Guantánamo news: The most important news from Guantánamo this month, relating to the United Kingdom, concerns the practice of extraordinary rendition. Extraordinary rendition is the illegal CIA practice by which individuals are usually “kidnapped” (detained illegally) and transferred to third countries where they are tortured, as these countries are known to use such practices regularly to extract confessions (such as Morocco, Syria, Jordan, etc.). Many Guantánamo detainees have ended up there through this practice; often by having been “detained” in Pakistan, transferred to the hands of the US military and then taken to Bagram and other illegal jails in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay. British nationals and residents who have been victims of extraordinary rendition from countries other than Pakistan include Martin Mubanga (kidnapped in Zambia), Bisher El-Rawi and Jamil El-Banna (both kidnapped in Gambia). Most of the British nationals and residents claim to have been visited by British intelligence officers before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay and hence the British government has long been aware of and complicit in this practice.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles St, London SW1A 2AH
Dear Mr Miliband,
I am writing to you concerning the case of Ahmed Belbacha, who has been held at Guantánamo Bay for almost the last six years.
Mr Belbacha is a 37 year old Algerian national who came to the UK in 2000 as an asylum seeker. He lived and worked in Bournemouth for over one and a half years. He then travelled to Pakistan where he was kidnapped in late 2001 and handed over to the US military. He was then taken to Guantánamo Bay where he has been held ever since. Your government has refused to make representations for him as he was a failed asylum seeker, even though he was unable to attend his asylum appeal hearing as he was in American military hands at the time.
In February 2007, Mr Belbacha was cleared for released and deemed to pose no threat by the Military Annual Review Board in Guantánamo Bay. Given that we are now in February 2008, Mr Belbacha has spent a whole year in Guantánamo for no other reason than that he has nowhere to go to. He cannot return to Algeria as his life would be at threat from the government and militias. Indeed, in an extremely unusual step, the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC has stayed Ahmed’s return to Algeria.
A viable option for Mr Belbacha would be to return to the UK. While your government alleges that it cannot help Mr Belbacha because he did not enjoy legal status in this country, I believe that the UK has a moral obligation to take the steps that are within your power to avoid him being subject to torture which would be the effect of his repatriation to Algeria. This was also a similar reason given in the past by the former government to refuse to make representations for the British residents, who have now returned to the UK following you informing the US authorities that you would allow them to re-enter the UK were they to be released. We ask you to make the same position clear to the US authorities with respect to Mr Belbacha. On his return to the UK you could reconsider Mr Belbacha’s asylum application.
The British government has voiced its concerns about the existence of Guantánamo Bay and that it should close down. You have also recently taken laudable and positive steps to bring three British residents back to the UK. You must continue with this good work and work to seek the release of detainees with links to the UK.
Urgent Action: Binyam Mohamed, 29 year old British resident in Guantánamo Bay Background:
Binyam Mohamed is a 29 year old Ethiopian who came to the UK in 1994 as an asylum seeker. He lived in Notting Hill, West London, for seven years.
In June 2001, he travelled to Afghanistan to see whether it was a “good Islamic country or not”. After 9/11, he left for Pakistan. In April 2002, he tried to return to the UK but was arrested at the airport. For the next three months, he was imprisoned by the Pakistani authorities.
In July 2002, he was transferred to American custody. The CIA flew him to Morocco where he was held for 18 months, during which time he was subject to torture and gross human rights violations. He eventually confessed to being involved in the “dirty bomb” plot targeted at the US with Jose Padilla.
In January 2004, he was rendered to Afghanistan where he was held in Kabul’s notorious “Dark Prison” for five months where he endured further torture. The Americans then took him to Bagram and then Guantánamo Bay in September 2004 where he has been held ever since.
In November 2005, he was charged with conspiring to plot terror attacks against the US; the evidence for this was procured through torture in Morocco. He had a preliminary hearing in June 2006 but his trial was halted when, later in 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that the trials were illegal.
In August 2007, the British government made representations with the American government to have five British residents, including Binyam Mohamed, returned to the UK. The British government does not believe he poses a threat.
In December 2007, three of the residents returned to the UK, with a fourth man likely to return to Saudi Arabia. Binyam was not allowed to return as the Americans consider him to still be highly dangerous and intend to prosecute him.
In recent months, Binyam Mohamed’s physical and mental health has deteriorated considerably, to the extent that he has taken to smearing the walls of his cell with his own faeces. He is suffering from severe depression.
Take action!! Binyam Mohamed has been held in Guantánamo Bay for three and a half years and has been subjected to nearly six years of abuse. No evidence of wrongdoing has been substantiated against him. Write to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the Foreign Secretary David Miliband: ¨ Tell them that Binyam Mohamed’s case is of the utmost urgency. He is close to a complete breakdown and his behaviour, including smearing his excrement on the walls of his cell, demonstrates severe depression. The British government must act on humanitarian grounds to get Binyam released immediately. ¨ Ask what they are doing for Binyam Mohamed to secure his return to the UK. At what stage are negotiations for his release and return? ¨ The British government must act on its verbal pledges to have Guantánamo Bay shut down by acting to bring men such as Binyam, who have close links to the UK, back to this country and pressuring the US government to close down this and other illegal prisons in the “war on terror”.
Sample letter: Dear Mr/Ms.
