Al-Libi Was Rendered Through Diego Garcia

Al-Libi was rendered through Diego Garcia (stolen by the UK from its inhabitants a crime yet to be accounted for, every time we let them slide, they will do something worse next time), the UK helped it, denied it and has now admitted it. Al-Libi was the prisoner whose torture provided the false connections of Saddam to Al Qaeda. 

Two terror suspects who were flown by the CIA to the British territory of Diego Garcia and later allegedly tortured have been named and evidence about their treatment has been revealed for the first time. Mohammed Madni and Shaykh al-Libi are identified in evidence prepared for the Commons foreign affairs committee by Clive Stafford Smith, director of the human rights group Reprieve.

 They are the two men, said Stafford Smith, referred to, but not identified, by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, when last year, after repeated denials by ministers, he admitted that two people had been rendered through the island in the Indian Ocean in 2002. Miliband said he did not know who the men were.

Madni was later freed and returned to Pakistan where Reprieve’s lawyers met him. “He has been effectively crippled by his torture,” said Stafford Smith.

Al-Libi died in a Libyan jail just as Reprieve lawyers were hoping to gain access to him

Clive Stafford Smith- “Reprieve has been exploring tentative contacts with al Libi, and his death may have been a result of the pressure to allow him to speak openly about his torture.”

Al Libi’s tortured narrative was crucial to the war lies, such is the function of torture–

In case anyone has forgotten, when Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the head of the Khaldan military training camp in Afghanistan, was captured at the end of 2001 and sent to Egypt to be tortured, he made a false confession that Saddam Hussein had offered to train two al-Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Al-Libi later recanted his confession, but not until Secretary of State Colin Powell — to his eternal shame — had used the story in February 2003 in an attempt to persuade the UN to support the invasion of Iraq.

So there’s New Labour helping run the rendition network for a prisoner that was key in creating the lies to facilitate the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent deaths of over 1 million people and creating 5 million refugees. And, they ain’t coming clean anytime soon-

Mike Gapes, the committee’s Labour chairman, said he had received advice that the cases due to be raised fell “wholly within the house sub judice resolution”. The resolution states that “cases in which proceedings are active in UK courts shall not be referred to in any motion, debate or question”.

Mohammed’s treatment before he was flown to Guantánamo is the subject of a police investigation into “possible criminal wrongdoing” by the CIA and an MI5 officer.Stafford Smith said the advice was wrong and that the Mohammed case had been frequently raised in the Commons and the Lords. “It is time for the UK government to come clean about its role in Madni’s detention and to reveal who else has been held on and rendered through Diego Garcia, what happened to them there, and where they are now,” he said.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said last night: “These astonishing allegations fly in the face of the assurances given by the foreign secretary to parliament. The use of British territory for illegal state abduction and detention is unacceptable”. Research by his party found that the government had systematically destroyed flight logs for the Diego Garcia US airbase, Davey added.

And of course dead men tell no tales, while it is possible al-Libi died without ‘help’, I think the probabilities point to a hit to protect the guilty in the US & UK governments. Expenses are the least of these scumbag’s crimes. Those who think Blair truly in good faith believed he was doing the right thing have only two options- he is therefore insane or he is lying. So stop perpetuating his bullshit mythical version. This was planned, carefully engineered with malice aforethought. Grubby little lies no different to those told by Nazis hung at Nuremberg. They drafted their falsehoods in the screams of their disappeared victims.

In March, a different reader asked BBC reporter Reeta Chakrabarti why she had claimed that Blair had “passionately believed” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. After all, an alternative thesis – based on a ton of compelling evidence – is that Blair was lying. Chakrabarti responded:

“I said Mr Blair passionately believed Iraq had wmd because he has consistently said so.” (Forwarded to Media Lens, March 2, 2009)

Hard to believe, but senior BBC journalists and editors consistently present this argument: leading politicians must be sincere because, well, they say so! What possible reasons could they have for saying one thing and believing another?

Report on Kingsnorth Policing Buried

Chris Ames, Index on Censorship:- The Home Office and Kent Police have buried a report on the policing of last summer’s climate camp at Kingsnorth power station, provoking suspicions that it was critical of the controversial police tactics at the protest.

