[THS] Classified Documents Reveal UK Role in Abuse of its Own Citizens

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25946.htm

Classified Documents Reveal UK's Role in Abuse of its Own Citizens

Previously secret papers show true extent of involvement in abduction and torture
following al-Qaida attacks of 2001

By Ian Cobain and Owen Bowcott

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      Read the torture documents in full

July 15, 2010 "The Guardian" - July 14, 2010 -- The true extent of the Labour
government's involvement in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after
the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001 [sic] has been spelled out in stark detail with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a mass of highly classified documents.

Previously secret papers that have been disclosed include a number implicating Tony
Blair's office in many of the events that are to be the subject of the judicial inquiry
that David Cameron announced last week.

Among the most damning documents are a series of interrogation reports from MI5
officers that betray their disregard for the suffering of a British resident whom they
were questioning at a US airbase in Afghanistan. The documents also show that the
officers were content to see the mistreatment continue.

One of the most startling documents is chapter 32 of MI6's general procedural
manual, entitled "Detainees and Detention Operations", which advises officers that
among the "particular sensitivities" they need to consider before becoming directly
involved in an operation to detain a terrorism suspect is the question of whether
"detention, rather than killing, is the objective of the operation".

Other disclosed documents show how:

• The Foreign Office decided in January 2002 that the transfer of British citizens from
Afghanistan to Guantánamo was its "preferred option".

• Jack Straw asked for that rendition to be delayed until MI5 had been able to
interrogate those citizens.

• Downing Street was said to have overruled FO attempts to provide a British citizen
detained in Zambia with consular support in an attempt to prevent his return to the
UK, with the result that he too was "rendered" to Guantánamo.

The papers have been disclosed as a result of civil proceedings brought by six former
Guantánamo inmates against MI5 and MI6, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, and
the Attorney General's Office, which they allege were complicit in their illegal
detention and torture.

The government has been responding to disclosure requests by maintaining that it
has identified up to 500,000 documents that may be relevant, and says it has
deployed 60 lawyers to scrutinise them, a process that it suggests could take until the
end of the decade. It has failed to hand over many of the documents that the men's
lawyers have asked for, and on Friday failed to meet a deadline imposed by the high
court for the disclosure of the secret interrogation policy that governed MI5 and MI6
officers between 2004 and earlier this year.

So far just 900 papers have been disclosed, and these have included batches of
press cuttings and copies of government reports that were published several years
ago. However, a number of highly revealing documents are among the released
papers, as well as fragments of heavily censored emails, memos and policy
documents.

Some are difficult to decipher, but together they paint a picture of a government that
was determined not only to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States as it
embarked upon its programme of "extraordinary rendition" and torture of terrorism
suspects in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but to actively participate in that
programme.

In May, after the appeal court dismissed attempts to suppress evidence of complicity
in their mistreatment, the government indicated that it would attempt to settle out of
court.

Today the government failed in an attempt to bring a temporary halt to the
proceedings that have resulted in the disclosure of the documents. Its lawyers
argued that the case should be delayed while attempts were made to mediate with
the six men, in the hope that their claims could be withdrawn in advance of the
judicial inquiry. Lawyers for the former Guantánamo inmates said it was far from
certain that mediation would succeed, and insisted the disclosure process continue.

In rejecting the government's application, the court said it had considered the need
for its lawyers to press ahead with the task of processing the 500,000 documents in
any event, as the cases of the six men are among those that will be considered by
the inquiry headed by Sir Peter Gibson. Last week, in announcing the inquiry,
Cameron told MPs: "This inquiry will be able to look at all the information relevant to
its work, including secret information. It will have access to all relevant government
papers – including those held by the intelligence services."

Cameron also made clear that the sort of material that has so far been made public
with the limited disclosure in the Guantánamo cases would be kept firmly under
wraps during the inquiry. "Let's be frank, it is not possible to have a full public inquiry
into something that is meant to be secret," he said. "So any intelligence material
provided to the inquiry panel will not be made public and nor will intelligence officers
be asked to give evidence in public."

The coalition government is anxious to draw a line under what is currently described
in Whitehall as "detainee legacy issues". It hopes that mediation, followed by the
inquiry, will lift the burden of litigation that it is currently facing while restoring public
confidence in MI5 and MI6.

It also wishes to preserve what it calls "liaison relationships" – operational links with
overseas intelligence agencies, including those known to use torture – on the
grounds that they are a vital part of the country's counterterrorism strategy.