I am writing to you concerning the urgent case of a British resident held in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam Mohamed, a 29 year old British resident of Ethiopian nationality, has been held in Guantánamo Bay since September 2004 and had spent two years before that being “rendered” between illegal American jails in Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan where he was tortured into making false confessions. Due to the severe torture and abuse he has faced, Mr. Mohamed is in an extremely poor mental and physical state. A medical report commissioned by his legal representative, Clive Stafford-Smith, has shown that he is suffering from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The American psychiatrist who prepared the report has stated that he is “reaching the end of his psychological tether”. While your government has acted successfully to return other British residents from Guantánamo Bay and has sought the return of Mr. Mohamed, I am urging you to take immediate and urgent action to intervene in Mr. Mohamed’s case to have him released from Guantánamo Bay and returned to the UK now. I am calling on you to take urgent humanitarian action to prevent Mr. Mohamed’s fragile state deteriorating further. I would like to know at stage negotiations are between the British and American governments to release Mr. Mohamed and exactly what actions the British government is currently taking on his behalf. The UK has a moral and ethical obligation to do whatever it can to have Mr. Mohamed released. Your government has called for the closure of Guantánamo Bay, which is laudable, however it must also act to help close down Guantánamo Bay by allowing men like Binyam Mohamed to be returned to the UK and seek the total closure of this extralegal detention camp by the US government. I look forward to your response. Yours sincerely, Gordon Brown (Prime Minister)
Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 1AA
David Miliband (Foreign Secretary)
Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP
Foreign Secretary,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles St , London SW1A 2AH
Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary)
Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary Home Office, 3rd Floor, Peel Building 2 Marsham Street London, SW1P 4DF
Also write to your MP (contact details at www.theyworkforyou.com) and ask them to contact and bring pressure to bear on the Foreign Secretary concerning Binyam Mohamed on your behalf.
Friday 11 January 2008 marked the sixth year since the American Guantánamo Bay detention facility opened up to accommodate “enemy combatants” in the “war on terror”. Opened to detain and interrogate those deemed to be “dangerous men” involved in the 9/11 attacks and attacks on the US in Afghanistan, no one held there has ever been charged in connection with the attack on the twin towers and only one person has ever been convicted of a minor charge. Of the over 800 men who have passed through in the past six years, the vast majority have been released and returned home without charge or conviction. Five men, including three in their early twenties, have returned home in coffins – four having died in uninvestigated, suspicious circumstances and the fifth died recently of cancer.
Deemed “enemy combatants” and thus not held under recognised international law, the detainees have sustained years of arbitrary detention with no real sign of an end in sight and have been subjected to a regime of torture, sensory deprivation, abuse of their human rights and have been deprived of adequate medical and legal assistance and access to their families…without any evidence of culpability or wrongdoing.
To mark this sad anniversary, on a damp Friday across the UK, demonstrations and actions were held in many towns, including Edinburgh, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and London. A variety of actions took place in London.
Campaigners in London from the London Guantánamo Campaign and Cageprisoners focused their actions on the British government, calling on it to act to bring the two remaining British residents in Guantánamo – Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha – back to the UK, to urge the American government to close down Guantánamo Bay and to urge action by safe, third countries to accept innocent detainees who have nowhere to go upon release. In 2007, the British government took positive actions, resulting in four British residents being returned to the UK. The government must continue this course of action and back up its verbal declarations that Guantánamo must close down with concrete action.
At 11.30am, former Guantánamo Bay detainees Moazzam Begg (now a spokesman for Cageprisoners), Bisher El-Rawi, and Taher Deghayes, brother of recently released Brighton resident Omar Deghayes, headed a contingent of well-known activists to present a letter signed by prominent individuals and organisations calling for the British government to work to close down Guantánamo Bay (see the letter here). The letter also urged the government to take action to seek the release and return to the UK of British residents Ahmed Belbacha and Binyam Mohammed, the latter for whom the government has made representations but whose return was blocked by the US authorities. Having been cleared for release in February 2007 and deemed to pose no threat at all, the former has languished in Guantánamo Bay for almost a year for want of a safe country to be released to. Outside Downing Street on a rainy morning, Messrs. Begg, El-Rawi and Deghayes were joined by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, actors Joanna Lumley, Corin Redgrave and Kika Markham, Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel at Reprieve, the legal charity representing several dozen Guantánamo detainees and journalists Yvonne Ridley, Victoria Brittain and Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files. After handing in the letter, those present held interviews with the press including ITV, Al-Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Press TV, Reuters TV and the Islam Channel.
Simultaneously, the London Guantánamo Campaign organised a “statues” event at various sites all over London throughout the day. Starting off at 8am in the cold and wet at Liverpool Street Station in East London and Paddington Station in West London, groups went around various parts of east, west, north, south and central London with 1-2 people dressed in the orange jumpsuits now symbolic of Guantánamo Bay and sometimes with their heads covered in black hoods posing as human statues as other members of the group handed out leaflets and spoke to the public. Overall the public response from Londoners was positive with many people expressing surprise that Guantánamo Bay had been open for so long and showed sympathy with the plight of the detainees. Some hostility was shown by City-working folk at the ever-busy Liverpool Street Station who showed little sympathy for victims of torture.
Politicians took part in the day’s events too with Martin Linton MP (Battersea) joining the South London group as they raised awareness about local man Shaker Aamer, who is still held in Guantánamo Bay, and other detainees outside the Asda supermarket in Clapham Junction.
In East London, after attending the handing in of the letter to Downing Street, Green MEP Jean Lambert joined the East London group outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel where the public were very receptive to the campaigners and the message they were putting across. Ms. Lambert stated, in a press release issued for this event, “The British government must aid the closure of the Guantánamo Bay facility and other illegal prisons and help repatriate detainees. It is outrageous that so many have been imprisoned for so long without charge. That America has allowed this situation to continue for six years represents a complete disregard for human rights”.
The Central London group visited various sites of historic and touristic interest, taking in Downing Street, Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the City of London, the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern, mingling among both Londoners and visitors to the capital.
