Sky News is reporting on the case of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and a British resident, who claims he was arrested in Pakistan and tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, and that the CIA questioned him after each event and that the British government was complicit in the torture. He has been held at Gitmo ever since apparently with no charges.
The British court was asked to suppress evidence regarding the torture because the Bush administration "put pressure on the UK to suppress evidence of allegations of torture of a British resident."
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But the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "I'm not aware of any such threat....
In a judgment released this afternoon, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said the US had threatened to withdraw cooperation over terrorist intelligence and "the public of the United Kingdom would be put at risk".
It is apparent that extraordinary rendition was used by the Bush administration [CIA] and that they were complicit in the torture and asked that the evidence be suppressed. What is not so clear follows:
The judges also said Mr Miliband had informed them that the new President would not change the position of the previous government.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "We have not engaged with the new US administration on the details of this case."
So what is the truth here – Is Miliband lying to the judges about Obama’s position, or has there been no discussion whatsoever and Miliband is still relying on the old information put out by the Bush administration, and trying to implicate Obama in the dirty deeds?
We will know the truth soon as the judges have ruled to make the supressed information public:
The judges said: "The suppression of reports of wrongdoing by officials (in circumstances which cannot in any way affect national security) would be inimical to the rule of law and the proper functioning of a democracy.
"Championing the rule of law, not suppressing it, is the cornerstone of a democracy."
Update: Miliband has just taken back his statement that the US pressured the British government to supress the information. He "thought" it would endanger US-British relatons.
Update: This story gets more bizarre by the hour. Now Miliband seems to be saying that Hillary Clinton renewed the threat to withhold classified information to Britain in their meeting this week when they discussed this case. So now the bad guy is Hillary. Why do I doubt this, too?