 During the protest last August, activists complained of aggressive policing, including violence against peaceful protestors, excessive use of stop and search powers, arbitrary arrests and mass confiscation of personal property. A number of MPs called for an inquiry.

 Last December, policing minister Vernon Coaker told MPs that the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) was “considering the lessons to be learned” from Kingsnorth. He said he would discuss its report with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and would then “be happy to share those conclusions” with Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Secretary David Howarth.

But the report has been shelved, apparently because Kent Police did not like its findings, despite sending it back to be revised. Soon after receiving a “final” version, Chief Constable Michael Fuller commissioned a second review, on the grounds that the NPIA report “was not an evaluation of the operation overall or whether or not strategic and tactical objectives were achieved”.

 The force also refused to hand the report to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Kent Police have declined to say what the report’s findings were, in spite of a claim that its policy “has always been to be open and transparent in everything we do”.

The Home Office is now presenting the second review, which is being carried out by an assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, as a “report by the NPIA”, even though both the NPIA and South Yorkshire Police have stated that the NPIA are not involved.

[More]

& Chris Ames in the Guardian, (ht2 Indymedia)

Castle Keep For Islamabad

Via Jeremy Scahill– 

The White House has asked Congress for — and seems likely to receive — $736 million to build a new U.S. embassy in Islamabad, along with permanent housing for U.S. government civilians and new office space in the Pakistani capital. The scale of the projects rivals the giant U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which was completed last year after construction delays at a cost of $740 million.

The U.S. government also plans to revamp its consular buildings in the eastern city of Lahore and in Peshawar, the regional capital of the militancy plagued North West Frontier Province. The consulate in the southern megacity of Karachi has just been relocated into a new purpose-built accommodation. A senior State Department official confirmed that the U.S. plan for the consulate in Peshawar involves the purchase of the luxury Pearl Continental hotel. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

The Pearl Contintental is the city’s only five-star hotel, set in its own expansive grounds, with a swimming pool. It’s owned by Pakistani tycoon Sadruddin Hashwani.

Also see Pulse on the amazing civic efforts to look after refugees that are being overwhelmed by the sheer scale -2.4 million refugees- and also the perception this is a war against Pukhtuns.

Fascism Is For Failures

The BNP are racists & fascists, who revel in violence and eugenics. If you vote for them, so are you. Don’t kid yourself, this isn’t politics, you’re a piece of shit. Clear?

The Guardian… the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight has spent months infiltrating the far right’s network of websites and chatrooms and found that many BNP activists share O’Sullivan’s views.

 They include:

 • Jeffrey Marshall, senior organiser for the BNP’s London European election campaign. Following the death of David Cameron’s disabled son Ivan, Marshall claimed in an internet forum discussion: “We live in a country today which is unhealthily dominated by an excess of sentimentality towards the weak and unproductive. No good will come of it.”

 Later, in response to comments made by others on the site, Marshall is alleged to have written: “There is not a great deal of point in keeping these people alive after all.” He said the comments were private and some had been paraphrased and taken out of context. He admitted making the former comment, but said he could not recall making the latter one in an email to the forum, a copy of which is in the Observer’s possession.

 • Garry Aronsson, Griffin’s running mate for the European parliament in the North West, posts an avatar on his personal web page featuring a Nazi SS death’s head alongside the statement, “Speak English Or Die!” Aronsson proclaims on the site: “Every time you change your way of life to make immigrants more comfortable you betray OUR future!” He lists his hobbies as “devising slow and terrible ways of paying back the Guardian-reading cunts who have betrayed the British people into poverty and slavery. I AM NOT JOKING.”

 • Barry Bennett, MEP candidate for the South West, posted several years ago under a pseudonym in a white supremacist forum the bizarre statement that “David Beckham is not white, he’s a black man.” Bennett, who is half-Jewish according to the BNP’s deputy leader, Simon Darby, continued: “Beckham is an insult to Britishness, and I’m glad he’s not here.” He added: “I know perfectly respectable half-Jews in the BNP… even Hitler had honorary Aryans who were of Jewish descent… so whatever’s good enough for Hitler’s good enough for me. God rest his soul.”

