An article in The Independent newspaper on 6 May stated that MI5 tried to hire British nationals and residents at Guantánamo Bay and other American-run jails by offering to have them released and secure their return home if they agreed to work for them: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exposed-mi5s-secret-deals-in-camp--xray-1679884.html Money and freedom were offered to detainees and former British nationals and residents who reported being visited by MI5 agents in Guantánamo Bay, Pakistan and Afghanistan. An article published later in The Daily Mail stated that MI5 sent a Muslim agent into the Moroccan jail Binyam Mohamed was held at to persuade him to become an informant for the security services: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1183183/MI5-used-Muslim-007-turn-British-torture-victim-Moroccan-prison.html He was told that his torture would stop if he gave information to the British security services. A British national of Moroccan origin, the agent was known to Binyam before he travelled to Pakistan and had allegedly agreed to become an informant while being held at Bagram, for which reason he was not sent to Guantánamo Bay.
On 8 May, the High Court in London decided to reopen its judgment of February 2009 in the Binyam Mohamed torture case, stating that documents the government has about its involvement in the torture and rendition of Binyam Mohamed should remain secret in the interest of national security. However, following an admission by the Foreign Secretary in this case shortly after the February judgment of having misled parliament and lied about the threat to national security, the case has been reopened and Mr. Miliband will be given one more chance to disclose the evidence he has. The court may otherwise choose to force the government to make these documents public. The hearing of the case started on Friday 22 May. Judgment is expected to be made in June.
Guantánamo Bay:
On 15 May, President Obama announced, following a four month suspension, that he would be resuming military trials at Guantánamo Bay. The suspension was to allow a review of the system. The re-introduction of the commissions comes shortly after relevations about the torture techniques used during interrogations at Guantánamo Bay. After seven years of abuse, arbitrary detention and evidence obtained through torture, it is highly unlikely that any detainee will receive a fair trial and few are likely to be fit to stand trial in any case; detainees have consistently been denied independent medical care. The alternative was to use the civil court system. President Obama has, however, introduced some small changes which he insists will make them acceptable and “more” in line with the US justice system. Some of these changes include a ban on evidence obtained through torture (“harsh interrogation techniques”), restrictions on the use of hearsay evidence and greater choice for defendants in picking their military lawyer. All of these are standard requirements of a fair trial. As few detainees have ever been charged, these tribunals will only affect a minority of them.
On the same day, the second detainee to be released from Guantánamo Bay since Obama became president arrived in France. Algerian-born Bosnian Lakhdar Boumediene whose release was ordered along with that of five other Bosnians last year by a federal judge was not allowed to return to Bosnia by the government there and cannot return to Algeria. France accepted him as part of a token gesture it had made by offering to take one detainee. Mr. Boumediene will be joined in France by his wife and children. Treated in hospital upon his arrival in France, Mr. Boumediene is expected to be subject to restrictions to his freedom of movement.
A Tanzanian detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, accused of involvement in the bombing of a US Embassy in East Africa in 1998, will be the first Guantánamo detainee to stand trial in a US civilian court. Mr. Ghailani is alleged to have confessed at a closed hearing in Guantánamo Bay in 2007 to having admitted to delivering the explosives used in the bombing. However, he claims that he did not know about the attack beforehand. His case is likely to be seen as a test case for trying Guantánamo detainees in the US court system.
On 21 May, the US Senate voted overwhelmingly to reject President Obama’s plans to close Guantánamo Bay and to approve funds to close the prison camp. Requests have been made, particularly by Republicans, for a detailed plan for closure before approving and releasing any funds. In a landmark speech on the same day, in which he admitted that the torture (“enhanced interrogation techniques”) used by the Bush administration “undermined the rule of law” and described Guantánamo Bay as a “misguided experiment”, Obama sparred with former Vice President Dick Cheney who strongly defended the policies of the Bush adminstration and argued for the continuation of detention at Guantánamo Bay. Although Obama, a trained lawyer, pointed out the illegality of Guantánamo Bay and the treatment of detainees there, even under US domestic law, and with Dick Cheney providing a perfect foil, he failed to mention the failings of the system under his own adminstration. President Obama condemned torture but did not mention the ongoing use of the extraordinary rendition programme. More particularly, he proposed that detainees who could not be returned to their countries of origin may be held at “supermax” prisons indefinitely on the US mainland, in many cases after prosecution in a civil trial. This was met with huge disapproval by Republicans fearing the transfer of detainees to the US. Obama perpetuated the myth of the Bush administration that the detainees at Guantánamo Bay are “terrorists” even though they have not faced prosecution in a terrorism trial to ascertain the truth of that claim. According to the Pentagon, one in seven detainees released from Guantánamo Bay have “returned to terrorism”. This is unsubstantiated and proves that in spite of steps away from the practices of the previous adminstration, in key aspects, Barack Obama is following keenly in the footsteps of his predecessor; the US courts have not changed their position and have continued to uphold the constitutional rights of detainees to know the reasons for their detention and to not allow “national security” to provide an excuse to protect companies involved in extraordinary rendition. On the other hand, the adminstration of President Obama has sought to protect companies like Boeing and to continue to deny prisoners at Guantánamo and Bagram the right to know why they are being detained.
