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Guantanamo Bay eight sue British secret service

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Fiona Hamilton

The three men from Tipton launched a lawsuit against the American authorities two years ago, alleging they were mistreated during their time in captivity. The US Court of Appeal dismissed their action earlier this year but they are appealing to the Supreme Court.

The eight men were detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan at various times

Eight men freed from Guantanamo Bay are suing the British Government for millions of pounds, claiming that it was complicit in the process in which they were detained and sent for interrogation at the detention camp.

The group have issued writs against MI5 and MI6 and said that the British authorities had knowledge of their illegal abduction, treatment and interrogation.

The eight men were detained in Afghanistan and Pakistan at various times. It is understood that they claim that the British authorities were aware that they would be removed to Guantanamo but nonetheless continued to co-operate with the Americans. The Daily Mail last night reported that two separate writs had been lodged by the group, with five Britons and three foreign citizens naming “The Security Services”, “The Secret Intelligence Agency” and “The Attorney-General” as defendants.

The first writ was issued at the High Court in London by lawyers acting for Omar Deghayes, a Libyan, Jamil el-Banna, a Jordanian — both released last December — and Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi, released this year. All three men live in Britain but are foreign nationals.

The second names five Britons as claimants: Moazzam Begg, released in 2005, Richard Belmar, and the so-called “Tipton Three” — Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal. All were released in previous years.

The newspaper reported that one of the eight men claimed that the group were put on CIA “torture flights” to the prison camp in Cuba.

The Government has faced calls recently to order an independent inquiry into the process, known as “extraordinary rendition”, in which terrorism suspects are sent for interrogation in states where they have no legal protection.

Irene Membhard, a solicitor with Birnberg Pierce, confirmed that writs had been issued on behalf of the men. She told the Daily Mail: “Service is not imminent but watch this space within the next two months.”

Mr Begg, who was arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002, said that the case would centre on the “general behaviour and complicity in the abuse of British citizens” by MI5 and MI6.

Mr Begg, from Birmingham, told the newspaper: “It is actual involvement in some cases, in the process of interrogation, in the process of us being handed over. It is culpability by the British authorities in being involved in most of the process, their presence on every step of the journey before we got to Guantanamo.”

The eight men were all re-arrested when they returned to Britain but freed without charge.

News of the lawsuits came as it was reported that America’s most senior general was “hoodwinked” by officials in the Bush Administration in relation to interrogation procedures at the prison.

The Guardian reported that General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantanamo were protected by the Geneva conventions. It said that he was duped by senior officials in Washington who believed that the Geneva conventions and other traditional safeguards were out of date.

The disclosures were contained in a new book by Philippe Sands, QC, a professor at University College London. The book, Torture Team, also claims that the Guantanamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the character Jack Bauer, from the television series 24.

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Scientology, the Metropolitan Police, and Number 10

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Temple of Xenu

Indymedia

Recently an e-petition was submitted to the UK government calling for the prohibition of the use of Narconon by the police force. The petition text read as follows:

The Times detailed, on the 20th Jan 2008, that the “Church” of Scientology is exploiting the British Police to distribute materials with no basis in fact. I quote: “Officers have been handing out booklets that praise the science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, the church’s founder, and describe both prescription and illegal drugs as “poison”.” This is irresponsible at best, and at worst, manipulating the Police to promote a commercial organisation. These “anti-drug leaflets” are nothing of the sort- the charity DrugScope said “These booklets… should not be allowed in schools.” The booklets went so far as to claim that Scientology’s version of drug “therapy” was “the safest, most effective - and only - detoxification procedure of its kind”. This is, of course, a complete untruth. In conclusion, leave drugs policies to the experts, and sever any future links between the Police and any other commercial organisations.

This is a reference to the article “Scientologists enlist police to push antidrugs drive in school,” published in The Times on 20th January of this year, not exactly a lifetime away. The government responded today, as follows:

You have signed an e-Petition about severing links between the Church of Scientology and the British Police.

The day-to-day management, use of resources, policies and deployment of staff are operational matters, and so they are the responsibility of the Chief Constable of each individual police force.

Your petition may relate to news reports about the City of London Police using scientologist drugs literature, or supporting a scientologist drugs campaign. In response to these reports, the City of London Police issued the follow statement:

“The City of London Police has not given any support to drugs campaigns, nor have we endorsed their drugs education and rehabilitation programmes. There are no plans for the Force to work with Scientologists on any programme in the future.”

You will see, therefore, that there are in fact no ‘links’ that need to be severed.

There are two major problems with this response:

1. The petition did not refer to any one police force, but instead to “British police”.
2. The article in question referred not to the City of London police, but to the Metropolitan police, making only a passing reference to the City at the end in reference to a previous scandal in which the cult was revealed to be bribing police officers.

In short, the “response” does not respond to anything at all, but combines a brushoff with false information.

One can only hope this is simple government inefficiency.

Links:
- The petition (and response),  http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page15283.asp
- The Times article,  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3216965.ece
- Previous incident with the City of London police,  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/nov/22/freedomofinformation.religion

Have Your Say: Scientology, the Metropolitan Police, and Number 10
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

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• New Documents Reveal Unlawful Guantanamo Procedures Were Also Applied On American Soil

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 11:21 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.