Campaigners on the West London route met Karen Buck MP outside her constituency office in North Kensington where she called Guantánamo Bay “an abomination and [it] should be closed down”. Karen Buck, MP for Binyam Mohammed who lived and worked in the West London area for over 7 years has agreed to meet campaigners from the London Guantánamo Campaign to work towards his release. In West London, campaigners also met individuals at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Westbourne Park who knew Mr. Mohammed.
In North London, campaigners were joined outside Brent Town Hall by several Liberal Democrat councillors. Brent, home to three former detainees – Martin Mubanga, Jamil El-Banna and Abdel Nour Sameur – has been particularly supportive of the Guantánamo detainees with local MPs taking positive action, including a sustained campaign by MP Sarah Teather to have her constituent Jamil El-Banna released and the local council passing several motions in support of the detainees and the closure of Guantánamo Bay.
The North London and West London groups joined forces outside Paddington Green Police Station, where many of the British nationals and residents have been detained upon their return to the UK, although none have been charged in Britain, before joining a demonstration outside the American Embassy organised by London Catholic Worker at 4-6pm. Around 20 people attended this vigil, including a candlelit vigil for the five men who have died at Guantánamo Bay. At 5pm, the names of all the men at Guantánamo Bay were read out, including their ages and their nationalities. This was a particularly poignant and effective moment and many passers by stopped to watch for a while at least; reading the names of those the US has effectively sought to gag and make vanish was all the more relevant outside its own embassy, showing that the injustice and repression suffered at Guantánamo Bay has not gone unnoticed elsewhere.
Over 150 people braved the weather and joined the London Guantánamo Campaign at 6-8pm in Parliament Square for a demonstration opposite the Houses of Parliament calling on the British government to act to close down Guantánamo Bay. Demonstrators were addressed by Victoria Brittain, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Andy Worthington, Gareth Peirce, Moazzam Begg, Jean Lambert MEP, Bruce Kent, Yvonne Ridley, Hugo Charlton from CAMPACC, Stewart Halforty from the Stop The War Coalition, Jackie Chase from the Save Omar Campaign in Brighton and Chris Chang, an investigator from Reprieve.
All the speakers raised important points about the continuing regime of arbitrary detention at Guantánamo Bay. Baroness Sarah Ludford stated that the detainees must be released or tried and that there could be no third way out for the US. Speakers also emphasised the point that over the last six years, it is not just the lives of the detainees that have been destroyed, but also those of their families and all those who knew them. Several speakers drew parallels with the current situation in the UK and Britain’s own Guantánamo-style regime of arbitrary detention in Belmarsh and Long Lartin as well as through control orders. Gareth Peirce and several others addressed the hypocrisy of this country in its acquiescence to what is happening in Guantánamo Bay. Prisoners at other secret prisons in the “war on terror” were also remembered as well as those Guantánamo detainees who are now effectively refugees – innocent men who cannot be released because their safety cannot be guaranteed in their countries of origin and need to find a safe third country to be sent to.
The demonstration was sung out by Chris Chang performing his rap version of Guantanamera and chanting led by Daniel Viesnik from the London Guantánamo Campaign.
The message from this day of action in the UK and other protests in other parts of the world clearly got through to the American government as on 13 January, during a visit to Guantánamo Bay, the American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said that he favoured the closure of Guantánamo due to the damage it had done to the US’s reputation.
While continuing to call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the return of Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha to the UK, campaigners hope that there will be no anniversary to mark on 11 January 2009 and that by then, Guantánamo and other American secret prisons will be confined to the waste bin of history.
Special thanks to the Green Party, Wandsworth Stop the War, We Are Change, Barnet, Enfield and Palmers Green Amnesty, Peace and Justice in East London and all the volunteers on the day.
In January 2008, there will still be over 250 detainees held in the American military detention camp in Guantánamo Bay. A legal no-man’s land, the detention camp opened its door on 11 January 2002. Initially touted as a detention camp for “enemy combatants” caught fighting the Americans in Afghanistan, it has since emerged that many of the detainees were nowhere near Afghanistan or combatants and were sold by the Pakistani military for a mere $5000. Over 800 men, of various nationalities, including 9 British nationals, have passed through its gates in the past six years. Only one detainee has ever been convicted of a minor charge, less than a handful face charges and the rest have been held arbitrarily without access to the legal process, at the whim of the US military, for almost six years. Enough is enough. Will 2008 be the year to see Guantánamo close?
The London Guantánamo Campaign, in conjunction with Cageprisoners, invites you to join us in a day of action on Friday 11 January 2008 to call on the British government to take action to help close Guantánamo Bay and bring the remaining British residents back to the UK. Recently, the British government has taken positive steps, bringing back four of the British residents to the UK in 2007 (Bisher El-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdel Nour Sameur). Like the British nationals before them, none have been charged with any offence under British law. We are calling on the British government to bring Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha back to the UK, to take positive action to help close down Guantánamo Bay and other illegal American jails in the “war on terror” for good and to assist in the repatriation of detainees who have nowhere to go on release.
The day of action will involve: A letter being handed in to Downing Street at 11am by former British detainees led by Moazzam Begg, now a Cageprisoners spokesperson, to call on the British government to take action.
In Birmingham, protesters in orange suits would meet outside the Birmingham Council on the 11th January 2008, between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm(Vistoria Square) distributing leaflets highlighting the desperate circumstances the Guantanamo detainees have been facing for six years without a properly constituted legal process that can deliver justice.
Those unable to attend the rally on friday will be able to join a vigil by the Bull Ring, in Birmingham City Centre from 1.00 pm on the 12th January 2008.
