LGC Newsletter – July 2011
NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
Former prisoner, Adel Al-Gazzar, who was arrested and detained promptly on his return to his native Egypt last month, has appealed the charges he was convicted of in absentia in 2002 when he was being held at Guantánamo Bay. It is on the basis of these charges and conviction that he is currently being held. He was not aware of the trial at the time. He is seeking a fair trial, however military prosecutors have rejected his appeal and he remains in detention.
http://reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_07_21_Adel_Al_Gazzar_calls_for_re_trial/
Extraordinary rendition:
At the end of June, the US attorney general Eric Holder announced that he would hold criminal investigations into the deaths of two CIA prisoners held in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002-2003. He also agreed to an investigation into the treatment of prisoners however ruled out any investigations into the deaths of a further 101 prisoners in CIA custody since 2001. The Obama administration has said that it does not intend to prosecute anyone named through the investigations who acted on legal guidance, which authorised the use of waterboarding among other torture techniques, available at the time. The two prisoners whose cases will be investigated are Gul Rahman, who died in a CIA prison in Afghanistan in November 2002 after being chained to a cold cement wall and Manadel Al-Jamadi who died in Abu Ghraib in Iraq in 2003.
More on this news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13984912
Amnesty International UK made the following comment on the US’ failure to investigate its use of torture: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19555
In a new twist on extraordinary rendition, a Somali national appeared before a civilian court in New York in early July on charges of assisting terrorist groups. Pleading not guilty to nine charges, it emerged that Ahmed Abdulkader Warsame, in his mid-20s, was picked up in waters off the Somalia coast on 19 April this year and was held secretly on a US warship and interrogated daily by the CIA for two months before being interrogated again in a manner which could be used as evidence in court by the FBI and then taken to the US and charged. He is alleged not to have been read his legal rights before being questioned. Interrogations are also alleged to have been conducted in line with the Geneva Conventions. This is the first time that a foreign terrorism suspect has been taken to the US; in the past, individuals subject to such interrogations have been taken to Guantánamo Bay. Various politicians in the US have called for him to be tried by a military tribunal at Guantánamo, however a civilian trial is scheduled for early September, just days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Failing to notice the secret and potentially illegal nature of Mr Warsame’s detention, the media have stated that this arrest, interrogation and forthcoming trial are an indication of how the Obama administration will deal with terrorism suspects. However, the US has been accused of questioning and torturing rendition victims and “ghost prisoners” on board US military ships in the past, in particular around the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned Mr Warsame’s detention and interrogation aboard the warship: http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/u.s.-may-have-violated-domestic-and-international-law-capturing-and-holding-somali-months-sea
His charges can be read at: http://documents.latimes.com/ahmed-warsame-indictment/
More on this news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14041734
On 6 July, one year to the day that David Cameron announced an inquiry would be held into the British intelligence services’ involvement in torture abroad, the terms of reference and protocols on the treatment of information in the inquiry were published. The Detainee, or Gibson, Inquiry, led by retired judge Sir Peter Gibson is due to start its proceedings later this year. Already subject to much criticism of its narrow scope and failure to consider the issue thoroughly, the terms of reference and protocols have also been criticised, concerning how information will be obtained, how and what information will be kept confidential and the scope of the inquiry to include prisoner transfers. NGOs and other critics feel that as stated the inquiry will be powerless and ineffective in dealing with this crucial issue. The inquiry can be followed on its website: http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/
On 13 July, the Supreme Court ruled that the security services (MI5 and MI6) could not rely on secret evidence procedures in court to conceal evidence of involvement in the torture of detainees. In a case brought by several former Guantánamo prisoners, which ended in an out-of-court settlement in November last year, the procedural issue of whether the security services could rely on closed evidence (withheld from the detainees, their lawyers and the public) in the case, in the interest of national security, was referred to the Supreme Court where the judges held that such use would breach the common law standards of a fair trial. However, the judges warned that parliament could in future legislate to allow the use of secret evidence as it has in other sensitive proceedings. The government is currently seeking to table a green paper, which could become law, on the use of intelligence in court proceedings, which could effectively end any disclosure of evidence, such as that related to what the government and its officials and agents know about the use of torture or their own involvement in it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jul/13/supreme-court-secret-evidence-ban
LGC Activities:
To mark American Independence Day, a special prisoner solidarity demonstration was held instead of the monthly Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. Around 25 people attended and were joined by activists from other campaigns, including the Justice For Aafia Coalition, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and the UK Friends of Bradley Manning. For a report on this event: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/07/481978.html
This month’s demonstration will be on Friday 5 August at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184595608269352
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
LGC Newsletter - June 2011
British Residents:
In meetings held between lawyers and others representing Shaker Aamer and US officials during President Obama’s visit to the UK last month, it was revealed that there are now further barriers to his release, as new legislation passed by Congress under the Obama administration requires the Department of Defense to declare that the prisoner will not reoffend if released and Congress must approve the release, making this very difficult henceforth. This was stated by Shaker Aamer’s MP Jane Ellison (Conservative: Battersea) at a parliamentary meeting and screening of Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo on 21 June. The Foreign Office states, however, that it is still seeking Shaker Aamer’s release to the UK and campaigners will continue to seek his release as well.
Guantánamo Bay:
Former prisoner, Adel Al-Gazzar, who was held without charge or trial for almost eight years at Guantánamo, where he lost a leg as a result of torture, and released to Slovakia in 2010, where he was then held at an immigration detention centre for over six months, was promptly arrested on his return to Egypt in early June. Adel Al-Gazzar had left his native Egypt in 2000 to go and do charitable work in Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped and sold for a bounty after 9/11. Having established his innocence but deeming it too unsafe to return him to Egypt, the US negotiated his release to Slovakia along with two other prisoners. Following six months of imprisonment at an immigration detention centre in an experience they claimed was “worse than Guantánamo” and a hunger strike, the three men were released and could finally start their rehabilitation in Slovakia. Following events in Egypt earlier this year and the hope engendered by them, El-Gazzar sought to return home to his family, whom he has not seen in over 11 years. However, shortly after arrival at the airport, he was arrested by security officers and is currently being held at Tora Prison, near Cairo, in relation to charges brought against him in 2002 applicable only under emergency powers, which have not been removed since former President Hosni Mubarak was deposed almost six months ago. Commenting on this latest twist in Al-Gazzar’s unfortunate journey, his lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith wrote the following:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201161694610955569.html
Five years after their deaths in obscure circumstances, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the USA has filed an appeal in a case on behalf of the families of two prisoners who died at Guantánamo Bay in June 2006. Saudi Yasser Al-Zahrani, 21, and Yemeni Salah Al-Salami, 33, along with another Yemeni national who is not a part of this case, all held without charge or trial since 2002 at Guantánamo, were found dead in their cells in 2006. The USA refused to release the bodies to the families immediately and maintains that the three men committed suicide in an “act of asymmetrical warfare”. Department of Defense investigations have upheld this. The families, however, and prisoners who knew the three men reject this claim; the former have called for an independent investigation into the cause of death. Following a report in Harper’s magazine in January 2010 by Scott Horton, http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368 which also cites Shaker Aamer as a witness to the brutality suffered by the three men before their deaths, a further independent investigation and testimonies from four soldiers present, it appears that the official narrative is false. The new evidence has led to this appeal. The families maintain instead that the men were tortured to death.
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/al-zahrani-v.-rumsfeld
Demonstrating its commitment to press ahead with military tribunals, the Pentagon appointed a new chief prosecutor for military commissions at Guantánamo Bay, Brigadier General Mark Martins, currently “commander of the Rule of Law Field Force in Afghanistan”, will take up the post from October. Trials he is likely to oversee include those of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and his four co-defendants, accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. On the other hand, cases brought in the civilian courts by prisoners, such as prisoner reviews, are currently experiencing high levels of failure, including where they are appeals of cases previously won by prisoners.
Extraordinary rendition:
On 22 June, the All-Party Parliamentary Group released information it had sought through a Freedom of Information application in 2008 concerning prisoners held by British troops and transferred to the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan. These documents include a secret 2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the US and the UK on the handover of prisoners, extracts from a 2008 Detention Practices Review and statistical information on prisoners captured in Afghanistan. These documents, which can be read at http://www.extraordinaryrendition.org/index.php/document-library-mainmenu-27/all-other-documents show failings in the British army’s handling of prisoners and transfers of prisoners to the US military, in spite of knowing of the practices it uses, such as rendition and waterboarding, and at times a lack of accountability procedures to protect prisoners. Last month, following a hearing before the Information Tribunal, the Ministry of Defence was forced to make these documents public. It had previously claimed that disclosure could harm foreign relations and would be costly.
For more on this news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/23/freedomofinformation-iraq
Lawyers from Reprieve, the human rights NGO, acting on behalf of a Pakistani national held at the Bagram detention facility, who was “rendered” after being arrested and handed over to the US military by British soldiers in Iraq, have brought a habeas corpus case at the High Court in London, seeking that he is either charged or released. Yunus Rahmatullah, 28, was arrested by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004, handed over to the US military who “rendered” him to Bagram in Afghanistan where he has been held ever since. He effectively “disappeared” until 2009 when former government ministers admitted that two men arrested by British forces in Iraq were “rendered” to Afghanistan by the US military. Last year, a detention review board cleared him for release but he remains a prisoner. He was also able to speak to his family on the telephone for the first time last year. The Ministry of Defence had previously refused to confirm his identity. The British government claims that it has no power to seek his release or issue the writ of habeas corpus sought by his lawyers as the matter is one for the US military to decide. However, the transfer to the American military made under a memorandum of understanding allows for requests for transferred prisoners to be returned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13893181
LGC Activities:
Ten people attended the June Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. This month’s demonstration is a special Prisoner Solidarity Demonstration in support of prisoners with a UK-US angle, such as individuals facing extradition to the US under the 2003 Extradition Act, Guantánamo prisoners such as Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and alleged Wikileaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning who is a US-UK citizen. This event is open mic and everyone is welcome to speak, particularly those campaigning on prisoner rights and justice issues which are related. There will be NO monthly demonstration on Friday 1 July. Instead, this one-off demonstration will be on Monday 4 July at 6-8pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220462624638452
The London Guantánamo Campaign and Kingston Peace Council/CND held a joint rally on Sunday 26 June in Trafalgar Square to mark international day in support of victims of torture. Several dozen people joined the rally to raise awareness and show support and a good deal of support was shown by passers-by and the general public enjoying the beautiful weekend weather. Speakers included Andy Worthington, Jean Lambert MEP, Dr Frank Arnold and various torture-related organisations.