 • Russ Green, MEP candidate for the West Midlands, posted recently on Darby’s web page: “If we allowed Indians, Africans, etc to join [the BNP], we would become the ‘British multi-National party’ … and I really do hope that never happens!” Darby said he echoed Green’s sentiments.

 • Dave Strickson, a BNP organiser who helps run its eastern region European election campaign, carried on his personal “Thurrock Patriots” blog a recent report of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in east London beneath the words “Another teen stabbed in Coon Town”. The site also carried a mock-up racist version of the US dollar entitled “Obama Wog Dollar”. Darby said the BNP did not endorse these comments and described them as “beyond the pale”.

 When confronted in the past about the extreme views of some of its members, the BNP senior hierarchy has often tried to dismiss them as unrepresentative of the party’s core membership. But it appears that they run right to the top of the party.

 Lee Barnes, the BNP’s senior legal officer and one of Griffin’s closest allies, has posted a video on his personal blog of a black suspect being beaten by police officers in the US and describes it as “brilliant”. Barnes adds: “The beating of Rodney King still makes me laugh.”

 Barnes told the Observer his comments were “nothing to do with colour” but were merely a reflection of his belief that the police should have more powers to punish perpetrators of crime by “giving them a good thrashing”.

News Of The Massacre

This gets nastier, the LTTE leadership were surrendering when they were shot down, journalist Marie Colvin was involved in the negotiations along with a Tamil MP who has fled Sri Lanka in fear for his life-

A Tamil who was in a group that escaped the killing zone later told an aid worker that Nadesan and Puleedevan walked towards Sri Lankan army lines with a white flag in a group of about a dozen men and women. He said the army fired machineguns at them.

 Nadesan’s wife, a Sinhalese, yelled in Sinhala: “He is trying to surrender and you are shooting him.” She was also shot down.

 The source said all in the group were killed. He is now in hiding. Chandra Nehru has fled the country after being threatened, the MP says, by the President and his brother.

The role the UN is playing looks to be very questionable, firstly-

Over the past few days, [Vijay] Nambiar’s role as UN envoy has come into question. His brother, Satish, has been a paid consultant to the Sri Lankan army since 2002. Satish once wrote that General Sarath Fonseka, commander of the Sri Lankan armed forces, “displayed the qualities of a great military leader”.

Then this-

French newspaper Le Monde published on Friday an article accusing the United Nations (UN) of deliberately hiding facts about civilian killings during the last months of the civil war in Sri Lanka in order to protect their own activities in the country.

According to investigative journalism by Le Monde, The UN did not publish the number of civilians killed until it was finally leaked. According to a UN confidential report, 7,720 people were killed (among them 678 children) and 18,465 were injured (among them 2,384 children) between January 20 and May 13. A UN official declared to Le Monde that his hierarchy tried to suppress these figures to remain in good terms with the government. When these numbers were leaked, Neil Buhne, the UN official coordinator in Sri Lanka, asked to be the only recipient of the figures in the future. Even the secretary general Ban Ki-moon tried to hide the numbers, according to Le Monde.

…

Le Monde also wrote that the United Nations did not help its people on the ground. Text messages sent by local employees in the war zones asked to “stop the war” and “what is the international community doing”. “Hundreds of people trying to flew where caught by local dictators and beaten, without distinction of age and sex. I hear them crying.” said another one. In April, Vijay Nambiar asked the locals to keep a “low profile” and play an active role in supporting the government.

Alien Flower Heralds Summer’s Arrival!

As Stephen Fry in an early routine said, I stooped to pick a Buttercup (although why buttock’s had been left lying around I don’t know…) and lo! This strange, wind activated, alien flower announced summer. And dig what Evo Morales wrote to the 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples of the Abya Yala (thanks to translation by Otto @ Inca Kola News)-

“For thousands of years we lived with nature, in constant balance with her and inside her. Today we feel the devastating effects of the neoliberal, transnational capitalist system that is quickly detroying our planet.