Orange Friday - Close Guantanamo 1:00 pm US Consulate, 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh In Birmingham, outside the Birmingham Council protesters will be marking the Six years of Guantanamo and collecting petitions demanding the closure of Guantanamo and return of the two known British residents still at Guantanamo to their homes in England.
Fri Jan 11 - Public Meeting: Defend Civil Liberties: six years of Guantanamo and the "War on Terror" 7:30 pm Augustine Church, George 4th Bridge For further information click here
Speakers include Aamer Anwar (human rights lawyer), Tom Leonard (poet), Shirley-Anne Somerville (MSP), Paddy Hill (one of the Birmingham 6), Noman Tahir (editor of IWitness, Scotland's Muslim newspaper)
The meeting will include readings from the recently-published book "Poems from Guantanamo - The detainees speak"
Meeting organised by Edinburgh Stop The War Coalition and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (www.sacc.org. uk) More information 07936432519
Sheffield Guantanamo Campaign will be having a vigil on Friday 11th 4.30-6pm outside the Town Hall, Pinstone Street, 4.30-6pm. The Sheffield campaigners will be getting people to sign the letter that Cage Prisoners are co-ordinating
A day-long “statues” action involving groups of people dressed in the orange jumpsuits symbolic of Guantánamo Bay visiting several sites in London on the day where one or two people will pose as human statues while others hand out leaflets about what is happening at Guantánamo Bay. There are five groups following set routes. Please contact us for more details if you would like to join a group, even if it is only for a few hours. The groups will be working through the following areas: Northwest London (Harrow, Wembley, Regent’s Park, Edgware Road), West London (focusing on Binyam Mohammed – Paddington, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Westbourne Grove), South London (focusing on Shaker Aamer, who must be allowed to return to his native Saudi Arabia – Wandsworth, Battersea, Balham), Central London (several key sites in central London) and East London (The City, Whitechapel) from 8am to 4pm. A briefing for volunteers will be held on Monday 7 January at 7pm in The Gallery, First Floor (to the right), ULU, Malet Street, WC1 (nearest tube: Euston/Euston Square). Please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved in this action.
A demonstration between 6-8pm (speeches between 6-7.30pm) in Parliament Square (nearest tube: Westminster) to call on the British government to close down Guantánamo Bay. Speakers include former detainees, politicians and celebrities. Please join us in the evening and call on the British government to take action. This is an authorised event.
Six years on, enough is enough. For more details and to get in touch, please contact the London Guantánamo Campaign on 07809 757 176 or by email
11 January 2008 marks the sixth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2002. The London Guantánamo Campaign is holding a day-long action on that day to mark this sad anniversary. Your help would be appreciated!
11 January 2008 marks the sixth anniversary of the opening of the American prison camp in Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2002. Over the past six years, over 800 detainees have passed through its gates – all hooded, shackled and transferred from other illegal American detention and torture camps elsewhere in the world. While originally touted as a detention and interrogation centre for “enemy combatants”, it was subsequently established that the majority of detainees were kidnapped and sold to the American military for a ransom of $5000; many were kidnapped in Pakistan and had never entered Afghanistan, let alone engage against the Americans. Denying international legal protection to detainees and through the practice of torture and arbitrary detention, the American military regime at Guantánamo Bay and other secret jails around the world has consistently made a mockery of human rights and humanity. Of the over 800 detainees held there, only one has ever been convicted and less than a dozen charged (including two minors).
Nine British nationals were held at Guantánamo Bay but had all been released by January 2005. Nine British residents (non-nationals with close links to the UK ) have also been held there; two have since been returned to their countries of origin and one to the UK . The return of five further men to the UK is currently being negotiated between the UK and US governments. One further detainee, an Algerian national, has been excluded from these negotiations and faces the possibility of an uncertain and dangerous future in Algeria if returned there.
Despite statements to the effect that Guantánamo Bay will close down over the last few years, this is no closer to becoming a reality. Several dozen detainees have been on hunger strike for almost a year and are being force fed by having tubes forced by their noses daily. Over the past three years, 4 detainees have died in dubious circumstances that have never been investigated.
The London Guantánamo Campaign is planning a day of action on the sixth anniversary to mark this date: Friday 11 January 2008.
The current proposed action will consist of a number of people, wearing the orange jumpsuits symbolic of the Guantánamo detainees and its regime of injustice and torture and black hoods over their faces, posing as “human statues” at various times of the day at various landmarks and places all over London; each “sighting” is to represent one of the prisoners currently being held at Guantánamo Bay, of which there are likely to be around 250- 280 in January 2008. Each “human statue” will be accompanied by several other people handing out leaflets about the regime of torture, arbitrary detention, rendition, “disappearances” and other human rights abuses in the war on terror over the past six years at Guantánamo and beyond. The day’s events will culminate in a larger action in the evening. Proposed places to hold the action include mainline railway stations, tourist attractions, areas where the British residents in Guantánamo live, etc.
Your assistance as an individual/organisation either in the planning or execution of this action is most welcome – can you help publicise this event? Raise local awareness about the sixth anniversary? Pose as a statue on the day? Are you available for a part of that day (especially if you are still on university/college holidays) to join us?
If you do not live in London and wish to hold a similar local event, please let us know.
For further information, please contact 07809 757 176 or email
All dressed up and nowhere to go on a Friday evening?