Media and reports on the event:
London Guantánamo Campaign report: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/06/public-rally-in-support-of-victims-of.html
With additional pictures: https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/481310.html
Press release by Jean Lambert MEP: http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/news_detail.php?id=697
Further Indymedia report: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9388
Pictures by Dan Viesnik: https://picasaweb.google.com/Aldermaston.Big.Blockade/RallyInSupportOfVictimsOfTorture
Pictures by Mariusz Miejek: http://mariuszsmiejek.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/international-day-in-support-of-victims-of-torture/
Pictures by Richard Wolff: http://www.richardkeithwolff.co.uk/gallery_431793.html
Al-Jazeera article (in Arabic): http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E1A62E5B-7D28-45B6-8D49-505D287705E9.htm?GoogleStatID=9
LGC pictures on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.218343874873123.58212.114010671973111
In meetings held between lawyers and others representing Shaker Aamer and US officials during President Obama’s visit to the UK last month, it was revealed that there are now further barriers to his release, as new legislation passed by Congress under the Obama administration requires the Department of Defense to declare that the prisoner will not reoffend if released and Congress must approve the release, making this very difficult henceforth. This was stated by Shaker Aamer’s MP Jane Ellison (Conservative: Battersea) at a parliamentary meeting and screening of Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo on 21 June. The Foreign Office states, however, that it is still seeking Shaker Aamer’s release to the UK and campaigners will continue to seek his release as well.
Guantánamo Bay:
Former prisoner, Adel Al-Gazzar, who was held without charge or trial for almost eight years at Guantánamo, where he lost a leg as a result of torture, and released to Slovakia in 2010, where he was then held at an immigration detention centre for over six months, was promptly arrested on his return to Egypt in early June. Adel Al-Gazzar had left his native Egypt in 2000 to go and do charitable work in Afghanistan, where he was kidnapped and sold for a bounty after 9/11. Having established his innocence but deeming it too unsafe to return him to Egypt, the US negotiated his release to Slovakia along with two other prisoners. Following six months of imprisonment at an immigration detention centre in an experience they claimed was “worse than Guantánamo” and a hunger strike, the three men were released and could finally start their rehabilitation in Slovakia. Following events in Egypt earlier this year and the hope engendered by them, El-Gazzar sought to return home to his family, whom he has not seen in over 11 years. However, shortly after arrival at the airport, he was arrested by security officers and is currently being held at Tora Prison, near Cairo, in relation to charges brought against him in 2002 applicable only under emergency powers, which have not been removed since former President Hosni Mubarak was deposed almost six months ago. Commenting on this latest twist in Al-Gazzar’s unfortunate journey, his lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith wrote the following:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201161694610955569.html
Five years after their deaths in obscure circumstances, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the USA has filed an appeal in a case on behalf of the families of two prisoners who died at Guantánamo Bay in June 2006. Saudi Yasser Al-Zahrani, 21, and Yemeni Salah Al-Salami, 33, along with another Yemeni national who is not a part of this case, all held without charge or trial since 2002 at Guantánamo, were found dead in their cells in 2006. The USA refused to release the bodies to the families immediately and maintains that the three men committed suicide in an “act of asymmetrical warfare”. Department of Defense investigations have upheld this. The families, however, and prisoners who knew the three men reject this claim; the former have called for an independent investigation into the cause of death. Following a report in Harper’s magazine in January 2010 by Scott Horton, http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368 which also cites Shaker Aamer as a witness to the brutality suffered by the three men before their deaths, a further independent investigation and testimonies from four soldiers present, it appears that the official narrative is false. The new evidence has led to this appeal. The families maintain instead that the men were tortured to death.
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/al-zahrani-v.-rumsfeld
Demonstrating its commitment to press ahead with military tribunals, the Pentagon appointed a new chief prosecutor for military commissions at Guantánamo Bay, Brigadier General Mark Martins, currently “commander of the Rule of Law Field Force in Afghanistan”, will take up the post from October. Trials he is likely to oversee include those of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and his four co-defendants, accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. On the other hand, cases brought in the civilian courts by prisoners, such as prisoner reviews, are currently experiencing high levels of failure, including where they are appeals of cases previously won by prisoners.
Extraordinary rendition:
On 22 June, the All-Party Parliamentary Group released information it had sought through a Freedom of Information application in 2008 concerning prisoners held by British troops and transferred to the US army in Iraq and Afghanistan. These documents include a secret 2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the US and the UK on the handover of prisoners, extracts from a 2008 Detention Practices Review and statistical information on prisoners captured in Afghanistan. These documents, which can be read at http://www.extraordinaryrendition.org/index.php/document-library-mainmenu-27/all-other-documents show failings in the British army’s handling of prisoners and transfers of prisoners to the US military, in spite of knowing of the practices it uses, such as rendition and waterboarding, and at times a lack of accountability procedures to protect prisoners. Last month, following a hearing before the Information Tribunal, the Ministry of Defence was forced to make these documents public. It had previously claimed that disclosure could harm foreign relations and would be costly.
For more on this news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/23/freedomofinformation-iraq
Lawyers from Reprieve, the human rights NGO, acting on behalf of a Pakistani national held at the Bagram detention facility, who was “rendered” after being arrested and handed over to the US military by British soldiers in Iraq, have brought a habeas corpus case at the High Court in London, seeking that he is either charged or released. Yunus Rahmatullah, 28, was arrested by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004, handed over to the US military who “rendered” him to Bagram in Afghanistan where he has been held ever since. He effectively “disappeared” until 2009 when former government ministers admitted that two men arrested by British forces in Iraq were “rendered” to Afghanistan by the US military. Last year, a detention review board cleared him for release but he remains a prisoner. He was also able to speak to his family on the telephone for the first time last year. The Ministry of Defence had previously refused to confirm his identity. The British government claims that it has no power to seek his release or issue the writ of habeas corpus sought by his lawyers as the matter is one for the US military to decide. However, the transfer to the American military made under a memorandum of understanding allows for requests for transferred prisoners to be returned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13893181
LGC Activities:
Ten people attended the June Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. This month’s demonstration is a special Prisoner Solidarity Demonstration in support of prisoners with a UK-US angle, such as individuals facing extradition to the US under the 2003 Extradition Act, Guantánamo prisoners such as Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and alleged Wikileaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning who is a US-UK citizen. This event is open mic and everyone is welcome to speak, particularly those campaigning on prisoner rights and justice issues which are related. There will be NO monthly demonstration on Friday 1 July. Instead, this one-off demonstration will be on Monday 4 July at 6-8pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220462624638452
The London Guantánamo Campaign and Kingston Peace Council/CND held a joint rally on Sunday 26 June in Trafalgar Square to mark international day in support of victims of torture. Several dozen people joined the rally to raise awareness and show support and a good deal of support was shown by passers-by and the general public enjoying the beautiful weekend weather. Speakers included Andy Worthington, Jean Lambert MEP, Dr Frank Arnold and various torture-related organisations.
Media and reports on the event:
London Guantánamo Campaign report: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/06/public-rally-in-support-of-victims-of.html
With additional pictures: https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/481310.html
Press release by Jean Lambert MEP: http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/news_detail.php?id=697
Further Indymedia report: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/9388
Pictures by Dan Viesnik: https://picasaweb.google.com/Aldermaston.Big.Blockade/RallyInSupportOfVictimsOfTorture
Pictures by Mariusz Miejek: http://mariuszsmiejek.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/international-day-in-support-of-victims-of-torture/
Pictures by Richard Wolff: http://www.richardkeithwolff.co.uk/gallery_431793.html
Al-Jazeera article (in Arabic): http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E1A62E5B-7D28-45B6-8D49-505D287705E9.htm?GoogleStatID=9
LGC pictures on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.218343874873123.58212.114010671973111
Monday, June 27, 2011
Public rally in support of victims of torture
Several dozen people joined a rally organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign and Kingston Peace Council (http://www.kpc.gn.apc.org/) in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 26 June to mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture and to show solidarity with victims everywhere.
Since 1998, this date, the anniversary of the United Nations Convention Against Torture becoming international law in 1987, has been “an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable” (Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General). Unfortunately, rather than reduce or eliminate the use of torture, the stated purpose of such international conventions and laws, making the use of torture absolutely prohibited, its use continues to spread across the globe with the collusion and connivance of almost all governments. In Britain, clear evidence of this is that 26 June 2011 was also the last day of Refugee Week (20-26 June 2011) - many refugees having suffered tortured - and this date falling just one day after Armed Forces Day. The role of the military, police and other State agents in the practice of torture should not be forgotten; the recent inquiry into the torture and death of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Moussa at the hands of British soldiers in Iraq in 2003 is evidence of this.
The speakers were introduced by David Harrold from the London Guantánamo Campaign who emphasised the role the UK and US had played in the use of torture and their complicity in it. Noel Hamel, from Kingston Peace Council, called it a “futile occupation” and pointed out that for some public servants, torture falls under their job description, even though its use is prohibited everywhere.
The only politician joining the rally was London Green MEP Jean Lambert. She described torture as “one of the most profound human rights abuses” with psychological and emotional scars that can last forever, long after the physical wounds have healed. She praised the work of the hundreds of centres around the world that help to rehabilitate and give hope to victims. Ms Lambert asserted a sentiment echoed by many speakers, that Britain must ensure that it is not involved in the use of torture.
