MI6 and CIA ‘sent student to Morocco to be tortured
An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after being tortured in a Moroccan jail and claims torturers used scalpel on his chest and penis as he was hung, ‘strappado’ from his wrists from the ceiling. The British government and CIA are now facing complicity in the affair due to the Extraordinary Rendition program.
Agencies said he was part of a plot to buy uranium in Asia, bring it to the US and build a ‘dirty bomb’ in league with Jose Padilla, a US citizen. Funny enough, now that the torture allegations used against Mohammed came out, the claims against Padilla were subsequently dropped. He now faces a civil charge of supporting al-Qaeda financially.
He was stripped naked, photographed, given an enema and put on a plane with shackles, earphones and a blindfold.
All this as Britain’s loftiest judges lay down the law on torture.
Lord Hoffman: "The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it … Many people in the United States have felt their country dishonoured by its use of torture outside the jurisdiction and its practice of extra-legal ‘rendition’ of suspects to countries where they would be tortured. The rejection of torture … has a special iconic importance as the touchstone of a humane and civilised legal system."
Lord Hope: "Torture is one of most evil practices known to man. Once torture has become acclimatised in a legal system it spreads like an infectious disease, hardening and brutalising those who have become accustomed to its use.
Lord Brown: "Torture is an unqualified evil. It can never be justified. Rather it must always be punished."
Lord Bingham: "The English common law has regarded torture and its fruits with abhorrence for over 500 years … I am startled, even a little dismayed, at the suggestion (and the acceptance by the court of appeal majority) that this deeply-rooted tradition and an international obligation solemnly and explicitly undertaken can be overridden … The issue is one of constitutional principle, whether evidence obtained by torturing another human being may lawfully be admitted against a party to proceedings in a British court … To that question I would give a very clear negative answer."
Lord Nicholls: "Torture is not acceptable. This is a bedrock moral principle in this country. For centuries the common law has set its face against torture … Torture attracts universal condemnation. No civilised society condones its use. Unhappily, condemnatory words are not always matched by conduct."
Word is leaking now that the EU has known and allowed the CIA to tour Europe with their enema bags, black costumes and leather for several years – snatching those deemed ‘terrorists’ and hauling them off to torture dens in a string of countries around the world -or even just getting ‘rid’ of them as Bush alluded to in his 2003 SOTU speech.
This was vividly demonstrated in one of the revolting scenes in recent American history: Bush’s State of the Union address in January 2003, delivered to Congress and televised nationwide during the final frenzy of war-drum beating before the assault on Iraq. Trumpeting his successes in the Terror War, Bush claimed that "more than 3,000 suspected terrorists" had been arrested worldwide – "and many others have met a different fate." His face then took on the characteristic leer, the strange, sickly half-smile it acquires whenever he speaks of killing people: "Let’s put it this way. They are no longer a problem."
Pinter video (swf,wmv,flv), podcast (mp3)and transcript link here…
