Paola Totaro; 28/2/09; (4 Items)
Just days after the return of Binyam Mohamed, the Guantanamo Bay detainee who claims he was tortured with British collusion, Britain has been swept into another row — this time over the rendition of terror suspects. It was sparked by an admission British troops in Iraq handed over two men to the US which then sent them to Afghanistan for interrogation. In an unprecedented, urgent statement to parliament, Defence Secretary John Hutton said that despite previous denials, new information had now been unearthed about detentions in Iraq and Afghanistan which appeared to show the British facilitated renditions.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/world/britain-admits-it-aided-us-with-rendition-20090227-8kbx.html
Agents violated human rights at Guantanamo, UN report finds
Craig Whitlock; 28/2/09
A United Nations special investigator has concluded, in a report scheduled for release today, that foreign intelligence agents sent to question US-held terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay had violated international human rights laws. According to an advance copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post, Martin Scheinin, a Finnish diplomat and the UN special investigator for human rights, said foreign agents visiting Guantanamo or secret US jails overseas committed “an internationally wrongful act” even if they had merely observed interrogations.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/world/agents-violated-human-rights-at-guantanamo-un-report-finds-20090227-8kc0.html
Al-Qaeda aid case to show Obama hand
28/2/09; http://www.theage.com.au/world/alqaeda-aid-case-to-show-obama-hand-20090227-8kc1.html
US prosecutors are preparing to charge Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with providing material support to al-Qaeda terrorists, in a groundbreaking move that would put the alleged sleeper agent under the jurisdiction of the civilian court system. Marri is the last remaining “enemy combatant” in the US. He has spent 5½ years in a military brig in South Carolina, where at points he was subjected to painful stress positions, extreme sensory deprivation, and violent threats while he was denied access to lawyers, according to court filings by his legal team. The criminal charges will indicate the Obama Administration’s approach to terrorism suspects.”If true, the decision to charge (Marri) is an important step in restoring the rule of law and is what should have happened seven years ago when he was first arrested,” said Jonathan Hafetz, one of Marri’s lawyers.
Time to look at our own ‘torture memos’
Hamish McDonald; 28/2/09
After more than a year in office, the Rudd Government began its long-anticipated reshuffle of the top foreign affairs, defence and intelligence jobs in the bureaucracy this week, bringing to a close its strange indulgence of many Howard-era political appointments. The reshuffle included the transfer of Paul O’Sullivan out of the director-general role at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the main domestic security agency, and his replacement by David Irvine, who has been head of the external spy body, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/world/time-to-look-at-our-own-torture-memos-20090227-8k8k.html
CIA interrogations under scrutiny
28/2/09
The US Senate is planning an unprecedented review of the CIA’s handling of captured terrorist suspects, drawing back the curtains for the first time on the agency’s use of waterboarding and other interrogation tactics inside secret CIA prisons, congressional sources said. The intelligence committee review will use official testimony and hundreds of classified documents to piece together an authoritative account of one of the most secretive – and, to some former and current agency officials, darkest – chapters of the Bush agency’s anti-terrorism war, the officials said.Senators will try to determine not only how detainees were interrogated, but also whether the CIA’s controversial methods produced useful intelligence.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/world/cia-interrogations-under-scrutiny-20090227-8k8l.html
Anti-terror tactics ‘weaken law’
Arthur Chaskelson, 16/2/09; former president of the constitutional court of South Africa and chair of a panel which spent three years roaming the world to study terrorism. Their report concluded that many measures introduced to fight terrorism were illegal and counter-productive, and that undemocratic regimes with poor human rights records have referred to counter-terror practices of countries like the U.S. to justify their own abusive policies. In the course of this inquiry, we have been shocked by the extent of the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counter-terrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world. Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights. The result is a serious threat to the integrity of the international human rights legal framework.
Sources: BBC; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7892387.stm; http://www.sojo.net/