Maya Evans, from Justice Not Vengeance (http://www.j-n-v.org/), spoke about a case she brought with Public Interest Lawyers, following an Amnesty International report in 2007 claiming that Afghan prisoners captured by British troops were handed over to the Afghan secret police who then tortured them. A case brought at the High Court last year found that the torture of prisoners included electric shocks, beatings and sleep deprivation. The case led to a change in British policy in Afghanistan. The government then tried to change the law to prevent campaigners from bringing such cases using legal aid; however, following a successful judicial review of this measure, which showed that the Ministry of Defence pressurised the Ministry of Justice to bring about this change, the measure was removed. Ms Evans said we have to “continue to fight so that we can continue to have victories”.
Noa Kleinman, Amnesty International UK’s volunteer North America co-ordinator, and an activist with Amnesty’s throughout its 50 year existence, talked about Amnesty’s commitment to fighting and preventing torture as well as stopping impunity for those involved in torture. Ms Kleinman pointed out that torturers are sometimes victims themselves, coerced into such positions, whereas it is the people at the top, directing such activities who need to be identified and punished.
Andy Worthington (http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/), author of “The Guantanamo Files” and co-director of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” focused on the war on terror and impunity for torturers in the US, where responsibility for torture goes right up to the highest levels of power. Efforts have been made to prevent proper investigations into these issues, showing a lack of commitment to its international obligations to prevent and investigate claims of torture.
Dr Frank Arnold, a doctor who has worked at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, the Helen Bamber Foundation and was a founder of the Medical Justice and its clinical lead, talked about his experience of working with victims of torture in the UK. Over the past five years he has examined over 500 victims from over 50 countries who have suffered and shown various physical signs of torture. However, the internal scars, post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, flashbacks and the inability to trust others are lifelong scars. Dr Arnold emphasised that human rights need to start at home; the British government claims to detest the human rights abuses of particular regimes but continues to trade and sell arms to them. Solidarity with victims of torture starts at home; active solidarity is the only thing that works.
Other speakers who addressed the rally were Simran Kaur from TARAN (the Trauma Rehabilitation Network), which works with victims of torture in the Punjab, providing medical assistance and support. She emphasised the need for justice for victims, highlighting the case of Professor Bhullar, who was deported to India, where he was tortured and forced to a sign a confession he later retracted. Ms Kaur also emphasised the need for activists to work together. Ilyas Townsend from the Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC – http://www.justiceforaafia.org/) spoke about the case of Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui who “disappeared” in 2003 with her three children, only to resurface in Afghanistan in 2008, following years of torture and abuse in secret jails. In 2010, in spite of a lack of evidence, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of American military personnel. Her younger child, six months at the time, is still “disappeared”. Mr Townsend described Dr Siddiqui as being “guilty of being innocent” and made the important point that victims of torture are often not considered human by their torturers, giving them a justification for their actions.
Naomi Colvin spoke on behalf of the UK Friends of Bradley Manning (http://www.ukfriendsofbradleymanning.org/), a support group campaigning for justice for the Welsh-American soldier accused of leaking confidential military documents to Wikileaks. His conditions in detention in military jails over the past year have been compared to conditions at Guantánamo Bay, yet the campaign both within and outside the US has led to him being held in better conditions. Some of the documents he is alleged to have leaked relate to torture by American troops in the “war on terror”. Haci Ozdemir, secretary of the UK section of the International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD – http://www.icad-int.org/) talked about the effects of torture on communities and families. He described the use of torture as “systematic and institutionalised” in many countries with methods being shared and exported across borders, such as waterboarding. He stated that ordinary people are the force that must end these atrocities. Contributions were also made by Les Levidov from the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Maria Gallastegui from PeaceStrike, Ray Silk from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and Andrey Sidelnikov, from the campaign in support of Russian political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The rally ended with a poem about hope read out by veteran campaigner Mohamed Qavi.
In spite of the small turnout for the rally, the message went out loud and clear to a crowded Trafalgar Square on a sweltering afternoon. Passers-by joined in the rally and expressed their solidarity with victims. The organisers also met some individuals passing by who have been personally affected by the issue. As many people around the world continue to face the horror of torture, the struggle against it must continue.
Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign
More pictures at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/481310.html
and: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.218343874873123.58212.114010671973111
Since 1998, this date, the anniversary of the United Nations Convention Against Torture becoming international law in 1987, has been “an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable” (Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General). Unfortunately, rather than reduce or eliminate the use of torture, the stated purpose of such international conventions and laws, making the use of torture absolutely prohibited, its use continues to spread across the globe with the collusion and connivance of almost all governments. In Britain, clear evidence of this is that 26 June 2011 was also the last day of Refugee Week (20-26 June 2011) - many refugees having suffered tortured - and this date falling just one day after Armed Forces Day. The role of the military, police and other State agents in the practice of torture should not be forgotten; the recent inquiry into the torture and death of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Moussa at the hands of British soldiers in Iraq in 2003 is evidence of this.
The speakers were introduced by David Harrold from the London Guantánamo Campaign who emphasised the role the UK and US had played in the use of torture and their complicity in it. Noel Hamel, from Kingston Peace Council, called it a “futile occupation” and pointed out that for some public servants, torture falls under their job description, even though its use is prohibited everywhere.
The only politician joining the rally was London Green MEP Jean Lambert. She described torture as “one of the most profound human rights abuses” with psychological and emotional scars that can last forever, long after the physical wounds have healed. She praised the work of the hundreds of centres around the world that help to rehabilitate and give hope to victims. Ms Lambert asserted a sentiment echoed by many speakers, that Britain must ensure that it is not involved in the use of torture.
Maya Evans, from Justice Not Vengeance (http://www.j-n-v.org/), spoke about a case she brought with Public Interest Lawyers, following an Amnesty International report in 2007 claiming that Afghan prisoners captured by British troops were handed over to the Afghan secret police who then tortured them. A case brought at the High Court last year found that the torture of prisoners included electric shocks, beatings and sleep deprivation. The case led to a change in British policy in Afghanistan. The government then tried to change the law to prevent campaigners from bringing such cases using legal aid; however, following a successful judicial review of this measure, which showed that the Ministry of Defence pressurised the Ministry of Justice to bring about this change, the measure was removed. Ms Evans said we have to “continue to fight so that we can continue to have victories”.
Noa Kleinman, Amnesty International UK’s volunteer North America co-ordinator, and an activist with Amnesty’s throughout its 50 year existence, talked about Amnesty’s commitment to fighting and preventing torture as well as stopping impunity for those involved in torture. Ms Kleinman pointed out that torturers are sometimes victims themselves, coerced into such positions, whereas it is the people at the top, directing such activities who need to be identified and punished.
Andy Worthington (http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/), author of “The Guantanamo Files” and co-director of “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” focused on the war on terror and impunity for torturers in the US, where responsibility for torture goes right up to the highest levels of power. Efforts have been made to prevent proper investigations into these issues, showing a lack of commitment to its international obligations to prevent and investigate claims of torture.
Dr Frank Arnold, a doctor who has worked at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, the Helen Bamber Foundation and was a founder of the Medical Justice and its clinical lead, talked about his experience of working with victims of torture in the UK. Over the past five years he has examined over 500 victims from over 50 countries who have suffered and shown various physical signs of torture. However, the internal scars, post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, flashbacks and the inability to trust others are lifelong scars. Dr Arnold emphasised that human rights need to start at home; the British government claims to detest the human rights abuses of particular regimes but continues to trade and sell arms to them. Solidarity with victims of torture starts at home; active solidarity is the only thing that works.
Other speakers who addressed the rally were Simran Kaur from TARAN (the Trauma Rehabilitation Network), which works with victims of torture in the Punjab, providing medical assistance and support. She emphasised the need for justice for victims, highlighting the case of Professor Bhullar, who was deported to India, where he was tortured and forced to a sign a confession he later retracted. Ms Kaur also emphasised the need for activists to work together. Ilyas Townsend from the Justice for Aafia Coalition (JFAC – http://www.justiceforaafia.org/) spoke about the case of Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui who “disappeared” in 2003 with her three children, only to resurface in Afghanistan in 2008, following years of torture and abuse in secret jails. In 2010, in spite of a lack of evidence, she was sentenced to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of American military personnel. Her younger child, six months at the time, is still “disappeared”. Mr Townsend described Dr Siddiqui as being “guilty of being innocent” and made the important point that victims of torture are often not considered human by their torturers, giving them a justification for their actions.
Naomi Colvin spoke on behalf of the UK Friends of Bradley Manning (http://www.ukfriendsofbradleymanning.org/), a support group campaigning for justice for the Welsh-American soldier accused of leaking confidential military documents to Wikileaks. His conditions in detention in military jails over the past year have been compared to conditions at Guantánamo Bay, yet the campaign both within and outside the US has led to him being held in better conditions. Some of the documents he is alleged to have leaked relate to torture by American troops in the “war on terror”. Haci Ozdemir, secretary of the UK section of the International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD – http://www.icad-int.org/) talked about the effects of torture on communities and families. He described the use of torture as “systematic and institutionalised” in many countries with methods being shared and exported across borders, such as waterboarding. He stated that ordinary people are the force that must end these atrocities. Contributions were also made by Les Levidov from the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Maria Gallastegui from PeaceStrike, Ray Silk from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and Andrey Sidelnikov, from the campaign in support of Russian political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The rally ended with a poem about hope read out by veteran campaigner Mohamed Qavi.
In spite of the small turnout for the rally, the message went out loud and clear to a crowded Trafalgar Square on a sweltering afternoon. Passers-by joined in the rally and expressed their solidarity with victims. The organisers also met some individuals passing by who have been personally affected by the issue. As many people around the world continue to face the horror of torture, the struggle against it must continue.
Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign
More pictures at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/06/481310.html
and: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.218343874873123.58212.114010671973111
Friday, May 27, 2011
26 June: PUBLIC RALLY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
Also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225756180784961
You are invited to
A PUBLIC RALLY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF
TORTURE
Trafalgar Square, London
Sunday 26 June 2011, 2-4pm
“This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable.” Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General
Speakers include:
Andy Worthington, journalist
Ilyas Townsend, Justice for Aafia Coalition
Maria Gallestegui, Peace Strike
Naomi Colvin, UK Friends of Bradley Manning
Maya Evans, Justice Not Vengeance
And speakers from Amnesty International, Stop the War, International Committee Against Disappearances, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and others
Since 1998, June 26th has marked International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In spite of laws to protect freedoms, torture remains prevalent throughout the world. Men, women, children and entire communities are subject to unspeakable atrocities and the effects that live with them long after the violence ends. We invite you to come and stand up against these atrocities, and join us in solidarity with the victims.
Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign
and Kingston CND
For more details, e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com or noelthamel@aol.com
Or call Aisha 07809 757 176/ Noel 020 8395 2656
http://kpc.gn.apc.org/ http://www.londonguantanamo.org.uk/
You are invited to
A PUBLIC RALLY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF
TORTURE
Trafalgar Square, London
Sunday 26 June 2011, 2-4pm
“This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable.” Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General
Speakers include:
Andy Worthington, journalist
Ilyas Townsend, Justice for Aafia Coalition
Maria Gallestegui, Peace Strike
Naomi Colvin, UK Friends of Bradley Manning
Maya Evans, Justice Not Vengeance
And speakers from Amnesty International, Stop the War, International Committee Against Disappearances, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and others
Since 1998, June 26th has marked International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In spite of laws to protect freedoms, torture remains prevalent throughout the world. Men, women, children and entire communities are subject to unspeakable atrocities and the effects that live with them long after the violence ends. We invite you to come and stand up against these atrocities, and join us in solidarity with the victims.
Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign
and Kingston CND
For more details, e-mail: london.gtmo@gmail.com or noelthamel@aol.com
Or call Aisha 07809 757 176/ Noel 020 8395 2656
http://kpc.gn.apc.org/ http://www.londonguantanamo.org.uk/
LGC Newsletter - May 2011
NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
The US administration is currently considering whether to allow some of the 171 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo Bay to have family visits. Currently, through the International Red Cross, some prisoners are able to have telephone calls and video links to their families. The scheme would only apply to some prisoners, mainly those, such as Guantánamo’s large Yemeni contingent, who are free to leave but do not have a safe country to go to. Republicans in the US Congress are trying to block the plan as it could cause “security concerns” for the US. The plan itself indicates that after almost 10 years of illegal incarceration, there are no plans in the near future for the release of prisoners.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13382294
Another prisoner has died at Guantánamo Bay in another alleged “suicide”. On 18 May, Inayatullah, a 37-year old Afghan prisoner was found dead in the recreation ground by military guards. The cause of death has not been established. He is the second prisoner to die at Guantánamo Bay this year and the eighth in total. One of the last prisoners to arrive, in 2007, he has never been charged with any crime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/19/guantanamo-prisoner-dies-apparent-suicide
A former Algerian prisoner, released to France on humanitarian grounds as he cannot return to Algeria, is set to sue George Bush for 8 years of illegal imprisonment at Guantánamo. Saber Lahmer, 42, was arrested by CIA agents in Bosnia in 2001, where he worked and lived. He was held at Guantánamo for the next eight years where he was tortured and was released in 2009, after a habeas ruling proved that allegations against him were unfounded. He plans to sue through the French courts.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMK_Wpzi-Fr4zKE0HrdJIiTrsYmQ?docId=CNG.0cc97a002f7eab51d35fbc2d30e32185.181
A review petition brought by Omar Khadr, prior to his guilty plea in October last year, was rejected by the US Supreme Court. The review included claims by around 100 prisoners to have parts of their cases reviewed and to ensure that they have at least 30 days’ notice before they are transferred to other countries to prevent them being sent to countries where they may be at risk. The 30 days’ notice was rejected and Khadr could not have his case reviewed as he had waived this right under the plea bargain he made in October 2010. However, Omar Khadr will find out in June if his clemency plea, brought a few months ago, has been accepted, which could see his prison sentence being halved to four years.
Extraordinary rendition:
A case brought against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a division of Boeing, by five victims of extraordinary rendition, including British residents Bisher Al-Rawi and Binyam Mohamed, for having organised the flight plans at the various stages of their torture ordeal, was back in the courts this month. The case, brought in 2008, was dismissed as the Bush and then the Obama administrations used the state secrets privilege, citing national security as a concern, to prevent any secrets involving illegal behaviour by the intelligence agencies coming to light, making it impossible for the case to be heard. Following the case being dismissed by the appeal courts, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought it before the Supreme Court to consider whether or not the government could rely on the state secrets privilege to prevent the case being heard. The Supreme Court said that the government could rely on it and effectively prevented the case being heard.
Amnesty International has produced the following document about the ruling:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/044/2011/en
A group of Polish and international human rights NGOs are calling on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to raise the issue of CIA secret prisons in the country and to cooperate in providing information when the two men meet as part of President Obama’s on-going visit to Europe:
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2011_05_27_Poland_CIA_Obama_Tusk
LGC Activities:
Four people attended the May Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. This month’s demonstration is on Friday 3 June at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch, Hyde Park).
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225756180784961#!/event.php?eid=215457011811523
Various events took place in the UK concerning Guantánamo Bay and prisoners held there to coincide with President Obama’s first state visit on 24-26 May. Amnesty International sent the following letter to Prime Minister David Cameron on 20 May asking for him to raise Shaker Aamer’s case personally with President Barack Obama: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19465
On the day before the visit, Monday 23 May, Maria Gallestegui from Peace Strike delivered a petition to Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister to raise the cases of Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and call for the closure of Guantánamo. On the first day of the visit, activists from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign and others greeted Obama outside Buckingham Palace with a colourful demonstration: http://www.demotix.com/news/702759/protests-take-place-president-obama-visits-buckingham-palace
On the second day of the visit, the London Guantánamo Campaign and Peace Strike continued the protest outside Parliament with a six-hour long vigil calling for Guantánamo’s closure.
The London Guantánamo Campaign also sent a letter to the Guardian and Independent newspapers for publication on the first day of the visit, which was overlooked. It was signed by over 50 individuals and organisations, including former prisoners, politicians and leading lawyers: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/05/unpublished-letters-from-obamas-visit.html
The London Guantánamo Campaign also had the following comment piece published in Open Democracy expressing what we believe the British government should now be doing and telling the US government: http://www.opendemocracy.org.uk/ourkingdom/aisha-maniar/guantanamo-bay-shadow-cast-over-special-relationship
If you have not yet added your name to the open letter to President Obama about Shaker Aamer, please do: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/03/sign-our-open-letter-to-president-obama.html
If you have not yet asked your MP to sign EDM 1093 on Guantánamo Bay, we urge you to do so: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1093
The London Guantánamo Campaign and Kingston CND will be organising a rally in Trafalgar Square on 26 June to mark international day in support of victims of torture. We hope you can join us: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225756180784961#!/event.php?eid=225756180784961
Guantánamo Bay:
The US administration is currently considering whether to allow some of the 171 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo Bay to have family visits. Currently, through the International Red Cross, some prisoners are able to have telephone calls and video links to their families. The scheme would only apply to some prisoners, mainly those, such as Guantánamo’s large Yemeni contingent, who are free to leave but do not have a safe country to go to. Republicans in the US Congress are trying to block the plan as it could cause “security concerns” for the US. The plan itself indicates that after almost 10 years of illegal incarceration, there are no plans in the near future for the release of prisoners.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13382294
Another prisoner has died at Guantánamo Bay in another alleged “suicide”. On 18 May, Inayatullah, a 37-year old Afghan prisoner was found dead in the recreation ground by military guards. The cause of death has not been established. He is the second prisoner to die at Guantánamo Bay this year and the eighth in total. One of the last prisoners to arrive, in 2007, he has never been charged with any crime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/19/guantanamo-prisoner-dies-apparent-suicide
A former Algerian prisoner, released to France on humanitarian grounds as he cannot return to Algeria, is set to sue George Bush for 8 years of illegal imprisonment at Guantánamo. Saber Lahmer, 42, was arrested by CIA agents in Bosnia in 2001, where he worked and lived. He was held at Guantánamo for the next eight years where he was tortured and was released in 2009, after a habeas ruling proved that allegations against him were unfounded. He plans to sue through the French courts.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMK_Wpzi-Fr4zKE0HrdJIiTrsYmQ?docId=CNG.0cc97a002f7eab51d35fbc2d30e32185.181
A review petition brought by Omar Khadr, prior to his guilty plea in October last year, was rejected by the US Supreme Court. The review included claims by around 100 prisoners to have parts of their cases reviewed and to ensure that they have at least 30 days’ notice before they are transferred to other countries to prevent them being sent to countries where they may be at risk. The 30 days’ notice was rejected and Khadr could not have his case reviewed as he had waived this right under the plea bargain he made in October 2010. However, Omar Khadr will find out in June if his clemency plea, brought a few months ago, has been accepted, which could see his prison sentence being halved to four years.
Extraordinary rendition:
A case brought against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a division of Boeing, by five victims of extraordinary rendition, including British residents Bisher Al-Rawi and Binyam Mohamed, for having organised the flight plans at the various stages of their torture ordeal, was back in the courts this month. The case, brought in 2008, was dismissed as the Bush and then the Obama administrations used the state secrets privilege, citing national security as a concern, to prevent any secrets involving illegal behaviour by the intelligence agencies coming to light, making it impossible for the case to be heard. Following the case being dismissed by the appeal courts, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought it before the Supreme Court to consider whether or not the government could rely on the state secrets privilege to prevent the case being heard. The Supreme Court said that the government could rely on it and effectively prevented the case being heard.
