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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 15th,
2010 - Blair Silent on Plans to Attend Torture Inquiry 1st news article
from the Guardian |
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Blair Silent
on Plans to Attend Torture Inquiry Former prime minister could be asked to give evidence after documents
implicate No 10 in ‘rendition’ policy By Ian Cobain The Guardian July 15, 2010 Tony Blair has repeatedly
refused to say whether he will appear before the inquiry into the UK's role
in torture and rendition, despite evidence in recently disclosed documents
that implicates No 10. Four former Labour ministers
- Jack Straw, David Blunkett, David Miliband and Alan Johnson - have all
indicated that they would give evidence to Sir Peter Gibson's inquiry if
requested, with Johnson saying he would appear in public. For the last eight
days, however, Blair's office has refused to say whether the former prime
minister would also be prepared to assist the inquiry. No individuals can be
compelled to attend the inquiry, which David Cameron told MPs last week was
intended to "clear this matter up once and for all". However, the
heads of MI5 and MI6 have said they and their officers will appear if
required. The documents, released
during civil proceedings on behalf of six former Guantánamo inmates who are
suing the government, shows the prime minister's office to have been closely
involved in decisions concerning the so-called "rendition"
operations during 2002. In one series of documents,
Foreign Office officials complain of a message received from No 10 that
prevented them offering consular support to Martin Mubanga, a British citizen
detained in Zambia. With the British government apparently washing its hands
of Mubanga he was "rendered" by the US to Guantánamo, where he
spent 33 months.Home Office officials also noted in some documents that the
FCO "had been overruled by Number 10" when attempting to provide
legal assistance to a number of British nationals detained at Guantanamo. External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/15/blair-silent-torture-inquiry-appearance Jack Straw’s role in UK
rendition revealed Foreign office staff were deeply uneasy about withholding consular
support - on government orders - for a man who held joint British-Zambian
nationality By Owen Bowcott & Ian Cobain
The Guardian July 15, 2010 Foreign Office staff feared
that interference from Downing Street over an al-Qaida suspect would open
them up to charges of "concealed extradition", according to freshly
released documents. Files emerging from the high
court case brought by six UK claimants over their clandestine removal to
Guantánamo Bay in 2002 reveal the extent of the row. The increasingly irate
exchanges between the British embassy in Zambia and London over the case of
Martin Mubanga expose the deep unease felt by Foreign Office staff about the
withholding of consular support from a man who held joint British-Zambian
nationality. The additional material,
released today, sheds further light on the government's decision-making as it
approved the handing over of UK suspects, who had never been charged or
tried, to US control. It also highlights the close involvement of the former
foreign secretary, Jack Straw. Downing Street's insistence
on their removal and the denial of consular access over-rode reservations,
harboured by some in the Foreign Office, about the proper treatment of
detainees. Mubanga had been detained in
Zambia in March 2002 in the global security alert after 9/11. He spent nearly
three years in Guantánamo Bay. Consulted about the Mubanga case in August
2002, an unnamed desk officer in the Special Cases section of the Foreign
Office's Consular Division warned: "... We are going to be open to
charges of concealed extradition." There were several legal
problems to possible later prosecution, he anticipated. "As an apparent
'dual national' Mubanga was entitled for us to try and get consular access
... in accordance with our stated policy. "We didn't seek
consular access in Zambia, which meant we broke our policy despite us knowing
there was a significant question mark over the Zambian aspect of his
nationality." The notes between London and
Lusaka grew more angry. "This is getting ridiculous," one diplomat
cabled the Foreign Office. "What disturbs us most here is the
determination to blame us for the schizophrenic way in which policy on this
whole case was handled in London. "I will gladly send you
a personal, secret telegram - spelling out the constraints under which we
were placed by edicts from London ..." The reference to London, later
notes make clear, include reference to "a message from No 10 that under
no circumstances should Mubanga be allowed to return to the UK." Shortly after Mubanga's
detention, Jack Straw telegrammed Lusaka . "Mubanga is reported as
volatile and may have a history of physical violence," the Foreign
Secretary wrote. "Any consular staff visiting the reported detainee
should satisfy themselves with the security arrangements before meeting
him." Andrew Tyrie, the
Conservative MP who established the Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group on
Extraordinary Rendition, said: "I am appalled but not entirely surprised
by the extent of British involvement in extraordinary rendition which these
documents appear to reveal. I was extremely concerned to read the telegram
[giving the go-ahead for removing those detained in Afghanistan to
Guantánamo] attributed to Jack Straw. If it is from him, it reveals that as
foreign secretary in 2002 he stated that the transfer of UK detainees to
Guantánamo Bay was the 'best way' and should take place 'as soon as possible'
after the detainees had been interviewed by a British team." "Yet Jack Straw
subsequently claimed that he had no knowledge of any British involvement in
rendition. Worse, he dismissed the concerns of those of us who had raised
this issue over many years as 'conspiracy theories'. "I hope there is a
good explanation. In the absence of one, for a Foreign Secretary to have
issued such denials, after having apparently endorsed the rendition of UK
detainees three years earlier, would further erode the public's trust in
politics. That has already been badly damaged by the Iraq war." Today the high court ordered
the disclosure of further documents. Mr Justice Silber said he wanted
"communications, and in particular emails, between or involving the
prime minister's office, the foreign secretary, the Foreign Office minister,
the home secretary, the Home Office minister, the Ministry of Defence, the
Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, MI5 and or MI6" in
the eight months after 9/11. External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/rendition-jack-straw-martin-ubanga |