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binyam mohamed

House Votes To Stay In Afghanistan, Chalabi De-Baths Again, MI5 Hides in Court by: AmericanRiverCanyon Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 19:05:41 PST Four War on Terra stories for a Wednesday afternoon: 1. The House of Representatives just voted No on a resolution to direct the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan within 30 days, or by Dec 31, 2010 if a later date is safer.  65 to 356.  H Conn RES 248 was sponsored by Dennish Kucinich of Ohio and had 19 co sponsors.     http://clerk.house.gov/evs/201... Patrick Kennedy (D, RI) is down as a NO vote inspite of this story on HuffPo where he yells at the MSM for not paying attention to this national debate.   "We're talking about war and peace, $3 billion, 1,000 lives and no press! No press !"  WTF?  No vote, dude!  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... The Yes on withdrawal votes were as follows.  We thank the 5 Republicans who also voted for this (marked with ••). Baldwin ••Campbell, John, CA 48 Capuano Chu Clarke Clay Cleaver Crowley Davis (IL) DeFazio Doyle ••Duncan John TN- 2 Edwards (MD) Ellison Farr Filner Frank (MA) Grayson Grijalva Gutierrez Hastings (FL) Jackson (IL) Jackson Lee (TX) ••Johnson Timothy  (IL- 15) Johnson, E. B. ••Jones Walter NC -3 Kagen Kucinich Larson (CT) Lee (CA) Lewis (GA) Maffei Maloney Markey (MA) McDermott McGovern Michaud Miller, George Nadler (NY) Napolitano Neal (MA) Obey Olver ••Paul, Ron, TX 14 Payne Pingree (ME) Polis (CO) Quigley Rangel Richardson Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Schakowsky Serrano Speier Stark Stupak Tierney Towns Tsongas Velázquez Waters Watson Welch Woolsey There's More... :: (3 Comments, 1027 words in story)

British Judge: Gov Can't Hide Torture of Binyam M. by US by: AmericanRiverCanyon Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 16:02:49 PST ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) A British Court of Appeals has ruled against the Foreign Secretary David Milliband, that the British government can no longer refuse to disclose what MI5 knew about the torture of Binyam Mohamed while in US custody, according to an article published today in the Guardian UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl... UK Foreign Secretary Milliband concured with the ruling only because of previous disclosures in a US Court, which would then preserve the "control principle" of one country doesn't turn loose intelligence without the cooperation of the other, if they share intelligence. "The foreign secretary spoke last night to Hillary Clinton. He stressed to her that the court had strongly supported the control principle and would have agreed with HMG [her majesty's government] had it not been for the Kessler judgment in the US court last December, which had effectively disclosed the material in the seven paragraphs. An MI5 officer known only as Witness B is being investigated by the Metropolitan police over his alleged role in questioning Mohamed incommunicado in a Pakistan jail. Mohamed was detained in 2002 in Pakistan, where he was questioned incommunicado by an MI5 officer. The US flew him to Morocco, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, where he says he was tortured with the knowledge of British agencies. The 7 paragraphs that the British Government were trying to hide are below, below the fold.  As noticed by commenters under another story at FDL, there are 2 dates.  The date in the Guardian story says 17 May 2002 in the first paragraph.  The date in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dot gov dot uk site, has the date as 17 May 2001, with a disclaimer that "we have alerted the Court to a typographic error."   Oh, those pesky typos. What's a year, here or there ?   ask Bush & Cheney. There's More... :: (3 Comments, 1585 words in story)

Guantanamo Torture Document {UpDated} by: jimstaro Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 04:21:09 PST (9 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck) The following is just coming across the wires here. This is about an ongoing battle to get top secret records on the torture of prisoners at Gitmo and probably other secret jails that were used as we were grabbing so called terrorists all over and most not caught on some "in theater battle field". This is just on one British citizen who was Ethiopian born and grabbed in 2002 in Pakistan, not Afghanistan nor Iraq. And this is only seven short paragraphs on his, Binyam Mohamed's, treatment while in U.S. custody and incommunicado with anyone thousands of miles from home and family.   There's More... :: (6 Comments, 625 words in story)

Stonewalling of Torture Evidence in Britain by: SuperBowlXX Tue Dec 15, 2009 at 12:46:00 PST ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) A couple of months ago, the British High Court ruled that a document containing information on the torture of Binyam Mohamed should be disclosed in full.  The original document supposedly contains seven paragraphs which describe the brutal methods used to interrogate Mohamed, including waterboarding and slicing his genitals with a scalpel. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary who has been resisting the High Court's efforts to release the document, now describes the decision as irresponsible. David Miliband accused the two senior judges of irresponsibly "charging in" to a diplomatically sensitive area over what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed while held by the Americans in Pakistan. Jonathan Sumption QC, appearing for the Foreign Secretary, told the Court of Appeal the judges' stance was "both, in many respects, unnecessary and profoundly damaging to the interests of this country." Mr Sumption added: "I would go so far as to say their views were irresponsible." There's More... :: (4 Comments, 847 words in story)

UK lawsuit to expose CIA role in "ghost flights" by: MinistryOfTruth Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 07:31:33 PDT ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) Crossposted at Daily Kos         We are about to learn exactly what was going on and where under the Bush/Cheney "Extra-ordinary" rendition program.     Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed, who spent some seven years in US custody, five of them at Guantanamo, say that Jeppesen UK, a subsidiary of Boeing, has agreed to the presentation of evidence about the "ghost flights" it allegedly operated for the CIA - off-the-grid private jets that transferred terrorist suspects to sites where they would be tortured. rawstory.com    Binyam Mohamed, if you recall, had his genitals mutilated by either the CIA or one of the host countries where he was tortured.    Mutilating genitals.     What could possibly justify genital mutilation, or even the torture program itself? It's not like the Bush/Cheney Administration was above bald faced lying to us. In my opinion they did it because they can.     The Object of Torture IS Torture.     The Object of Power IS Power. There's More... :: (8 Comments, 948 words in story)