Amnesty International has produced the following document about the ruling:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/044/2011/en
A group of Polish and international human rights NGOs are calling on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to raise the issue of CIA secret prisons in the country and to cooperate in providing information when the two men meet as part of President Obama’s on-going visit to Europe:
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2011_05_27_Poland_CIA_Obama_Tusk
LGC Activities:
Four people attended the May Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration. This month’s demonstration is on Friday 3 June at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch, Hyde Park).
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225756180784961#!/event.php?eid=215457011811523
Various events took place in the UK concerning Guantánamo Bay and prisoners held there to coincide with President Obama’s first state visit on 24-26 May. Amnesty International sent the following letter to Prime Minister David Cameron on 20 May asking for him to raise Shaker Aamer’s case personally with President Barack Obama: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19465
On the day before the visit, Monday 23 May, Maria Gallestegui from Peace Strike delivered a petition to Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister to raise the cases of Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and call for the closure of Guantánamo. On the first day of the visit, activists from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign and others greeted Obama outside Buckingham Palace with a colourful demonstration: http://www.demotix.com/news/702759/protests-take-place-president-obama-visits-buckingham-palace
On the second day of the visit, the London Guantánamo Campaign and Peace Strike continued the protest outside Parliament with a six-hour long vigil calling for Guantánamo’s closure.
The London Guantánamo Campaign also sent a letter to the Guardian and Independent newspapers for publication on the first day of the visit, which was overlooked. It was signed by over 50 individuals and organisations, including former prisoners, politicians and leading lawyers: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/05/unpublished-letters-from-obamas-visit.html
The London Guantánamo Campaign also had the following comment piece published in Open Democracy expressing what we believe the British government should now be doing and telling the US government: http://www.opendemocracy.org.uk/ourkingdom/aisha-maniar/guantanamo-bay-shadow-cast-over-special-relationship
If you have not yet added your name to the open letter to President Obama about Shaker Aamer, please do: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/03/sign-our-open-letter-to-president-obama.html
If you have not yet asked your MP to sign EDM 1093 on Guantánamo Bay, we urge you to do so: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1093
The London Guantánamo Campaign and Kingston CND will be organising a rally in Trafalgar Square on 26 June to mark international day in support of victims of torture. We hope you can join us: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225756180784961#!/event.php?eid=225756180784961
Photos courtesy of Peace Strike and Radfax
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Unpublished letters from Obama's visit to the UK
With its focus on the dress sense of Mrs Obama and the Duchess of Cambridge, the media quite literally skirted around important issues of joint US-UK concern, such as Guantánamo Bay, when US President Barack Obama visited London on his first official state visit on 24-26 May.
The following letter sent to the Guardian and Independent newspapers and signed by over 50 prominent individuals, including former Guantánamo prisoners, politicians and leading lawyers, as well as organisations, was overlooked for publication:
President Obama’s visit to the UK offers this government a unique opportunity to demand the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the release and return to this country of two men still held there with links to the UK. Ahmed Belbacha, who formerly resided in the UK, was cleared for release over four years ago and is at risk of forced return to Algeria, where his life would be in danger. UK resident Shaker Aamer, who has a British wife and children, has been imprisoned without charge for close to a decade. The latter's case has been raised with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by William Hague and Nick Clegg, but apparently to no avail.
The time has come for David Cameron to take an unequivocal stand by addressing these issues head on with the US president during his visit to the UK.
Signed: Daniel Viesnik, London Guantánamo Campaign; Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London; Bruce Kent; Louise Christian, Christian Khan Solicitors; Andy Worthington; Ray Silk, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign; John Pilger; Sarah Ludford, Lib Dem MEP for London; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; John McDonnell MP; Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, Bindmans LLP; Ruhul Ahmed and Tarek Dergoul, former Guantánamo prisoners; Kika Markham; Omar Deghayes, Legal Director, Guantánamo Justice Centre; Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Professor Bill Bowring, Research Fellow, University of Essex; Natalia Garcia, Tyndallwoods Solicitors; Tayab Ali, Irvine Thanvi Natas Solicitors; Liz Davies, barrister and Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers; Anjum Anwar, Dialogue Development Officer, Blackburn Cathedral; Professor Mark McGovern, Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Edge Hill University; Faisal Hanjra, Assistant Secretary General, MuslimCouncil of Britain; Sultan Sabri, Surrey Solicitors; Salma Yaqoob; Lord Ahmed of Rotherham; Councillor Jonathan Bloch Lib Dem Councillor for Muswell Hill, London Borough of Haringey; Estella Schmid, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities; Maryam Hassan, Justice for Aafia Coalition; Richard Haley, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities; Katherine Craig, Christian Khan Solicitors; Sarah McSherry, Christian Khan Solicitors; Maria Gallastegui, Peace Strike; Darren Johnson, Green London Assembly Member; Millius Palayiwa, Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, England; Chris Coverdale, Campaign to Make Wars History; Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party; Simon Moore; Anita Olivacce; David Polden; Chris Cole; Noel Hamel, Kingston Peace Council; Joy Hurcombe, Brighton Against Guantanamo; Frances Webber, vice-chair Institute of Race Relations; Maya Evans; Milan Rai, Co-editor, Peace News; Sam Walton; Ismail Patel, Chair, Friends of Al-Aqsa
The following comment piece requested by the London Evening Standard newspaper was also unpublished:
Despite the great hopes of the international community following President Obama’s election to the most powerful office in the world, the Nobel peace prize winner has shown through his actions his intention to continue where his predecessor left off, dispensing with the inconveniences of international law at will. From “extraordinary rendition”, torture and indefinite imprisonment without charge in legal black holes like Guantánamo Bay and Bagram to extrajudicial executions, Obama has demonstrated the futility of hope in a genuine alternative to the reactionary tendencies of the American political elite. If Bush tarnished the standing of the United States in the world, Obama’s administration has done little or nothing to repair that damage.So, as human rights campaigners, we struggle instead for small victories, like the return to the UK of British resident Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha, previously resident in England and whose life would be at risk if returned to his native Algeria. Neither man has been charged with any crime after almost a decade of incarceration in Guantánamo. The very least the Prime Minister can do when he meets Obama this week is ask for the swift return of the two men to the UK.
Daniel Viesnik, London Guantánamo Campaign
The following letter sent to the Guardian and Independent newspapers and signed by over 50 prominent individuals, including former Guantánamo prisoners, politicians and leading lawyers, as well as organisations, was overlooked for publication:
President Obama’s visit to the UK offers this government a unique opportunity to demand the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the release and return to this country of two men still held there with links to the UK. Ahmed Belbacha, who formerly resided in the UK, was cleared for release over four years ago and is at risk of forced return to Algeria, where his life would be in danger. UK resident Shaker Aamer, who has a British wife and children, has been imprisoned without charge for close to a decade. The latter's case has been raised with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by William Hague and Nick Clegg, but apparently to no avail.
The time has come for David Cameron to take an unequivocal stand by addressing these issues head on with the US president during his visit to the UK.
Signed: Daniel Viesnik, London Guantánamo Campaign; Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London; Bruce Kent; Louise Christian, Christian Khan Solicitors; Andy Worthington; Ray Silk, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign; John Pilger; Sarah Ludford, Lib Dem MEP for London; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; John McDonnell MP; Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, Bindmans LLP; Ruhul Ahmed and Tarek Dergoul, former Guantánamo prisoners; Kika Markham; Omar Deghayes, Legal Director, Guantánamo Justice Centre; Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Professor Bill Bowring, Research Fellow, University of Essex; Natalia Garcia, Tyndallwoods Solicitors; Tayab Ali, Irvine Thanvi Natas Solicitors; Liz Davies, barrister and Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers; Anjum Anwar, Dialogue Development Officer, Blackburn Cathedral; Professor Mark McGovern, Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Edge Hill University; Faisal Hanjra, Assistant Secretary General, MuslimCouncil of Britain; Sultan Sabri, Surrey Solicitors; Salma Yaqoob; Lord Ahmed of Rotherham; Councillor Jonathan Bloch Lib Dem Councillor for Muswell Hill, London Borough of Haringey; Estella Schmid, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities; Maryam Hassan, Justice for Aafia Coalition; Richard Haley, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities; Katherine Craig, Christian Khan Solicitors; Sarah McSherry, Christian Khan Solicitors; Maria Gallastegui, Peace Strike; Darren Johnson, Green London Assembly Member; Millius Palayiwa, Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, England; Chris Coverdale, Campaign to Make Wars History; Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party; Simon Moore; Anita Olivacce; David Polden; Chris Cole; Noel Hamel, Kingston Peace Council; Joy Hurcombe, Brighton Against Guantanamo; Frances Webber, vice-chair Institute of Race Relations; Maya Evans; Milan Rai, Co-editor, Peace News; Sam Walton; Ismail Patel, Chair, Friends of Al-Aqsa
The following comment piece requested by the London Evening Standard newspaper was also unpublished:
Despite the great hopes of the international community following President Obama’s election to the most powerful office in the world, the Nobel peace prize winner has shown through his actions his intention to continue where his predecessor left off, dispensing with the inconveniences of international law at will. From “extraordinary rendition”, torture and indefinite imprisonment without charge in legal black holes like Guantánamo Bay and Bagram to extrajudicial executions, Obama has demonstrated the futility of hope in a genuine alternative to the reactionary tendencies of the American political elite. If Bush tarnished the standing of the United States in the world, Obama’s administration has done little or nothing to repair that damage.So, as human rights campaigners, we struggle instead for small victories, like the return to the UK of British resident Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha, previously resident in England and whose life would be at risk if returned to his native Algeria. Neither man has been charged with any crime after almost a decade of incarceration in Guantánamo. The very least the Prime Minister can do when he meets Obama this week is ask for the swift return of the two men to the UK.
Daniel Viesnik, London Guantánamo Campaign
Monday, May 23, 2011
PRESS RELEASE: Campaigners urge Prime Minister to press President Obama on Guantánamo during UK visit
To coincide with the first UK state visit of President Obama, supporters of the London Guantánamo Campaign [1] sporting orange jumpsuits will join a demonstration outside Buckingham Palace, organised by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, [2] on Tuesday 24 May, from 5pm, to demand the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the swift return to the UK of prisoners Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha.