“From outside and above, they still try to impose upon us economic policies that attack our rights as people, the rights of other living creatures and the rights of planet earth. They still try to sell us trinkets for gold. They told us there was a discovery when there was in fact an invasion. They told us there was a conquest when there was a genocide. And now they say that they want integration and to include us in the world economy when all they really want is to steal our riches, keep the profits and ignore solidarity.”

I like that “For thousands of years we lived with nature, in constant balance with her and inside her.” and today the weather makes clear we are but one small part of this living entity and we should pause and reflect on how we continue to live here without wrecking it. Can we reorder the seasons, or stop the sun beating down on us? We (men!) are not masters of nature, we are part of it. Indeed we should listen to the feminine, that nature gives life, that women give life, that there are cycles better understood by women than men. That if we are to survive we need to stop trying to dominate, we need to share, use our intelligence not our greed, realise that competition has a place but co-operation and nurturing is how life is made good and most importantly, the future has to be equality for all of us. At the moment the system the rich and powerful are inflicting will not lead to that, it has been around for long enough to amply demonstrate it leads to a small rich ruling class and varying degrees of terror for the rest of us. And because of how the odds have been rigged by the house, voting is the least way of making change (for now), that also needs to be changed. As if I need to tell anyone in Britain our elected representatives have fallen far short of even a basic moral standard, pity the outrage is over money though, not the murder of Iraqis and Afghans, not the torture, not the imprisonment of migrants. Anyways, change, what did that remind me of-

‘On [the robot’s] world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.’

 ‘Odd,’ said Arthur, ‘I thought you said it was a democracy?’

 ‘I did,’ said Ford, ‘It is.’

 ‘So,’ said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, ‘why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?’

 ‘It honestly doesn’t occur to them,’ said Ford. ‘They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.’

 ‘You mean they actually vote for the lizards?’

 ‘Oh yes,’ said Ford with a shrug, ‘of course.’

 ‘But,’ said Arthur, going for the big one again, ‘why?’

 ‘Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,’ said Ford, ‘the wrong lizard might get in.’

Friday! Richie Havens- Tupelo Honey, Just Like a Woman

The warm guitar of Richie Havens on a cooling May evening, mellow it out people.

Nature Editorial ‘Responsible Interrogation’ Is A Torture Apologia

…and so the cancer spread.

Revered scientific journal Nature has an unsigned editorial that calls for psychologists to keep working with the interrogation torture regime of the US even after American Psychological Association members voted overwhelming (after fighting the elite leadership) to ban psychologists’ involvement in torture. The editorial pulls the old trick of making some good sounding statements on the wrongness of the Bush torture polices it then mumbles ‘there are no easy answers‘ before putting across its real point- supporting the elite and military psychologist’s view that they should be involved in interrogations, ostensibly (so they claim) to prevent abuse. As events have shown that is the fig leaf explanation for being very valuable members of medical teams who facilitate prolonged torture (care for a biscuit?). The pro-involvement position also looks to maintain a very lucrative relationship with the Pentagon, for those status loving psychologists with ethical deficiencies and a debilitating bout of egocentric nationalism (and perhaps a racist animus towards Muslims). So it is no surprise the pro-involvement leadership were involved in drafting the editorial.

Like a lot of the current emergence of potential war crimes defendants this feels a little like the establishing of a defence through the media to sway public opinion, to head off trouble for those involved. With fellow elites sharing -base tribal- interests in avoiding consequences for action, perpetuating the polite collegiate myth of professional ‘good faith’. Either that or the editorial board of Nature is pig shit stupid and hasn’t read a newspaper for the last 8 years, which do you think is the more likely explanation? An excellent analysis by Jeff Kaye @ Invictus is required reading (an excerpt)

What galls so many APA critics is to see ignorance and platitudes, not to mention cover-up of recent historical evidence on the role of psychologists and APA over the interrogations/torture scandal, paraded as anti-torture propaganda in the pages of a prestigious scientific journal. There is an abundance of evidence, most recently in a 200-plus page report by the Senate Armed Services Committee, that rather than protect prisoners, psychologists working for the CIA and the Department of Defense, and psychologists contracted for such purposes, such as former JPRA/SERE psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were instrumental in creating the conditions for torture and abuse.