Then join the LONDON GUANTANAMO CAMPAIGN EVERYFRIDAY evening at 6-7pm outside the American Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1, to call on the American government to shut down the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay (you’ll find us outside the MAIN (not temporary) entrance to the building on the west side of Grosvenor Square) – nearest tube: Marble Arch/Bond Street – Grosvenor Square is behind Oxford Street. Five years of detention without trial or charge. No access to their families. How long can this injustice go on? Come and join us!!! Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign For more details, contact 07824 386 747 or
www.guantanamo.org.uk
Chaired by Frances Webber, barrister, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and CAMPACC
The extent of our government’s complicity in the illegal CIA rendition programme which has been responsible for the abduction of dozens, if not hundreds, of people since the mid-1990s, is matched only by the obstinacy with which it stonewalls those who seek to uncover the truth. Those who attended the meeting at Garden Court Chambers on Friday 22 June, jointly hosted by the Campaign against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), the London Guantánamo Campaign and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers together with the Bar Human Rights Committee, heard from some of the people best qualified to know what is going on in this particular front in the ‘War on Terror’.
On screen, in the film Outlawed,we heard German citizen Khaled El Masri describe his arrest while on holiday in Macedonia in December 2003 and his abduction to a US-run torture centre in Afghanistan, where he was held and mistreated for five months before being dumped on a road in eastern Europe. His subsequent legal claim in the US against the CIA and the airline which took him there was dismissed on the ground that it would involve ‘state secrets’, and the dismissal was recently upheld by the US Court of Appeal (4th circuit). The journey of the UK resident of Ethiopian nationality Binyam Mohamed from his arrest in Pakistan in April 2002, to his rendition to Morocco where he was tortured for 18 months, to further torture at two US-run sites in Afghanistan and finally to Guantánamo, was described through letters to his lawyer read on screen by his brother. In the film, a man described as the ‘architect’ of the CIA’s rendition programme revealed that it had been operating since 1995, and voiced his mild disapproval of the new (post-9/11) emphasis on heavy interrogation. In the good old days he would have had us accept rendition as an acceptable means of getting the baddies out of the way for a while. He opined that torture was counter-productive, but didn’t address the profound illegality of the whole ‘rendition’ operation.
The film was followed by contributions from Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament’s committee on extraordinary rendition; legal director of Liberty James Welch; the lawyer Clara Gutteridge of Reprieve, the legal charity representing Guantánamo prisoners; Asim Qureshi of Cageprisoners, who investigate and publicise rendition and other illegal and inhuman practices in the WOT, and Mark Muller QC of the BHRC and the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP).
The committee Sarah Ludford helped to set up had been given no teeth by the EP, and had no powers to compel the attendance of witnesses from member states believed to be involved in facilitating or allowing rendition flights, including Germany, Italy and the UK, and those believed to have hosted secret facilities, including Poland and Romania; the committee had to make do with the testimony of victims and documentary evidence. Having examined the flight logs of 1200 CIA flights across Europe, they found these closely corroborated victims’ testimony, and concluded that a number of member states had connived with the US to allow flights to cross the EU and to refuel at airports here including Prestwick. The CIA leased civilian planes to get around the legal obligations of providing notification of passengers, purpose and final destination.
A little known meeting between NATO and EU member states in 2002 which gave the US carte blanche to fly over the EU is the likely source of the authorisation of such flights.
James Welch described Liberty’s as yet fruitless attempts to persuade the British police to launch an inquiry into the UK government’s provision of logistical support for ‘torture flights’, using the UN Convention against Torture to call for an investigation into the facilitation of torture elsewhere by cooperation with the CIA. ACPO has said there is not enough evidence to justify a police inquiry. The campaign continues.
Clara Gutteridge updated the meeting about the civil suit brought by Binyam Mohamed against Jeppesen, the flight planning company known as ‘the CIA’s travel agent’, and about the limbo he and the other ‘British residents’ continue to suffer in Guantánamo. She and Asim Qureshi spoke about the close involvement of MI5 officers in the questioning of Mohamed and other rendition victims and about the role of the UK-run territory of Diego Garcia as a suspected torture site. Qureshi spoke of the massive US pressure on the administration in Bosnia to deport or remove foreign ex-fighters who settled in Bosnia after the conflict, and of the growing importance of the Horn of Africa to the US administration.
Mark Muller pointed out that “the issue of rendition did not just occur after 2001; its origins can be found in the Clinton administration and the development of a policy called ‘disruption of terrorist networks’. There were examples of “rendition” in 1996 relating to Albania and Croatia.” Mark also gave us a blow-by-blow account of one of the best publicised ‘renditions’ – that of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, whose odyssey around Europe in search of asylum ended with his capture in Nairobi followed by his abduction to Turkey. “One of the more startling forms of rendition was Abdullah Ocalan, who I represented. He was effectively kidnapped from Kenya and taken to Imrali Island which is a bit like Guantánamo Bay. It is in the Marmara Sea in Turkey where he is now incarcerated. ” He also talked about the effect of proscription on refugee communities and the importance of the work of CAMPACC in combating illegality and human rights abuses in the fight against terrorism.
Speech
Sarah Ludford MEP
22nd June 2007
Thank you to Witness US and all the non-profit organisations who produced a very moving and effective documentary on extraordinary rendition, and thankyou to the organisers of this meeting.
As the vice-chair on the temporary committee on extraordinary rendition in the European Parliament I am pleased to be able to speak to you all today on this subject. The European Parliament committee was set up in January 2006 to establish whether third countries agents (CIA or others) had carried out abductions, “extraordinary rendition”, detention at secret sites, incommunicado detention or torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners on the territory of European Union or accession and candidate countries, or had used that territory to those ends, for example through flights.
We conducted 33 sessions, organised 7 official delegations, including to the US, Romania, Poland and the UK, analysed 19 cases of extraordinary renditions with the direct participation of several victims, as well as reading and analysing thousands of pages of documents and flight logs.