Daniel Viesnik, speaking on behalf of the London Guantánamo Campaign, said: “Obama’s visit to the UK offers the Prime Minister a unique opportunity to demand and facilitate the rapid closure of Guantánamo Bay, and the release and return to the UK of two remaining prisoners with links to this country, namely British resident Shaker Aamer [3] and Ahmed Belbacha [4], who has previously resided in the UK.
“We understand that the Foreign Secretary, William Hague will once again discuss Shaker Aamer’s case with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the President’s visit. [5] Whilst we warmly welcome this, we also call upon the Prime Minister to raise our concerns with President Obama himself.
“In addition, we should follow the example of other European countries that have, on humanitarian grounds, accepted individuals who are not nationals or former residents, but are in a similar plight to Ahmed Belbacha: cleared for release but unable to return to their country of origin out of fears for their safety.
“The release of men like Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and the closure of legal black holes like Guantánamo Bay are long overdue.”
ENDS
Notes to the editor:
[1] The London Guantánamo Campaign campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.
http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com
[2] http://saveshaker.org
[3] UK resident and Saudi national Shaker Aamer, who has a British wife and children living in London, has been imprisoned without charge for close to a decade. His case was raised with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent visits to the US by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, but with no clear signs of progress.
Further information: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/shakeraamer
[4] Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian national, lived in England for two and a half years whilst seeking asylum. He was cleared for release from Guantánamo in February 2007 and is at risk of forced return to Algeria at any time, where his life and liberty would be in grave danger.
Further information: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/ahmedbelbacha
[5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13196881
Daniel Viesnik, speaking on behalf of the London Guantánamo Campaign, said: “Obama’s visit to the UK offers the Prime Minister a unique opportunity to demand and facilitate the rapid closure of Guantánamo Bay, and the release and return to the UK of two remaining prisoners with links to this country, namely British resident Shaker Aamer [3] and Ahmed Belbacha [4], who has previously resided in the UK.
“We understand that the Foreign Secretary, William Hague will once again discuss Shaker Aamer’s case with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the President’s visit. [5] Whilst we warmly welcome this, we also call upon the Prime Minister to raise our concerns with President Obama himself.
“In addition, we should follow the example of other European countries that have, on humanitarian grounds, accepted individuals who are not nationals or former residents, but are in a similar plight to Ahmed Belbacha: cleared for release but unable to return to their country of origin out of fears for their safety.
“The release of men like Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha and the closure of legal black holes like Guantánamo Bay are long overdue.”
ENDS
Notes to the editor:
[1] The London Guantánamo Campaign campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.
http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com
[2] http://saveshaker.org
[3] UK resident and Saudi national Shaker Aamer, who has a British wife and children living in London, has been imprisoned without charge for close to a decade. His case was raised with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent visits to the US by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, but with no clear signs of progress.
Further information: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/shakeraamer
[4] Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian national, lived in England for two and a half years whilst seeking asylum. He was cleared for release from Guantánamo in February 2007 and is at risk of forced return to Algeria at any time, where his life and liberty would be in grave danger.
Further information: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/ahmedbelbacha
[5] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13196881
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
LGC Action alert: David Cameron must demand Shaker Aamer’s release and closure of Guantánamo during Obama’s visit to UK (24-26 May)
Action alert: Write to the Prime Minister: David Cameron must demand Shaker Aamer’s release and the closure of Guantánamo Bay during President Obama’s visit to the UK (24-26 May)
US President Barack Obama will pay an official visit to the UK on 24-26 May. Over the past year, Shaker Aamer’s case has been raised by both Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Following the recent disclosure of prisoner files from Guantánamo Bay through Wikileaks, the government has said that Mr Hague will again raise Shaker Aamer’s case with Mrs Clinton when she accompanies Barack Obama on his visit. Gordon Brown’s government first sought his return to the UK in 2007, along with that of four other men who have since returned. Why Shaker Aamer remains at Guantánamo Bay is unclear.
The London Guantánamo Campaign believes that President Obama’s visit is an ideal opportunity for Prime Minister David Cameron to raise Shaker Aamer’s case at the highest level, to demand his release and positive action, not backtracking, by the US president to close Guantánamo Bay and release all prisoners to safety. Recent disclosures and reports show that there are no grounds, moral, legal or otherwise, for the existence of Guantánamo Bay and instead it poses a security risk to both those detained within and those outside of it. Cameron and Obama must not waste this opportunity to bring Shaker Aamer back to the UK and discuss options and actions that lead to the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay almost a decade too late.
TAKE ACTION: Write to the Prime Minister:
Write a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, raising some of the issues above and others or using our model letter below, to demand the release of Shaker Aamer, whom the government claims is the last lawful British resident in Guantánamo Bay, and the closure of the prison in talks with President Obama.
Send a copy to your MP (find them at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/)
You can write to the Prime Minister at:
10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA
And e-mail him via: https://email.number10.gov.uk/
LGC model letter (can be copy/pasted or adapted):
Dear Mr Cameron,
I am writing to you concerning your forthcoming meeting with President Barack Obama when he visits the UK later this month. President Obama has recently reneged on his promise to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, and has reverted to the dubious practices of his predecessor by authorising the resumption of trial by military commission, and signing an executive order to continue the indefinite detention of several dozen prisoners.
Both the previous UK government and your own have stated a wish to see the prison at Guantánamo closed. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “the UK believes that the indefinite detention of detainees is unacceptable and we have repeatedly called for Guantánamo Bay to be closed”. These calls have clearly fallen on deaf ears.
Shaker Aamer, a British resident whose wife and children are British citizens, remains in illegal imprisonment at Guantánamo, with no apparent explanation for his continued detention. Both William Hague and Nick Clegg have raised the matter of his repatriation to the UK with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “these discussions continue at a senior level” and the BBC reports that Mr Hague will raise this matter again with Mrs Clinton when she accompanies President Obama.
However, as heads of state, surely the time has come for you, as Prime Minister, to address these issues head on with President Obama during his forthcoming visit, to obtain the release of Mr Aamer, and the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
US President Barack Obama will pay an official visit to the UK on 24-26 May. Over the past year, Shaker Aamer’s case has been raised by both Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Following the recent disclosure of prisoner files from Guantánamo Bay through Wikileaks, the government has said that Mr Hague will again raise Shaker Aamer’s case with Mrs Clinton when she accompanies Barack Obama on his visit. Gordon Brown’s government first sought his return to the UK in 2007, along with that of four other men who have since returned. Why Shaker Aamer remains at Guantánamo Bay is unclear.
The London Guantánamo Campaign believes that President Obama’s visit is an ideal opportunity for Prime Minister David Cameron to raise Shaker Aamer’s case at the highest level, to demand his release and positive action, not backtracking, by the US president to close Guantánamo Bay and release all prisoners to safety. Recent disclosures and reports show that there are no grounds, moral, legal or otherwise, for the existence of Guantánamo Bay and instead it poses a security risk to both those detained within and those outside of it. Cameron and Obama must not waste this opportunity to bring Shaker Aamer back to the UK and discuss options and actions that lead to the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay almost a decade too late.
TAKE ACTION: Write to the Prime Minister:
Write a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, raising some of the issues above and others or using our model letter below, to demand the release of Shaker Aamer, whom the government claims is the last lawful British resident in Guantánamo Bay, and the closure of the prison in talks with President Obama.
Send a copy to your MP (find them at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/)
You can write to the Prime Minister at:
10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA
And e-mail him via: https://email.number10.gov.uk/
LGC model letter (can be copy/pasted or adapted):
Dear Mr Cameron,
I am writing to you concerning your forthcoming meeting with President Barack Obama when he visits the UK later this month. President Obama has recently reneged on his promise to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, and has reverted to the dubious practices of his predecessor by authorising the resumption of trial by military commission, and signing an executive order to continue the indefinite detention of several dozen prisoners.
Both the previous UK government and your own have stated a wish to see the prison at Guantánamo closed. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “the UK believes that the indefinite detention of detainees is unacceptable and we have repeatedly called for Guantánamo Bay to be closed”. These calls have clearly fallen on deaf ears.
Shaker Aamer, a British resident whose wife and children are British citizens, remains in illegal imprisonment at Guantánamo, with no apparent explanation for his continued detention. Both William Hague and Nick Clegg have raised the matter of his repatriation to the UK with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “these discussions continue at a senior level” and the BBC reports that Mr Hague will raise this matter again with Mrs Clinton when she accompanies President Obama.