…and then please feel free to write to Nature.

Racist Records

Via Complex System of Pipes this is a brilliant clip by Love Music Hate Racism, makes the point. Spread it around, make sure you vote on June 4th, make sure you help stop the fascist BNP.

Love Music Hate Racism                        Hope Not Hate

Update: Socialist Unity have the full rundown on the creation of the clip.

Missing The Point of Blogging

Either through stupidity or an attempt to maintain the 3 party neoliberal hegemony this PR as news report says-

Conservative blogs have established a clear lead over their left-wing rivals, according to a new report published today. The study, carried out by Social Media Affairs, found that 19 per cent of bloggers identified as Conservative Party supporters compared to 16 per cent each for Labour and the Liberal Democrats.The report Politics Online 2009 coincides with the launch of Social Media Affairs, the UK’s first major directory of political blogs.

So that’s 49% of blogs outside of the 3 party bullshit, that’s your headline mofos. And oh look, we all wear suits apparently. The Obama campaign’s use of the net has alerted shills everywhere to the importance of co-opting the web to give the same old shit legitimacy. The one thing the blogosphere should never be is business as usual.

Canada’s Neocons Privatise Nuclear Industry

The federal government will announce today a plan to seek buyers for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.’s nuclear reactor business, and bring in private-sector management for AECL’s problem-plagued Chalk River facility. After a two-year review of Ottawa’s flagship nuclear company, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt will launch a sale process with the aim of finding a major international partner for AECL to help boost global sales of its Candu reactors.

This as the federal government looks to raise money from asset sales to reduce its soaring deficit. The effort is hampered by depressed real estate prices.

It is worth pointing out the review was undertaken by the National Bank of Canada which looked for buyers. Thus we see some standard Shock Doctrine, facts being fixed around a policy by complimentary ideologues leading to a privatisation in time of crisis-

 The government’s decision to restructure AECL is its response to a report it commissioned from the National Bank of Canada last year to advise it on what, if anything, it ought to do with the Crown corporation. The bank advised that it should sell at least 51 per cent of AECL and encourage it to strike new deals with international players to help it make new sales in international markets. Government officials said National Bank found significant interest in buying a chunk of AECL although the bank’s discussions with potential buyers concluded in the first half of 2008. Government officials conceded that market interest may have withered because of the onset of the global recession.

Or put another way- the price will be low for the buyers they are lining up- expect some revolving door consultancies and directorships. As for the Tory Minister Lisa Raitt, she sued public groups to stifle their free speech when head of the Toronto Port Authority and celebrated how climate change would be good for Canada. The NRU unit at Chalk river that provides medical isotopes (one third of world supplies) will remain in government hands, it is currently shut down, leaks and is 51 years old. Thus liabilities remain on public hands even as they look to install a private sector manager for the plant, US style. A Canadian blogger writes–

Lisa Raitt’s Nuclear Yard Sale- My husband studied physics engineering at McMaster University, and worked at the accelerator lab there as a nuclear safety technician. So he knows his nukes.

He’s yelling at the TV right now.

Not surprising when-

Ottawa will continue to fund research to support AECL’s commercial business, and could be left with legacy costs from the firm’s need to deal with nuclear waste.

It’s a corporate neoliberal wet dream!

Murder, Rape & Pillage

We know they murdered, we know they pillaged, we know they raped, we know they took pictures. We know the Whitehouse under any administration protects the criminals, not least because they ordered it. Does Obama look so noble when he is covering this up. They have studiously avoided the pictures of the women who were raped, much harder to maintain the heroic troop myth necessary for continual imperial aggression when they are women battering rapists.

[Warning pictures show rape/forced sexual acts, I have put them as links so readers have a choice and are not confronted with them without warning, some survivors of abuse may not want to view them. One or two I think have already been out there via the Australian documentary, one of them is definitely new]

1 

2

3

Update: Note the provenance of the 3rd picture is unclear, see this post for details.

