Otto is rightly not surprised by-
As secretary of state, Henry Kissinger canceled a U.S. warning against carrying out international political assassinations that was to have gone to Chile and two neighboring nations just days before a former ambassador was killed by Chilean agents on Washington’s Embassy Row in 1976, a newly released State Department cable shows.
A Tiny Revolution has the pictorial, Jeff Kaye has background if you need it, but Python’s got the song-
Our government conspired with the US in rendition and torture and now…the High Court just ordered them to release the evidence-
British security services colluded in the unlawful detention and facilitated the interrogation of a British resident detained in Afghanistan six years ago, the high court ruled today.
Two judges ordered the foreign secretary to hand over to Binyam Mohamed’s legal team secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.
The judges said the court had established that the British secret service facilitated the questioning of Mohamed. “By seeking to interview BM in the circumstances found [in Pakistan] and supplying information and questions for his interviews, the relationship between the United Kingdom government and the United States authorities was far beyond that of bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.”
During the hearing of the case, Dinah Rose QC, for Mohamed, said he was tortured after his detention in Pakistan. He was rendered to Morocco where he was subjected to more prolonged and brutal torture after being made to “disappear”, she said.
The former Kensington caretaker alleges he was repeatedly slashed in the genitals with a razor blade while being held in Morocco. Finally, he was rendered to Guantánamo, where he has spent the past four years.
The lawyer told the judges the US authorities denied that Mohamed had been subjected to extraordinary rendition or torture. But there were strong grounds for believing that MI6 and MI5 held independent evidence supporting his story of torture.
Lawyers for the Foreign Office argued at the hearing that the government had acted within its powers and was not legally obliged to make the disclosures sought. The foreign secretary was entitled to proceed on the basis that the US legal system would safeguard Mohamed’s rights, they said.
To disclose the documents sought would cause serious damage to national security, it was submitted. A significant part of the case took place in closed session due to the sensitivity of much of the material before the court.
The Government has repeatedly lied, dragged it’s heels, denied and again has been ordered to ‘fess up, what will they do? Binyam Mohamed has been an ‘unperson’ for six years, his health both mental and physical are catastrophically compromised and while some are swooning over Miliband he is personally culpable in covering up the kidnapping and torture of Mohamed. Which makes him a crook as far as I am concerned, sorry boy wonder fans. This is what our government and the Bush regime have conspired together to do to Binyam Mohamed-
Mr Stafford Smith said: “The urgency is underlined today because Mr Mohamed has been repeatedly smearing his cell walls with faeces. This is not because Mr Mohamed is trying to violate the rules (as the US military apparently believes), but because of his mental instability. The military’s response is to cut the water to his cell off, compounding an obvious health hazard.”
A preliminary medical opinion, commissioned by Reprieve, has found Mr Mohamed to be suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr Daniel Creson, a respected psychiatrist from Texas who has extensive experience in the treatment of the victims of torture, warns that the deterioration in Mr Mohamed’s health suggests that he “is reaching the end of his psychological tether”.
Craig Murray famously was forced out of the Foreign Office & harassed because he made a stand, he did not go along with covering up torture and the government’s use of information gained under it [and in this pathetic world where morons support torture –well Jack Bauer does it and he’s kewl– I sadly need to point out: Information gained under torture, apart from it being absolutely immoral to do so, is largely worthless, any good professional interrogator will tell you that. What would you say -kidnapped for years in a foreign dungeon, disappeared by the most powerful military empire on earth- not to have the razor cut into your genitals again? Torture is about realising and validating the perpetrators reality through the medium of others suffering, it’s also a basic tactic of control through terrorism].
The government has for years covered up its cooperation with the Bush regime in the worst behaviour any malevolent tyranny can summon. Every single utterance from this government’s mouth about rights, responsibilities, fairness and justice fall as ash from their criminal lips. They are lying snivelling cowards, a mockery of civilisation. Admit your crimes and take the consequences and unlike you victims you will not be disappeared & tortured and you will be afforded a full & open trial under the law. Because that’s how decent people on planet Earth do things, their governments may fight against that, but from Burma to Iran to Colombia to China to everywhere, people know right from wrong and they stand up for it. Pity you didn’t have the spine to defend our country in the most important and profound way a leadership can by supporting liberty & open democracy and preventing, not helping, the pre-planned criminal attack on Iraq. Instead you did what all the other corrupt elites do, entrench your power with paranoia, nationalism, terror and lies.
‘error’ they know they don’t even need to bother with a very convincing alibi-
Shares in US credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Services have tumbled almost 16% after a newspaper report suggested it mislead investors. The Financial Times reported that the New York firm wrongly assigned premium credit ratings to complex pools of debt, which were actually worth less.
The newspaper reported that the error was discovered in early 2007 and changes to the methodology were introduced, but the products kept their AAA rating until January 2008, when the freeze in the credit markets led to downgrades.
The SEC said that as the ratings were given out by Moody’s European arm, it may lack the necessary jurisdiction to get involved. The regulator is deliberating whether additional industry regulations are needed to prevent a conflict of interest that arises from the fact that the fees of the credit rating agencies are paid by the very financial institutions whose bonds they assess.
Nothing to see here, only billions and endemic corruption. Capitalism’s cool, don’t worry about it. Go eat some cake peasant.
In an email from National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns–
today’s charter flight did go ahead. 140 people were scheduled to be on the flight, but 11 were taken off at the last moment because they became too ill to fly.
As far as we know the 11 were taken back to detention. In at least one case the solicitor has applied for bail because the individual cannot now be removed before his removal directions expire on Sunday.
Context-
More than 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to be told they must go home or face destitution in Britain as the government considers Iraq safe enough to return them, according to leaked Home Office correspondence seen by the Guardian.
The Iraqis involved are to be told that unless they sign up for a voluntary return programme to Iraq within three weeks, they face being made homeless and losing state support. They will also be asked to sign a waiver agreeing the government will take no responsibility for what happens to them or their families once they return to Iraqi territory.
The decision by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to declare that it is safe to send asylum seekers back to Iraq comes after more than 78 people have been killed in incidents across Iraq since last Sunday.
Well it’s more than 78 now, I don’t care what piece of paper they were harangued into signing, the government has responsibility for any harm that befalls them. Although all the cogs in the mechanism that did this, shame on you too. Shame on you.
Ten Percent 