The committee produced its final report earlier this year and in so doing issued a damning indictment on EU member states. The adopted report asserted that over 1200 flights operated by the CIA flew into European airspace or stopped over at European airports between 2001 and 2005. We have not suggested that all of those flights were on extraordinary rendition missions of illegally transporting detainees, but we believe some were or were linked to ‘rendition circuits’ in that they were on their way to or from rendition missions.
We stated that almost a dozen European countries had either admitted such flights or turned a blind eye. Our report accused officials of several countries (notably Italy, UK, Germany, Sweden, Austria) of active involvement in, facilitation of or failure to prevent kidnapping or extraordinary rendition. In respect of the allegations of secret prisons, the final report (after tight votes) said that ‘no definitive evidence has been provided to contradict any of the allegations concerning the running of a secret detention facility on Romanian soil’ and ‘it is not possible to acknowledge or deny that secret detention centres were based in Poland.’ But Dick Marty in his recent report for the Council of Europe has made firm statements asserting there were such CIA prisons in those countries.
We were not a court, did not have the powers of a criminal prosecutor and were not empowered or required to establish poof beyond reasonable doubt. But we heard testimony and saw corroborating facts, such as flight logs, which attested to extraordinary renditions having taken place in Europe, and it is highly implausible that governments or their agencies had no idea what was going on. We did enough in cooperation and in complementarity with Dick Marty, with national MPs and judicial inquiries, to shift the burden of proof onto national governments to show they did not collude with US human rights abuses.
The report called on the Council of Ministers and the European Commission to meet their responsibilities under European and international human rights instruments. Once allegations are no longer speculative but are shown to be credible, as has been done, then under European and international human rights instruments Member States have a positive obligation to investigate and to punish anyone responsible for human rights abuses.
Questions have been raised about 170 possible CIA rendition flights through the UK, but the UK response has been deafening by its silence, and there has been no proper UK investigation. In fact it has been the policy of this government to refuse to address the issue of rendition fully and openly. The UK’s position is that it will only grant permission for a rendition if it would accord with the UK’s domestic and international obligations. But the government’s records on rendition are wholly inadequate, being incomplete and relying on personal recollections, as evidenced by the statement of former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in December 2005. This poor quality of records assists a climate of confusion and obfuscation. It means, conveniently, that the government cannot adequately be held to account for the decisions they have taken.
The UK should support efforts within the Council of Europe and lead, not obstruct similar EU action, to adopt common measures to safeguard the rights of terrorist suspects being transported through member states territory. It should sign, as indeed all EU and Council of Europe member states should sign, the 2006 UN Convention on protection from enforced disappearance on which I put down a parliamentary question in the European Parliament. Terry Davis, the Secretary-general of the Council of Europe and of course a former Labour MP, last year made various suggestions for tightening the legal framework on control of domestic and foreign intelligence services and checks on possible rendition flights.
It is interesting – though possibly a red herring - to note that in the wake of Dick Marty’s most recent Council of Europe report, Harriet Harman has signalled her desire to have international law changed so that foreign governments are legally required to notify another country when flying prisoners through its airspace. This seems to be supporting a similar call by the all-party group on extraordinary rendition whereby every such transfer would require prior written permission and the state requesting permission would have to provide information on destination, purpose, applicable legal regime, legal safeguards in the destination state and so on. The state through which the transfer would take place would not grant permission unless the transfer was consistent with its legal obligations, including in the field of human rights.
While such moves would make the framework even clearer, every bit of the extraordinary rendition chain is of course already illegal and there is much that can be done under existing law to inspect and check flights, see for instance a House of Lords debate on July 18th 2006 in which I took part. The situation seems to be however that under a NATO decision of October 4th 2001, NATO states pledged overflight and refuelling rights in the fight against terrorism, see http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2001/s011004b.htm) and this may have set a framework which may have allowed illegality ad impunity to flourish. They agreed inter alia to:
- “provide blanket overflight clearances for the United States and other Allies’ aircraft, in accordance with the necessary air traffic arrangements and national procedures, for military flights related to operations against terrorism”; and to - “provide access for the United States and other Allies to ports and airfields on the territory of NATO nations for operations against terrorism, including for refuelling, in accordance with national procedures”.
MEPs, believing that the fine print of this key decision might be enlightening, asked both Javier Solana and the NATO Secretary-General for a copy of the full document but our request was refused. I am now gong to explore making a freedom of information request in the US for it.
What the EP report has aptly brought to light is that aspiration of the EU to be an area of security, justice and human rights is not being fulfilled. On the one hand, some Member States have not implemented EU anti-terrorism laws passed five years ago, so they do not even have a definition of terrorism and terrorists can escape conviction and imprisonment, thus the EU as a whole is not properly equipped. At the same time it is apparent on the basis of credible indications that gross human rights abuses have taken place in the name of fighting terrorism – the so-called war on terror. The EU has allowed a situation to develop where we cannot prosecute terrorists, but we can persecute terrorist suspects and deprive them of their rights.
What credibility does this give the EU at home or abroad, either for effectively combating terrorism or for upholding human rights? If anything, it gives credence to those who are already dubious of our Western values. The Council of Ministers and member states are creating a lot of hot air and rhetoric about the EU as a beacon of human rights without delivering the results.
As well as being morally objectionable, torture will never produce sound and reliable evidence, and so in turn can never be a sustainable policy for tackling terrorism. As we saw from the documentary, victims of torture will say whatever they think they need to to avoid further abuse from their torturer. Certainly, if we are looking at psychological torture, the victims may not even be aware of what it is they are admitting to.