Funny Games

Update: See Craig Murray for his thoughts on this & why Jack Straw was not mentioned in the Guardian story.

…Jack Straw is the Minister who approved the use of torture material. Straw is as thick as thieves with Guardian Deputy Editor Michael White, Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger and Guardian Media Group Chairman, also New Labour City Minister, Lord Myners.

—

The leaving the room farce (highlighted) looks to be a way our spooks squared their involvement with torture to pretend they had no role. Probably a legal memo was drawn up to cover it much as in the Bush regime. Such is the infinitesimal thread on which New Labour hang their innocence, it is no innocence at all, it demonstrates definite knowledge of torture and the planning of strategies to create deniability.

Guardian:- The home secretary Jacqui Smith faces legal action over allegations that MI5 agents colluded in the torture of a British former civil servant by Bangladeshi intelligence officers. Lawyers for the British man, Jamil Rahman, are to file a damages claim alleging that Smith was complicit in assault, unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and breaches of human rights legislation over his alleged ill-treatment while detained in Bangladesh.

 The claims bring to three the number of countries in which British intelligence agents have been accused of colluding in the torture of UK nationals. Rahman says that he was the victim of repeated beatings over a period of more than two years at the hands of Bangladeshi intelligence officers, and he claims that a pair of MI5 officers were blatantly involved in his ordeal.

 The two men would leave the room where he was being interrogated whenever he refused to answer their questions, he says, and he would be severely beaten. They would then return to the room to resume the interrogation.

 On occasion, he adds, his wife would be held in a nearby cell, and his torturers would threaten to rape her if he did not cooperate. Rahman’s lawyers say that there is a wealth of evidence to support his allegations, including eyewitness testimony and medical evidence. Rahman was also able to provide his lawyers with the number of a mobile telephone that he says was used by one of the MI5 officers and a number for MI5 in London.

 Rahman remains deeply traumatised, and is receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. His lawyer, Imran Khan, wrote to Smith last week putting her on notice of the intention to start proceedings. Smith and MI5 declined to comment; the Home Office said it would respond to Khan in due course.

More

Gitmo In Brooklyn

From Pulse–

…immediately after 9/11, hundreds of men were rounded up by the FBI and other police forces in the US and imprisoned in high security American jails: 760 in total, 184 of whom were considered especially interesting by the authorities. Just over half of them were interred at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a former warehouse on the waterfront overlooking the harbour and the Statue of Liberty. The story was covered by the New York Times, but it was treated, mostly, as local news and carried in the ‘New York Region’ section of the paper.

 Almost all of the prisoners were held for infractions of their immigration papers; without the status of citizens, they were held indefinitely and had little recourse to lawyers. None of them was waterboarded or electrocuted but many were physically abused by some of the prison guards. A favourite tactic was to blindfold a prisoner and then order him to walk forward without telling him he was going to walk into a wall. Noses bled; some presumably were broken. A T-shirt had been hung on the wall, and on it, along with the spilt blood of the prisoners, was an American flag and the words: ‘These colours don’t run.’

 The wardens woke the prisoners up in the night – the lights were anyway left on to make it hard to sleep. The prisoners were regularly stripped searched, and shackled at all times. Cameras monitored their every movement. Some video footage showing abuse was destroyed, but not all of it. When a group of prisoners went on hunger strike, wardens were caught on film talking about how they would ‘break’ these inmates: ‘Let’s get a team,’ the warden said. ‘Let’s go with a tube. The first guy that gets that tube shoved down his throat, they’ll be cured! We’re going hard.’ On hearing this plan of action, another warden said: ‘Outstanding!’ Then the first warden carried on where he had left off: ‘We’re going hard.’

 Some had pens stuck up their rectums. All, it seems, were howled at: ‘mother fuckers’, ‘fucking Muslims’ and ‘bin Laden Junior’ were some of the names they were called. Also heard at the prison were these remarks:

•  ‘Whatever you did at the World Trade Center, we will do to you.’
  