However, as heads of state, surely the time has come for you, as Prime Minister, to address these issues head on with President Obama during his forthcoming visit, to obtain the release of Mr Aamer, and the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
Friday, April 29, 2011
LGC Newsletter – April 2011
NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
A court case brought in New York by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Justice and Accountability against a psychologist who had served in the army and at Guantánamo Bay was thrown out by the judge in early April. The case was brought to strip John F. Leso, who was not actually named in the case, of his license to work as a psychologist in New York after he was accused of developing the use of interrogation techniques in 2002 and 2003 at Guantánamo such as sleep deprivation, exposing prisoners to extremes of cold and forcing them to take liquids intravenously. The judge sympathised with the claimants and recognised that there was a moral issue but said that the case was not a matter for the courts to decide. In 2008, the American Psychological Association banned members from taking part in interrogations at Guantánamo and other similar prisons because of the likelihood of a breach of professional ethics. However, the New York board felt that it was not its place to revoke the license in this case.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP45ec354e2aa8459b90854c40432cbc77.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Having announced the resumption of military commissions for prisoners facing charges at Guantánamo Bay, the US administration announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of involvement in and masterminding attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001 will stand trial before military commission at Guantánamo Bay. The defendants may face the death penalty and the chances of them getting a fair trial, given their treatment while in detention, and the negative publicity surrounding their cases, is unlikely. President Obama had previously wanted these five men to be tried before a civilian court in New York; however, there was a lot of opposition to this move. The timing of this announcement is opportune for the American president who will shortly start stepping the campaign for re-election for a second term and comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks, which allegedly provide the rationale for the existence of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/04/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-guantanamo-military-trial
In setbacks in the US courts, three prisoners lost separate appeal cases concerning their access to the courts to challenge the grounds of their detention. All three, a Kuwaiti and two Yemenis, have been held at Guantánamo for over nine years. The judges did not give reasons for rejecting the appeals.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/04/scotus.gitmo.appeals/
In a separate case, five Uighur Chinese prisoners, who refused to be moved to Palau or other countries that were willing to accept them, lost a case for the US to consider housing them on the mainland. The US does not consider the men to pose any threat but is keen to send them to other countries which may receive them. China, in which Uighur Muslims are an oppressed ethnic and religious minority, has pressed for the men to be returned there, a move they fear, due to the harsh crackdown on and deaths of Uighurs in custody.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13123591
Former Australian prisoner, Mamdouh Habib, who came to a confidential out-of-court settlement and compensation deal with the Australian government last year, is due to start legal proceedings against Egyptian vice-president Omar Suleiman for his involvement in his torture when he was rendered to Egypt in 2001. Mamdouh Habib alleges that on at least one occasion Omar Suleiman, a senior military official and intelligence chief who has been involved in the US extraordinary rendition programme since then mid-1990s, was present while he was being tortured. Mr Habib alleges that in while Egypt he was subject to electric shocks, cigarette burns and other forms of torture. Egypt denies ever having detained him. Mr Habib is of Egyptian origin and also plans to sue the US administration. This is seen as a key case for human rights in Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Potential revelations in this case about extraordinary rendition, the involvement of other states and the outsourcing of torture could have serious ramifications for other countries.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/habib-sues-egyptian-vice-president-for-torture/story-e6frg6nf-1226039372352
Following his settlement with the Australian government, it announced that a (non-judicial) inquiry would be launched into Australia’s involvement in his torture. However, the Australian government has recently announced that some of the evidence against it will be heard in private.
Former Tunisian prisoner Adel Ben Mabrouk was deported from Italy to Tunisia on 20 April. One of two men sought by Italy on terrorism charges, he was released recently after he was convicted on lesser charges and the judge deemed that following his eight years of imprisonment at Guantánamo, he had served his sentence and it was commuted. Upon release, following the on-going unrest in Tunisia and elsewhere in the North Africa region, concerns were raised as to his safety on return to the country, however Italy decided to deport him citing public safety and national security concerns. His deportation was made under an agreement between Italian and Tunisian diplomats.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE73J2H920110420
Amnesty USA has released the following press release concerning his deportation: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE012202011&lang=e&rss=recentnews
A Saudi prisoner has been charged and faces a military commission over the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri had been charged previously but the charges were dropped in 2009. He came to Guantánamo in 2006, after having been held for over 4 years at secret detention centres around the world where he was tortured, including having been waterboarded. He was previously sentenced in absentia in Yemen for the attack. While prosecutors are likely to seek the death penalty, a conviction is unlikely due to the serious allegations of torture through which evidence was obtained.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cole-bomber-20110421,0,6793980.story
On 25 April, the Guardian, the New York Times and other newspapers published a series of over 800 files obtained from Wikileaks about Guantánamo Bay, including prisoner files for all the prisoners held there. While not essentially providing very much new information as such, the files confirm what lawyers and human rights NGOs have long been saying about the prisoners and their innocence. The files prove that many prisoners pose no threat at all, were arrested and detained on flimsy bases and often based on hearsay, children and elderly prisoners were held, and that allegations made by a handful of prisoners against others were taken as fact. The process of collecting and analysing intelligence at Guantánamo Bay was extremely poor. The files do not make much reference to torture or interrogation techniques or other jails prisoners may have been held at.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison
A press release from Reprieve:
http://reprieve.org.uk/2011_wiki_easter
Following allegations made concerning British resident Shaker Aamer, who is deemed to pose a “high risk” and is accused of being uncooperative in his assessment, the British government has said that it will once again raise his case with the Americans when President Obama visits London next month. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, who has already raised the case with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will do so again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13196881
A new report by the US-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights accuses doctors who worked at Guantánamo Bay of deliberating hiding the signs of torture in their reports and assessments. A doctor and a retired US Army medical officer, who had access to the files through their work, produced nine case studies of prisoners. In all the cases, they claim that it was impossible for doctors not to have been aware of the effects of the sustained use of torture and questionable interrogation techniques on prisoners. The doctors neglected and failed to report abuses of patients. The study recommends that, if proven, doctors involved should be struck off and face legal prosecution for neglecting their professional duty of care to patients.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-doctors-hid-signs-of-torture-at-guantanamo-2275214.html
Extraordinary rendition:
Following requests made under the Freedom of Information Act in 2008 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, following allegations made by former SAS soldier Ben Griffin of abuses committed by British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Information Rights Tribunal has ordered the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release documents relating to British involvement in the rendition of prisoners seized in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US military, who were later tortured and abused. The MoD had claimed that releasing the data would be expensive and would harm international relations. The MoD has 30 days to appeal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/18/extraordinary-rendition-uk-involvement-mod
LGC Activities:
Around a dozen people attended the April Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration held in solidarity with alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. This month’s demonstration is on Friday 6 May at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch, Hyde Park).
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=114513271963590
In response to the latest Wikileaks on Guantánamo Bay, the LGC has put together the following response: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/04/wikileaks-guantanamo-files.html
The following letter concerning Shaker Aamer and Wikileaks by the LGC was published in the Guardian on 28 April: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/28/guantanamo-travesty-justice-shaker-aamer
The LGC held a protest action in Parliament Square on 28 April. Here is a short video of the action. Many thanks to PeaceStrike for facilitating this action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EccPheIlrQ4
If you have not yet added your name to the open letter to President Obama about Shaker Aamer, please do: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/03/sign-our-open-letter-to-president-obama.html
If you have not yet asked your MP to sign EDM 1093 on Guantánamo Bay, we urge you to do so. With the latest revelations through Wikileaks, now is a good time to do so: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1093
Guantánamo Bay:
A court case brought in New York by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Justice and Accountability against a psychologist who had served in the army and at Guantánamo Bay was thrown out by the judge in early April. The case was brought to strip John F. Leso, who was not actually named in the case, of his license to work as a psychologist in New York after he was accused of developing the use of interrogation techniques in 2002 and 2003 at Guantánamo such as sleep deprivation, exposing prisoners to extremes of cold and forcing them to take liquids intravenously. The judge sympathised with the claimants and recognised that there was a moral issue but said that the case was not a matter for the courts to decide. In 2008, the American Psychological Association banned members from taking part in interrogations at Guantánamo and other similar prisons because of the likelihood of a breach of professional ethics. However, the New York board felt that it was not its place to revoke the license in this case.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP45ec354e2aa8459b90854c40432cbc77.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Having announced the resumption of military commissions for prisoners facing charges at Guantánamo Bay, the US administration announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of involvement in and masterminding attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001 will stand trial before military commission at Guantánamo Bay. The defendants may face the death penalty and the chances of them getting a fair trial, given their treatment while in detention, and the negative publicity surrounding their cases, is unlikely. President Obama had previously wanted these five men to be tried before a civilian court in New York; however, there was a lot of opposition to this move. The timing of this announcement is opportune for the American president who will shortly start stepping the campaign for re-election for a second term and comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks, which allegedly provide the rationale for the existence of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/04/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-guantanamo-military-trial
In setbacks in the US courts, three prisoners lost separate appeal cases concerning their access to the courts to challenge the grounds of their detention. All three, a Kuwaiti and two Yemenis, have been held at Guantánamo for over nine years. The judges did not give reasons for rejecting the appeals.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/04/scotus.gitmo.appeals/
In a separate case, five Uighur Chinese prisoners, who refused to be moved to Palau or other countries that were willing to accept them, lost a case for the US to consider housing them on the mainland. The US does not consider the men to pose any threat but is keen to send them to other countries which may receive them. China, in which Uighur Muslims are an oppressed ethnic and religious minority, has pressed for the men to be returned there, a move they fear, due to the harsh crackdown on and deaths of Uighurs in custody.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13123591
Former Australian prisoner, Mamdouh Habib, who came to a confidential out-of-court settlement and compensation deal with the Australian government last year, is due to start legal proceedings against Egyptian vice-president Omar Suleiman for his involvement in his torture when he was rendered to Egypt in 2001. Mamdouh Habib alleges that on at least one occasion Omar Suleiman, a senior military official and intelligence chief who has been involved in the US extraordinary rendition programme since then mid-1990s, was present while he was being tortured. Mr Habib alleges that in while Egypt he was subject to electric shocks, cigarette burns and other forms of torture. Egypt denies ever having detained him. Mr Habib is of Egyptian origin and also plans to sue the US administration. This is seen as a key case for human rights in Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Potential revelations in this case about extraordinary rendition, the involvement of other states and the outsourcing of torture could have serious ramifications for other countries.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/habib-sues-egyptian-vice-president-for-torture/story-e6frg6nf-1226039372352
Following his settlement with the Australian government, it announced that a (non-judicial) inquiry would be launched into Australia’s involvement in his torture. However, the Australian government has recently announced that some of the evidence against it will be heard in private.
