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CIA Guantanamo Bay Intelligence To Be Published in Britain
By The Anglo American | October 20, 2009
The British High Court has rejected the British Government’s argument not to publish sensitive CIA intelligence, but sensitive to who?
Binyam Mohamed, a British resident, was an inmate at Guantanamo Bay. US Intelligence links Mr. Mohamed with the Taliban and was detained in Pakistan in 2002. But Mr. Mohamed says he was innocent and that the only evidence against him was obtained from him when he was tortured.
This has led to a legal battle over seven paragraphs in a classified summary of how Mr. Mohamed was treated in Gauntanamo Bay.
A U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly backed the British government’s stand to fight publication. But the present US administration has already published material detailing the treatment of Guantanomo inmates. Are they simply trying to save the British Government’s embarrassment if the intelligence material were published?
And embarrassing it may prove to be. It is believed that the document will show that the British Government was complicit in the torture of one of its citizens by a foreign power.
The High Court judges dismissed the British government’s argument against publication. The judges, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones said…
“the risk to national security, judged objectively on the evidence, is not a serious one”…
and that it was in the public interest to publish the document in full.
David Miliband, the British foreign Secretary said the Government would appeal against the High Court decision.
However David Davis, a prominent Conservative, who bought Mr. Nohamed’s case to the attention of the House of Commons, said the appeal should be dropped.
“The British public have a right to know the judges’ assessment of the extent of complicity of the UK and US Intelligence services in torture, and to determine for themselves why the Government has tried for so long to cover up this assessment.”
Mr. Davis is well respected by his constituents and by his fellow parliamentarians. By standing standing-down and running for re-election he fought the British government’s attempts to blur the lines between the state and the judiciary - a crucial pillar for a strong democracy.
©The Anglo American 2009
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