• ‘You’re never going to be able to see your family again.’
  
• ‘If you don’t obey the rules, I’m going to make your life hell.’
  
• ‘You’re never going to leave here.’
  
• ‘You’re going to die here just like the people in the World Trade Center died.’
  
• ‘Someone thinks you have something to do with the terrorist attacks, so don’t expect to be treated well.’
  
• ‘Don’t ask any questions, otherwise you will be dead.’
  
• ‘Put your nose against the wall or we will break your neck.’
  
• ‘If you question us, we will break your neck.’
  
• ‘I’m going to break your face if you breathe or move at all.’
  
• ‘Shut the fuck up! Don’t pray. Fucking Muslim. You’re praying bullshit.’
  
• ‘Welcome to America.’
  

The abuse of prisoners in Brooklyn was the subject of a Justice Department inquiry in 2003, though there was never the same furor about what happened at that prison as there was over Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib or Bagram Air Force Base. ‘We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further terrorist attacks,’ Barbara Comstock, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said of the report.

 One inmate, an Egyptian, was eventually awarded $300,000 in damages, though no warden was prosecuted. Nor, for that matter, was any of these prisoners ever among those charged with terrorism, though they were all said at the time of their arrest to be highly dangerous. In the end, many were simply deported and events in Brooklyn were forgotten, though last week one of the former inmates saw his case reach the Supreme Court – he had argued that the former attorney general John Ashcroft was responsible for the abuse – only for it be thrown out.

The IPCC’s Inexhaustible Supply Of Whitewash

The police officer, who was granted anonymity at the inquest (because who wants an accountable non secret police force) did these things-

Before he gave evidence, he revealed that he had made a note on the Metropolitan police computer in late July 2005, before he made his original statement in November 2005. He had then accessed and altered the note in October 2008 before handing it to the Met’s lawyers.

Owen had been present in New Scotland Yard’s room 1600, which was under the direct command of Commander Cressida Dick on 22 July 2005, although he was not within the nucleus of senior officers commanding the operation, the IPCC said.

The text he deleted read: “Management discussion. CD [Cressida Dick]: can run onto Tube as not carrying anything. Persuaded otherwise by UI [unidentified] male amongst management”.

The independent investigation found Owen had acted alone both in failing to disclose his note, as required by the IPCC in 2005, and in redacting it on 7 October 2008.

So today the IPCC concluded-

But the IPCC said today there was no evidence of deliberate deception in this instance by the Met as a whole or any individual within it.

Bear in mind he is a Special Branch officer, they liaise with the intelligence services, they are literally secret police, he gave evidence anonymously and is now found to be blameless while Dick has been promoted. What does this note suggest? That prior to Jean Charles de Menezes being shot at point blank range multiple times the officer in charge was thinking he was not carrying anything, ie. not a bomb threat. The common refrain of the killers (the coached and rehearsed testimony they were able to collude on) was they were acting in self defence because they claim to have believed he could have been a suicide bomber.

That she was dissuaded or failed to communicate her judgement to the armed personnel means the ‘UI [unidentified] male amongst management‘ bears great responsibility for the killing, as does Cressida Dick who is shown to make weak & faulty judgements and bad communication shows up these professional paramilitaries to be utter chumps. Clearly evidence was concealed then altered to protect senior officers. But no such issues will be addressed because the IPCC doesn’t think it important or that any malfeasance has occurred in relation to the note. They are as capable at investigating abuses of power by the police as Tony Blair is at not lying a country into war.

Best case: The armed security forces, licensed to employ state violence couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.

Worst case: Execution by state paramilitaries protected from legal responsibility by the establishment.

Yasmin Khan, spokeswoman for the Justice4Jean campaign, accused the IPCC of failing to hold police officers to account. She said: “It doesn’t matter if you are a policeman fiddling notes after a shooting or a politician fiddling expenses on the sly, no-one should be above the law. This latest decision is one of a long line of IPCC decisions which have led every police officer involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes off scot-free. This weak and woefully poor excuse of a watchdog must now be overhauled and replaced with a robust body that can actually hold police officers to account.”