Former Tunisian prisoner Adel Ben Mabrouk was deported from Italy to Tunisia on 20 April. One of two men sought by Italy on terrorism charges, he was released recently after he was convicted on lesser charges and the judge deemed that following his eight years of imprisonment at Guantánamo, he had served his sentence and it was commuted. Upon release, following the on-going unrest in Tunisia and elsewhere in the North Africa region, concerns were raised as to his safety on return to the country, however Italy decided to deport him citing public safety and national security concerns. His deportation was made under an agreement between Italian and Tunisian diplomats.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE73J2H920110420
Amnesty USA has released the following press release concerning his deportation: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE012202011&lang=e&rss=recentnews
A Saudi prisoner has been charged and faces a military commission over the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri had been charged previously but the charges were dropped in 2009. He came to Guantánamo in 2006, after having been held for over 4 years at secret detention centres around the world where he was tortured, including having been waterboarded. He was previously sentenced in absentia in Yemen for the attack. While prosecutors are likely to seek the death penalty, a conviction is unlikely due to the serious allegations of torture through which evidence was obtained.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cole-bomber-20110421,0,6793980.story
On 25 April, the Guardian, the New York Times and other newspapers published a series of over 800 files obtained from Wikileaks about Guantánamo Bay, including prisoner files for all the prisoners held there. While not essentially providing very much new information as such, the files confirm what lawyers and human rights NGOs have long been saying about the prisoners and their innocence. The files prove that many prisoners pose no threat at all, were arrested and detained on flimsy bases and often based on hearsay, children and elderly prisoners were held, and that allegations made by a handful of prisoners against others were taken as fact. The process of collecting and analysing intelligence at Guantánamo Bay was extremely poor. The files do not make much reference to torture or interrogation techniques or other jails prisoners may have been held at.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison
A press release from Reprieve:
http://reprieve.org.uk/2011_wiki_easter
Following allegations made concerning British resident Shaker Aamer, who is deemed to pose a “high risk” and is accused of being uncooperative in his assessment, the British government has said that it will once again raise his case with the Americans when President Obama visits London next month. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, who has already raised the case with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will do so again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13196881
A new report by the US-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights accuses doctors who worked at Guantánamo Bay of deliberating hiding the signs of torture in their reports and assessments. A doctor and a retired US Army medical officer, who had access to the files through their work, produced nine case studies of prisoners. In all the cases, they claim that it was impossible for doctors not to have been aware of the effects of the sustained use of torture and questionable interrogation techniques on prisoners. The doctors neglected and failed to report abuses of patients. The study recommends that, if proven, doctors involved should be struck off and face legal prosecution for neglecting their professional duty of care to patients.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-doctors-hid-signs-of-torture-at-guantanamo-2275214.html
Extraordinary rendition:
Following requests made under the Freedom of Information Act in 2008 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, following allegations made by former SAS soldier Ben Griffin of abuses committed by British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Information Rights Tribunal has ordered the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release documents relating to British involvement in the rendition of prisoners seized in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US military, who were later tortured and abused. The MoD had claimed that releasing the data would be expensive and would harm international relations. The MoD has 30 days to appeal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/18/extraordinary-rendition-uk-involvement-mod
LGC Activities:
Around a dozen people attended the April Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration held in solidarity with alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. This month’s demonstration is on Friday 6 May at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner (Marble Arch, Hyde Park).
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=114513271963590
In response to the latest Wikileaks on Guantánamo Bay, the LGC has put together the following response: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/04/wikileaks-guantanamo-files.html
The following letter concerning Shaker Aamer and Wikileaks by the LGC was published in the Guardian on 28 April: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/28/guantanamo-travesty-justice-shaker-aamer
The LGC held a protest action in Parliament Square on 28 April. Here is a short video of the action. Many thanks to PeaceStrike for facilitating this action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EccPheIlrQ4
If you have not yet added your name to the open letter to President Obama about Shaker Aamer, please do: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/03/sign-our-open-letter-to-president-obama.html
If you have not yet asked your MP to sign EDM 1093 on Guantánamo Bay, we urge you to do so. With the latest revelations through Wikileaks, now is a good time to do so: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1093
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wikileaks: The Guantánamo Files
Wikileaks and Guantánamo Bay have a curious affinity: the treatment of Bradley Manning, the Welsh American US military analyst accused of leaking confidential military data (including the 800+ Guantánamo files), has been compared to that of prisoners held at Guantánamo. In an interview as part of John Pilger’s recent documentary film The War You Don’t See, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange compared Guantánamo Bay to a tax haven, “used for laundering people […] which doesn’t follow the rule of law”. Keeping with the trade in human beings, in breaking the latest Wikileaks, The Guardian referred to prisoners being sent to Guantánamo as being “shipped".
Apart from major breakthroughs, such as discovering the alleged terrorist’s choice of wristwatch, much of what is contained in the files confirms what lawyers representing prisoners and human rights NGOs have been saying all along. They have long said that many prisoners are innocent and have not been involved in any criminal activity. What emerges is the poor use and analysis of intelligence to classify prisoners and then use this as a basis for their detention. For 172 prisoners, including British residents Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha, it continues to provide a basis almost a decade on.
The flimsy nature of the evidence demonstrates why due process and fair trials have never been an option for Guantánamo prisoners. Yet almost a decade later, it also underlines the reasons why a civilised society should not sway from such principles and why they are so essential. Much of the “evidence” is mere hearsay or supposition which for the past decade has been treated as hard fact, used to detain people indefinitely and deny them their basic rights. Had recognised legal and interrogations methods been used ten years ago, the Obama administration would probably not now be facing the dilemma it does with respect to closing Guantánamo. The ill-conceived and brutal methods used have not made anyone safer.
The Obama administration has been quick to condemn the publication of these files even though they largely relate to the Bush era and make little mention of torture and other interrogation techniques or refer to the prisoners’ experiences at other prisons such as Bagram. Indeed, the prisoners’ statements are “included without consideration of veracity, accuracy or reliability”, hence there is no need to work out whether they were obtained through torture or “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
The files reveal just how little truth and justice matter at Guantánamo and no real, defensible pretext has been given for the on-going detention of over 100 men. The latest Wikileaks aside, President Obama has recently played his part in continuing the illegality of the regime at Guantánamo Bay by choosing to resume military commissions and “legalise” the indefinite detention of dozens of prisoners. This is in addition to his broken promise to close the prison by the beginning of 2010.
The treatment of Bradley Manning, the joint US-UK national US army officer alleged to be the source of the leaks, shows the US government’s continuing and deep-rooted contempt for the rule of law. At the Quantico military prison in Virginia, where he was held until recently, Bradley Manning was said to have been kept for up to 23 hours a day in his cell in solitary confinement and only allowed to exercise for one hour with shackles on his legs.
With respect to both the Guantánamo prisoners and Bradley Manning, responsibility does not lie squarely on the shoulders of the American administration. The latest Wikileaks show the British government permitted the rendition of British nationals and residents to Guantánamo early on, despite claims by former intelligence heads and ministers that they had been misled by the US.
In its leading article on the Guantánamo files, The Independent states that “all real movement to close the camp has been abandoned”. Nonetheless, the London Guantánamo Campaign remains committed to working towards the closure of Guantánamo Bay and other prisons similar to it, and justice for the prisoners held there.
Both the US and UK governments claim that they would like to see Guantánamo Bay close, but their actions and words do not match up. With heads of both states due to meet in London next month as part of Obama’s official visit to the UK, now is a good time for both men to seriously discuss the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
Earlier this month, our monthly Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration outside the US Embassy was held in solidarity with Bradley Manning. The next demonstration, outside the US Embassy at 12pm on Friday 6 May, will be in solidarity with prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram and other similar illegal detention facilities. We invite everyone to join us and make a stand for truth and justice.
The flimsy nature of the evidence demonstrates why due process and fair trials have never been an option for Guantánamo prisoners. Yet almost a decade later, it also underlines the reasons why a civilised society should not sway from such principles and why they are so essential. Much of the “evidence” is mere hearsay or supposition which for the past decade has been treated as hard fact, used to detain people indefinitely and deny them their basic rights. Had recognised legal and interrogations methods been used ten years ago, the Obama administration would probably not now be facing the dilemma it does with respect to closing Guantánamo. The ill-conceived and brutal methods used have not made anyone safer.
The Obama administration has been quick to condemn the publication of these files even though they largely relate to the Bush era and make little mention of torture and other interrogation techniques or refer to the prisoners’ experiences at other prisons such as Bagram. Indeed, the prisoners’ statements are “included without consideration of veracity, accuracy or reliability”, hence there is no need to work out whether they were obtained through torture or “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
The files reveal just how little truth and justice matter at Guantánamo and no real, defensible pretext has been given for the on-going detention of over 100 men. The latest Wikileaks aside, President Obama has recently played his part in continuing the illegality of the regime at Guantánamo Bay by choosing to resume military commissions and “legalise” the indefinite detention of dozens of prisoners. This is in addition to his broken promise to close the prison by the beginning of 2010.
The treatment of Bradley Manning, the joint US-UK national US army officer alleged to be the source of the leaks, shows the US government’s continuing and deep-rooted contempt for the rule of law. At the Quantico military prison in Virginia, where he was held until recently, Bradley Manning was said to have been kept for up to 23 hours a day in his cell in solitary confinement and only allowed to exercise for one hour with shackles on his legs.
With respect to both the Guantánamo prisoners and Bradley Manning, responsibility does not lie squarely on the shoulders of the American administration. The latest Wikileaks show the British government permitted the rendition of British nationals and residents to Guantánamo early on, despite claims by former intelligence heads and ministers that they had been misled by the US.
In its leading article on the Guantánamo files, The Independent states that “all real movement to close the camp has been abandoned”. Nonetheless, the London Guantánamo Campaign remains committed to working towards the closure of Guantánamo Bay and other prisons similar to it, and justice for the prisoners held there.
Both the US and UK governments claim that they would like to see Guantánamo Bay close, but their actions and words do not match up. With heads of both states due to meet in London next month as part of Obama’s official visit to the UK, now is a good time for both men to seriously discuss the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
Earlier this month, our monthly Shut Down Guantánamo! demonstration outside the US Embassy was held in solidarity with Bradley Manning. The next demonstration, outside the US Embassy at 12pm on Friday 6 May, will be in solidarity with prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram and other similar illegal detention facilities. We invite everyone to join us and make a stand for truth and justice.
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