Torturers To Binyam: "We're going to change your brain" by: Valtin Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 23:58:38 PDT (noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck) David Rose at the British paper The Mail got the scoop that was former Guanatanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed's "world exclusive" post-release interview. Entitled "How MI5 colluded in my torture: Binyam Mohamed claims British agents fed Moroccan torturers their questions", the article presents a brief biography of Mr. Mohamed's troubled life, including the experience of racial prejudice in the United States (Binyam is Ethiopian-born), abandonment by his father, and later the adoption of his mother's religion, Islam. But the article's most sensational sections describe his torture by Pakistani, Moroccan, and U.S. officials, who all the while were in collaboration with British intelligence services, who not only were feeding them questions, but also withholding exculpatory evidence as well. The torture was horrendous: There's More... :: (22 Comments, 1588 words in story)

From DoJ to CIA: Wiretapping, Torture, Stonewalling & Obstruction of Justice by: Valtin Tue Mar 03, 2009 at 08:17:31 PST ( - promoted by buhdydharma ) Two stories from today's news highlight the hubris of the U.S. executive branch as regards its assumed right to conduct unrestrained surveillance of its citizens, and engage in torture in violation of all laws. Both Emptywheel at Firedoglake and Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com have done a stellar job tracking the Cheneyesque descent (H/T EW) of the Obama Justice Department when it comes to the question of executive privilege over classified material, especially when it comes to the courts. We already have witnessed the spectacle of the U.S. pressuring a British court on the suppression of documents in the Binyam Mohamed case. There's More... :: (2 Comments, 1945 words in story)

Under Oath, MI5 Officer Reveals Official British Torture Program by: Valtin Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 00:39:03 PST (noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck) The UK Guardian, which has been right on top of the Binyam Mohamed drama unfolding in the British courts, delivered another bombshell article this morning in London. "Whitehall devised torture policy for terror detainees," the headline reads, "MI5 interrogations in Pakistan agreed by lawyers and government." The British High Court resumed their hearing of Binyam's request for documents to prove his torture, as part of the legal proceedings against him at Guantanamo. Previously, the British judges had ruled that what they called "powerful evidence" suppressed relating to the torture of Mohamed by the U.S. and their proxy torturers in Morocco, where Mohamed had been sent as part of the Bush Administration's policy of "extraordinary rendition." The judges then revealed that they had been told by the British Foreign Minister, David Milibrand, that the requested documents could not be released, or U.S.-UK intelligence relations would be affected. There's More... :: (3 Comments, 682 words in story)

Scott Horton: Yes, They Hid Torture Evidence from Obama by: Valtin Thu Feb 12, 2009 at 23:43:39 PST (noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck) Scott Horton has followed up on the UK Guardian story, which I also wrote on last night, describing how Reprieve attorney Clive Stafford Smith, whose organization is helping defend Guantanamo detainee and British resident Binyam Mohamed, had information he was sending to President Obama on Mohamed's torture censored by the U.S. Department of Defense. At Daily Kos, a number of readers were incredulous at the claims I, and by implication, Stafford Smith was making about Obama being kept out of the information loop, suggesting that I was prone to conspiracy theories, or a dupe for grandstanding by Mohamed's attorneys. Some suggested either the Guardian or myself or both had completely misunderstood the situation. But Horton, who has been following this story carefully, and is known to have excellent sources, reported on the Guardian article much as I had, and added this: There's More... :: (8 Comments, 920 words in story)

Breaking: Pentagon Hiding Torture Evidence from Obama by: Valtin Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 15:51:24 PST (If I were president, I'd be pissed. - promoted by Magnifico) In a shocking revelation just posted at UK Guardian, Binyam Mohamed's attorney Clive Stafford Smith, who is also director of the legal charity Reprieve, reports that "substantial parts" of a memo, attached to a letter to Barack Obama, documenting evidence of Mohamed's torture at the hands of CIA agents and their extraordinary rendition proxies, were blanked out so the president could not read them. Who did that? US defence officials are preventing Barack Obama from seeing evidence that a former British resident held in Guantánamo Bay has been tortured, the prisoner's lawyer said last night, as campaigners and the Foreign Office prepared for the man's release in as little as a week.... Stafford Smith tells Obama he should be aware of the "bizarre reality" of the situation. "You, as commander in chief, are being denied access to material that would help prove that crimes have been committed by US personnel. This decision is being made by the very people who you command." Smith's letter to Obama can be read here (PDF). There's More... :: (20 Comments, 1203 words in story)

Obama Dishes Up A Cup Of Same Old Same Old by: davidseth Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 08:29:40 PST (6 pm. - promoted by ek hornbeck) cross-posted from The Dream Antilles What a colossal disappointment.  Remember when Barack Obama was going to severely curtail the use of the "state secrets" doctrine, throw the windows open, and let the sun shine in, dispersing Bushco's unnecessary secrecy?  Forget about it.  That was just eyewash. Yesterday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit the Obama Justice Department astonished the three judge panel by sticking with Bushco's "state secrets" argument in the case of Binyam Mohamed.   There's More... :: (31 Comments, 660 words in story)