Of course, threats to our security are threats to our freedom, but the reverse is also true. Undue infringements of our civil liberties make us less secure as individuals. The UK government, and indeed all member state governments, must be held to account for any complicity in extraordinary rendition that has already occurred and may still be occurring today.
I am glad that, as I heard just this afternoon, there will be a Commons debate in Westminster hall next Tuesday on extraordinary rendition. I will certainly continue to make my voice heard on this matter both in the European Parliament and in the House of Lords. As EU citizens, we have a legitimate right to know what practices are being conducted in our name. I for one refuse to stand idly by while Europe becomes known as a condoner of torture and inhuman treatment.
The London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes the return of Bisher El-Rawi to the UK in March 2007.
Nine men with close links to the UK remain at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, most for over five years without charge or trial.
The British government must act now to bring the remaining British residents back to the UK.
The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to a PUBLIC MEETING AND FILM SHOWING OF “OMAR DEGHAYES: THE SEARCH FOR JUSTICE” FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH: SARAH TEATHER MP VICTORIA BRITTAIN (JOURNALIST) SPEAKER FROM THE SAVE OMAR CAMPAIGN (BRIGHTON) ON SATURDAY 5 MAY 2007 AT 4-6PM AT GLADSTONE PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL, SHERRICK GREEN RD, NW10 1LB (NEAREST TUBE: DOLLIS HILL/ BUS: 226, 302/ STREET PARKING AVAILABLE)
The London Guantánamo Campaign was started up in March 2006 and is part of the National Guantánamo Coalition, a coalition of anti-Guantánamo and pro-human rights groups in Birmingham (Birmingham Guantánamo Campaign), Manchester (Manchester Guantánamo and Belmarsh Campaign) and Brighton (Save Omar Campaign). The aim of the campaign is to work towards the release of the eight British residents currently held in Guantánamo Bay in the short-term and the release of all prisoners and the closure of the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay and all secret jails in the war on terror in the long-term. We also support the families of the British residents in their campaigns. The national coalition also works with lawyers representing the British residents both in the UK and US, supporting the legal work that they do. Members of the National Guantánamo Coalition hold local events as well as joint national events.
We are rapidly approaching the fifth anniversary (11 January 2007) of the opening of the military camp in Guantánamo Bay, USA, in its current incarnation of a torture and detention without trial facility in the war on terror. Over the last five years, Guantánamo Bay had become a potent symbol of state-sponsored terror in the name of fighting terrorism and thus underlies and has a direct link to attempts to curb civil and human rights and endorse torture anywhere in the world, the UK included. Today, Guantánamo Bay, with its wire cages and orange jumpsuits, is the symbol of illegitimacy used by leaders (military and political) all over the world to legitimise their use of torture and flagrant disregard for international law and conventions and the rule of law. Guantánamo Bay is also the visible face of torture and repression in the war on the terror; there are countless other unknown detention and torture facilities throughout the world, including in Europe (EU territories) where individuals often caught up in the war on terror for the most spurious reasons end up or are transferred to if they are victims of “extraordinary rendition”.
In spite of often half-hearted verbal condemnation of illegal practices in the war on terror such as torture flights, rendition and torture, most countries are directly involved in these practices and use them as a basis to repress opposition and silence any dissent. Examples of the UK’s direct involvement in the war on terror include the “outsourcing” of torture, as in the case of Binyam Mohammed whose torture in Morocco British intelligence agents were aware of, visits by MI5 agents to the Tipton Three in Guantánamo and the use of British airports to refuel torture flights, originally denied by the government. Detention at Guantánamo Bay has had a trickle-down effect on policy in the UK and questions currently being debated in parliament such as whether “terror” detainees can be held without charge in British jails for up to 90 days would most likely not be possible were over 450 men not being held without charge for almost five years in Guantánamo Bay. The restrictions on their freedom also affect our freedom and the arbitrary, secretive nature of SIAC trials no doubt have a touch of the CSRTs (Combat Status Review Tribunal) “allowed” to Guantánamo detainees in them. ASBOs are part of the knock-on effect and the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers in British detention facilities smack of the same. The fact that ASBOs, the arbitrary detention of terror suspects and asylum seekers and other measures to curtail the freedoms and liberties of the British and non-British residents of these isles echo the largely global silence over what is happening in Guantánamo Bay. Further afield, Guantánamo Bay has given the international community the perfect excuse not to question or demand an inquiry into last year’s massacre in Andizhan, Uzbekistan. The hundreds, if not thousands of people, who have since been rounded up and detained arbitrarily, tortured and killed, remain as invisible and out of sight and mind as the 450 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay.
One of the most sinister aspects of the detention of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay has been the campaign to dehumanise them – through inhuman and degrading forms of torture, by denying them access to their families, legal and medical services and the outside world, sensory deprivation and trying to convince them through all of this that they are terrorists. This campaign is double-sided and while they are allowed little access to information about the outside world, the outside world, including their families, have little access to them. They are dehumanised in the eyes of the world as well. The fact that many of these prisoners do not speak English plays a role in this. New categories of humanity are created in which some “are more equal than others”. Indeed, many of the Guantánamo prisoners currently held there are there because no one (their country of origin in most cases) wants them. In the case of three of the British residents, Bisher El-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, all who entered the UK as refugees, the High Court upheld the government’s argument that they could not help them as they are not British citizens and having been out of UK territories for more than two years, the government has no duty towards them. That these men all have British families is quite irrelevant.