Hailed as a positive speech by many commentators, Obama’s speech sets another obstacle to seeking freedom and justice for the Guantánamo detainees. In essence, he proposed shutting Guantánamo Bay only to open up another front in the arbitrary detention of these prisoners. While he stated that the existence of Guantánamo Bay has compromised the safety of the American public, it has also greatly compromised the safety of the men held there, whose involvement in the crimes imputed to them have not been proved. Many of those who cannot return home are now at risk simply for having been spuriously associated with terrorist organisations by the American authorities. The Uighur detainees, for example, were alleged to have links to anti-government groups in China. While this has now been disclaimed, having been tainted by these claims, they cannot return to their homes and families. Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian resident from Bournemouth, was cleared for released in February 2007 but has spent over two years in Guantánamo Bay as he cannot return to Algeria; he had come to Britain in the first place as an asylum seeker fleeing Islamists who wanted to kill him for working for a State-run agency during the civil unrest there and would now be at risk from the government too, due to his alleged links to terrorist organisations abroad. Most of the detainees currently held at Guantánamo are “refugees”: men who cannot return home due to the existence of Guantánamo Bay and their association with it. With just under seven months to close down Guantánamo Bay, however, the burden is not on the Obama adminstration alone and with the alternative appearing to be transfer to a “supermax” facility in the US or Bagram, it is now up to the whole international community, which has been complicit by turning a blind eye to this international abuse of the rule of law among others, to act to prevent this chapter in world history from not being closed but merely swept below the radar. Countries, like the UK, which has used the existence of Guantánamo Bay to legitimise its own practice of detention without trial, again mainly for non-British people, must take action to help their American allies uphold the rule of law by accepting some of these homeless and stateless prisoners. After seven years of inaction, it is the very least they can now do.
LGC Activities:
The LGC monthly “Shut Down Guantánamo!” demonstration outside the US Embassy was held on Friday 1 May. Five people attended. This month’s demonstration is at 6-7pm on Friday 5 June. Join us and call on President Obama to close down Guantánamo Bay and release ALL of the current prisoners to safety. After seven years of confirmed torture and abuse but unsubstantiated allegations against them, there is little, if any, chance of a fair trial for any detainee.
Forthcoming actions for the last two remaining British residents in Guantánamo Bay – Shaker Aamer from Battersea and Ahmed Belbacha from Bournemouth – will be announced shortly. Watch this space!
With increasing allegations of British involvement in torture and extraordinary rendition, the LGC also urges everyone to write to their MP and the Foreign Office to seek an inquiry into the UK’s role in these international crimes. Please find attached more information and a model letter.
On 21 February 2008, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted in the House of Commons that two “rendition” flights carrying detainees to Guantánamo Bay had stopped off to refuel at the American military base on the British-administered island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Foreign Secretary further stated that each plane carried a single detainee who did not leave the plane, and that the US had assured the UK that no
On 21 February 2008, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted in the House of Commons that two “rendition” flights carrying detainees to Guantánamo Bay had stopped off to refuel at the American military base on the British-administered island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Foreign Secretary further stated that each plane carried a single detainee who did not leave the plane, and that the US had assured the UK that no
The London Guantánamo Campaign held a parliamentary meeting on 25th February with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Guantánamo Bay, “Diego Garcia: A Year On”, to mark the first anniversary of the Foreign Secretary’s admission of British involvement in extraordinary rendition:
The London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes the return of Binyam Mohamed to the UK. His return is long overdue, and we applaud the Foreign Office for taking steps to bring it about. We hope that he will now be given every assistance to enable his recovery from his ordeal, and to reclaim his life.
Sunday 11 January 2009 marked seven years of lawlessness, torture, abuse, arbitrary detention and all the extralegal excesses committed by the Bush administration in the name of the “war on terror” as the detention and torture camp at Guantánamo Bay “celebrated” its seventh birthday.
Kicking off a weekend of actions around London to mark the seventh anniversary of the opening of the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2002, the London Guantánamo Campaign held an evening of words and film in solidarity with the last Londoner in Guantánamo Bay, Ladbroke Grove resident Binyam Mohamed on Friday 9 December.
