50 in the UK

There at least is some feeling that something should be done about it. On the other hand, MI6 is as unabashedly bad as the CIA about trampling over everything and anything in the name of "National Security."