In the case of terror suspects, in the UK and abroad, and refugees, the fact that they are dehumanised makes it harder for the average person to identify with them and makes it easier for them to be criminalised. The media has a significant role to play in this perception and the court of popular opinion makes any real evidence of the true facts irrelevant. That such people are detained arbitrarily without being granted their day in court or any other platform to present their version of events means that not only is the “truth” completely one-sided but that we will never know the truth of events simply because, in most cases, the opportunity for it to be brought to light has passed. In the case of the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, in spite of the myth of the majority of prisoners having been “enemy combatants” having long been exploded (foreigners were sold by the Pakistani military to the US for a bounty of USD5000), many still question what people like Moazzam Begg and the Tipton Three were doing in Afghanistan in the first place.
The issue of dehumanisation and criminalisation cuts into the deeper vein of identity and what Britishness (or at least being English) means. How does one define a good British citizen? Someone who hold a British passport? Someone who tows the government line? The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 makes a distinction between British nationals and residents and offers an arbitrary definition of terrorism. Of course, the point here is not only to confuse foreigners and penalise them but to serve as a warning to all Britons, that should you fail to comply with the rules or dare to challenge them, you could meet a similar fate.
In the face of the strong campaign by the government and the media to dehumanise these individuals, the obvious plan of attack is to campaign to humanise them. All the organisations in the National Guantánamo Coalition actively do this. It is imperative that people know what the prisoners’ names are, what they look like and their story and that they do not get lost in the mire of being foreign, having an unpronounceable name and a story of no interest. The media can play a part in this. In NW London, where Jamil El-Banna lives, the local newspaper, The Willesden and Brent Times have started their own Justice for Dad campaign. The campaign has gained considerable support in the local area and has made local people aware of his plight. The newspaper has also worked alongside the family in their campaign and made residents in this part of London aware of their ordeal as well, particularly as Jamil has a three year old daughter he has never met as she was born after he was kidnapped and detained. The plight of others such as family members is often ignored, however raising the profile of the individual involved raises the profile of their family too, who are often suffering unspoken hardships. The support shown to them by campaigners often means a lot to the families who are isolated and ignored by those whose responsibility it is to represent them and help them.
There are absolutely lots of way of campaigning and raising the profile of these prisoners, from holding meetings and stalls to written and audiovisual materials and an Omar Deghayes festival recently held at Sussex University. The solidarity shown by other groups has also been incredibly important in campaigning for the Guantánamo prisoners. In the case of individuals whose rights are being extrajudicially abused, the law may not provide the best solution for them as it has already been circumvented. However, popular pressure and a call for their release can make all the difference; it worked for the British nationals who were held in Guantánamo for up to three years and the government has already started to shift its position.
In 2006, the situation for the remaining Guantánamo prisoners has become all the more critical. In January, Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan national who has lived in the UK since his teens and whose family live here, was returned to Uganda as the Americans did not consider him a threat. This did not prevent the Ugandan authorities from detaining him without charge for a further three months and he now has to rebuild his life without his family’s support and on a meagre income. This option is not open to prisoners like Omar Deghayes, whose family fled to the UK as refugees after the Libyan regime killed his father, and which has already promised to kill him if he returns to the country. In June, three prisoners (two Saudis and a Yemeni) were found dead in their cells; the American military claims they committed suicide as an act “of asymmetrical warfare”. No inquiry has been started into their deaths. The US has now sent two groups of prisoners to Albania; one of these groups constituted of five Uighurs, ethnic Chinese Muslims, who have no community and no support in Albania. Furthermore the Chinese government is now demanding their extradition; the Uighurs are a persecuted minority in China. The situation is worsening by the day and the prisoners’ lawyers are particularly concerned about their mental health. How much longer can we allow this detention without trial and dehumanisation of human beings to continue?
London Campaign
through in the past six years, the vast majority have been released and returned home without charge or conviction. Five men, including three in their early twenties, have returned home in coffins – four having died in uninvestigated, suspicious circumstances and the fifth died recently of cancer. 
safe, third countries to accept innocent detainees who have nowhere to go upon release. In 2007, the British government took positive actions, resulting in four British residents being returned to the UK. The government must continue this course of action and back up its verbal declarations that Guantánamo must close down with concrete action.
signed by prominent individuals and organisations calling for the British government to work to close down Guantánamo Bay (
various parts of east, west, north, south and central London with 1-2 people dressed in the orange jumpsuits now symbolic of Guantánamo Bay and sometimes with their heads covered in black hoods posing as human statues as other members of the group handed out leaflets and spoke to the public. Overall the public response from Londoners was positive with many people expressing surprise that Guantánamo Bay had been open for so long and showed sympathy with the plight of the detainees. Some hostility was shown by City-working folk at the ever-busy Liverpool Street Station who showed little sympathy for victims of torture.
8pm in Parliament Square for a demonstration opposite the Houses of Parliament calling on the British government to act to close down Guantánamo Bay. Demonstrators were addressed by Victoria Brittain, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Andy Worthington, Gareth Peirce, Moazzam Begg, Jean Lambert MEP, Bruce Kent, Yvonne Ridley, Hugo Charlton from CAMPACC, Stewart Halforty from the Stop The War Coalition, Jackie Chase from the Save Omar Campaign in Brighton and Chris Chang, an investigator from Reprieve. 
destroyed, but also those of their families and all those who knew them. Several speakers drew parallels with the current situation in the UK and Britain’s own Guantánamo-style regime of arbitrary detention in Belmarsh and Long Lartin as well as through control orders. Gareth Peirce and several others addressed the hypocrisy of this country in its acquiescence to what is happening in Guantánamo Bay. Prisoners at other secret prisons in the “war on terror” were also remembered as well as those Guantánamo detainees who are now effectively refugees – innocent men who cannot be released because their safety cannot be guaranteed in their countries of origin and need to find a safe third country to be sent to.