Wow!

Shami Chakrabarti on the Binyam Mohamed torture case. In England apparently, torture is still considered a bad thing! And apparently there….people opposed to state torture can actually get on TV to talk about it!

Material in a CIA dossier on Mr Mohamed that was blacked out by High Court judges contained details of how British intelligence officers supplied information to his captors and contributed questions while he was brutally tortured, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Intelligence sources have revealed that spy chiefs put pressure on Mr Miliband to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution, or to jeopardise relations with the CIA, which is passing them “top notch” information on British terrorist suspects from its own informers in Britain.

Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was picked up in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. All terror charges against him were dropped last year.

More background info on what could be a very important case here.

The LA Times has a related editorial on the issue of state secrets privilege. Their conclusion is well worth repeating…

But what’s clear is that the government should not be permitted to kidnap and torture and then simply declare those heinous activities to be “state secrets” and off-limits for discussion.