Seven years of… Torture…waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, sexual humiliation Arbitrary detention…with no clear end in sight Detention without trial… no access to justice Seven years of Guantánamo Bay
What are Obama and Brown doing about it? And what are YOU doing about it? On Sunday 11 January 2009, at 3-5pm the London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to join us at a demonstration to mark this sad anniversary, outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London, W1A 1AE (nearest tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch)
Speakers include: Andy Worthington (journalist) Jean Lambert (Green MEP) Bruce Kent (Pax Christi) Imam Shakeel Begg (Lewisham Mosque) Mohammed Yahya (hip hop artist) And many others… For more details, please email
or call 07809 757 176
Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign www.guantanamo.org.uk No more anniversaries – Shut It Down!
On 4 November 2008, the American people will go to the ballot boxes to vote for a new president, heralding a change for the first time in 8 years. Pitched against each other in a battle of words, both the main candidates have stated their commitment to change and to closing down Guantánamo Bay. The messages given out to the American people and the international community on the issue of US foreign policy has been more of a mixed bag.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (American Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776)
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. (J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762)
McDonald's at Guantánamo: McTorture and Freedom Fries on the menu!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We invite you to join us on 4 July 2008, in solidarity with Binyam Mohamed, a victim of CIA abduction, torture and illegal detention, and now the last Londoner still detained in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam currently faces the prospect of the death penalty in a kangaroo court. His rights and freedoms have been trampled on by the US state, and we demand his freedom and that of other victims of US neo-imperialist policies.
We invite you to share food and your thoughts on freedom with us. Much cherished but much undermined in our times, isn't it time we declared independence from the undemocratic and oppressive structures of rule in the US, UK and EU, and the aggressive large corporations whose sole interests they promote? We think so, and through this simple act of sharing food in public, we hereby call upon the good, free people of the world to show a better way, a new way forward for us all and all our freedoms.
Please join us for our picnic with the London Guantánamo Campaign (regularly demonstrating outside the US Embassy on Friday evenings) and others, in Grosvenor Square, WC1 (nearest tube: Bond Street), from 6-8pm on Friday 4 July, or why not hold your own? Your freedom or theirs?
Project 2012 is a grassroots coalition aiming for human rights compliancy and a democratic EU by 2012.
Declare your independence and reclaim your freedom! Best wishes Project 2012 and the London Guantánamo Campaign
Please call Mark for more details 07854 390 408 or email
Please call Mark for more details 07854 390 408 or email
We invite you to share food and your thoughts on freedom with us. Much cherished but much undermined in our times, isn't it time declared independence from the undemocratic and oppressive structures of rule in the US, UK and EU, and the aggressive large corporations whose sole interests they promote? We think so, and through this simple act of sharing food in public, we hereby call upon the good, free people of the world to show a better way, a new way forward for us all and all our freedoms.
We invite you to share food and your thoughts on freedom with us. Much cherished but much undermined in our times, isn't it time declared independence from the undemocratic and oppressive structures of rule in the US, UK and EU, and the aggressive large corporations whose sole interests they promote? We think so, and through this simple act of sharing food in public, we hereby call upon the good, free people of the world to show a better way, a new way forward for us all and all our freedoms.
A Panel Discussion and Q&A on the CIA’s Extrajudicial Programme of Extraordinary Rendition with
Zachary Katznelson, Legal Director, Reprieve Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers Gareth Peirce, Birnberg Peirce Solicitors
On Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 7-9pm At Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LS (nearest tube: Holborn)
Introduced in 1995 by Bill Clinton’s administration, the use of the CIA’s extralegal system of extraordinary rendition has accelerated since 2001 and has resulted in the kidnap, transfer to third countries and torture of tens of thousands of individuals. Covering a global network of secret prisons and places such as Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, detainees are held incommunicado and without access to legal or medical professionals. A system of detention and cruel and inhuman forms of punishment has grown up outside of the known confines of international law, leaving detainees vulnerable and exposed to the caprices of their captors and without access to due process, even after their release. With international complicity, including that of the British government, a whole new system of lawlessness has come into being and has been sanctioned by international silence. Come and learn more from lawyers who have represented individuals caught up in what the Council of Europe has described as the “spider’s web” of “detentions and transfers” with the “collusion” of its members.
Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign and Peace and Justice in East London Supported by Reprieve, Public Interest Lawyers, the Association of Muslim Lawyers and the Students Human Rights Programme (UCL)
This is a free event, however as spaces are limited, please contact Aisha on 07809 757 176 or email
to book your place.
London Campaign
