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Home Front: WoT
Top US lawyer warns of deaths at Guantanamo
2009-02-08
Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London tomorrow and demand the release of her client - a British resident who claims he was repeatedly tortured at the behest of US intelligence officials - from Guantanamo Bay. Bradley will also request the disclosure of 42 secret documents that allegedly chronicle not only how Binyam Mohamed was tortured, but may also corroborate claims that Britain was complicit in his treatment.
All allegedly, of course. And he still has all his fingernails ...
But first, Bradley, a US military attorney for 20 years, will reveal that Mohamed, 31, is dying in his Guantanamo cell and that conditions inside the Cuban prison camp have deteriorated badly since Barack Obama took office. Fifty of its 260 detainees are on hunger strike and, say witnesses, are being strapped to chairs and force-fed, with those who resist being beaten. At least 20 are described as being so unhealthy they are on a "critical list", according to Bradley.
Here's the critical point: I personally would refuse their freedom and refuse to intervene, and so would let them starve. George Bush would refuse both their starvation and their freedom, and would have them force-fed. Wanna bet on whether the Lightworker™ rolls over and frees them?
Mohamed, who is suffering dramatic weight loss after a month-long hunger strike, has told Bradley, 45, that he is "very scared" of being attacked by guards, after witnessing a savage beating for a detainee who refused to be strapped down and have a feeding tube forced into his mouth. It is the first account Bradley has personally received of a detainee being physically assaulted in Guantanamo.
From the beginning of time, any prison inmate who has defied the guards has paid the price. That's true in any US prison, any British prison, and most especially in any Turkish prison. True in China, true in Persia, true in ancient Rome and true in ancient Inca. We don't excuse or condone it, but it's how a rough prison justice is maintained.
Bradley recently met Mohamed in Camp Delta's sparse visiting room and was shaken by his account of the state of affairs inside the notorious prison. She said: "At least 50 people are on hunger strike, with 20 on the critical list, according to Binyam. The JTF [the Joint Task Force running Guantanamo] are not commenting because they do not want the public to know what is going on.
Rather sensible of them, since I suspect many, many in America agree with my take on the matter ...
"Binyam has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist, they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not witnessed this before. Guantanamo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening.

"It is so bad that there are not enough chairs to strap them down and force-feed them for a two- or three-hour period to digest food through a feeding tube. Because there are not enough chairs the guards are having to force-feed them in shifts. After Binyam saw a nearby inmate being beaten it scared him and he decided he was not going to resist. He thought, 'I don't want to be beat, injured or killed.' Given his health situation, one good blow could be fatal," said Bradley.
But if he's on a hunger strike he's not supposed to care if it's fatal. The whole point is to threaten to die in order to get the soft-hearted system to relent. You can't be on a hunger strike and then quail at the thought of your own mortality.
"Binyam is continuing to lose weight and he is going to get worse. He has been told he is about to be released, but psychologically and physically he is declining."

It is conceivable that Mohamed himself may shortly return to London, heralding yet another political embarrassment for Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who already faces a tumultuous week over claims that he was keen to suppress evidence of torture.

On Tuesday, the unprecedented dispute between Miliband and the judiciary is set to reignite when High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones decide whether to reopen the case which Mohamed believes substantiates his torture claims.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a little-publicised court case into the treatment of Mohamed will open. American civil liberties lawyers are hoping to shine a light on the defence firm that allegedly carried out the practice of "rendition" on behalf of the CIA. Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, helped to arrange rendition flights for several terror suspects, including Mohamed, to nations where they claim they were tortured.
If we had a better CIA all those documents would never have been recorded ...
The case was originally dismissed after the Bush administration asserted "state secrets privilege", indicating that it would endanger national security - the same argument used by Miliband. However, Obama has repeatedly stressed his willingness to be less secretive than his predecessor and a similar decision would lead to claims that the current administration is bent on suppressing evidence of torture.
So the CIA is going to try and force his hand, and my guess is that they'll succeed ...
Closer to home, the Observer has found evidence suggesting a broader unwillingness by Britain to confront the US over its war on terror programme. The Attorney General says it is "actively considering" possible criminal wrongdoings against MI5 and the CIA, but sources claim the government's senior lawyer has failed, after almost four months of looking into the issue, to request material from the US that may substantiate allegations of MI5 complicity in Mohamed's torture.

Suspicion is also growing that some sections of the US intelligence community would prefer Binyam did die inside Guantanamo. Silenced forever, only the sparse language of his diary would be left to recount his torture claims and interviewees with an MI5 officer, known only as Witness B. Such a scenario would also deny Mohamed the chance to personally sue the US, and possibly British authorities, over his treatment.

But if Mohamed survives to come back to London, his experiences of the past six years promise a harrowing journey through the dark underbelly of the war on terror. For Miliband, the questions concerning Britain's role may have only just begun.
No, the more harrowing part is this: we already know that MI5 can't keep track of the potential terrorists inside Britain today. If the terrorists succeed in another Tube bombing or 3/11 style incident, the people presently wringing their hands over alleged torture are going to look mighty stupid.
Posted by:Steve White

#19  I thought it was Yvonne Ridley. My mistake. Carry on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2009-02-08 19:27  

#18  Maybe she's threatening that, unless her wayward yoots are released into the general public, she'll hold her breath until she keels over DRT?
Posted by: Uncle Phester   2009-02-08 19:10  

#17  There is only one thing that should have been done that would have made Quantanmo Bay a better place. A firing squad.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Angegum9270   2009-02-08 13:53  

#16  Sinktrap me if you must, She's Black.

And scary looking too!
Posted by: Trader_DFW   2009-02-08 13:07  

#15  Sinktrap me if you must, She's Black.
Posted by: Rednek Jim   2009-02-08 12:39  

#14  Thanks Tipper. Why am I not surprised. Of course there is no conflict of interest between her Air Force Reserve career and her... day job of defending murdering foreign terrorist.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-02-08 12:15  

#13  Hey, has anyone seen my giveashit? I think I misplaced it. Damn, I sure do hate Liberals. Useless bags of excrement.
Posted by: Trader_DFW   2009-02-08 11:19  

#12  SteveS,

they did turn him into a newt....but he got better.
Posted by: AlanC   2009-02-08 10:00  

#11  Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out;

I'm no military guy but, um, what are 'Swat teams in police gear' doing on a military base? Smells like bullshit to me.
Posted by: Raj   2009-02-08 09:55  

#10  Yeah, those Thai Muslim extremists are really pissed that the Peace Process isn't going well in Israel.
Posted by: jack salami   2009-02-08 09:41  

#9  "Top US lawyer warns of deaths at Guantanamo"

Promises, promises....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-02-08 09:36  

#8  From the onset, once these dogs were determined to no longer have any information of value, they should have been sent to Afghanistan, where an illiterate Afghan army officer would have signed with an 'X' for their return, receiving a crisp, new $1 bill for every 'X'.

The prisoners themselves would be providing sustenance to the "magnificent sea cre-a-tures" as Jacques Cousteau would say.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2009-02-08 08:40  

#7  Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley
Posted by: tipper   2009-02-08 08:38  

#6  Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London tomorrow and demand the release of her client - a British resident who claims he was repeatedly tortured at the behest of US intelligence officials - from Guantanamo Bay.

Has crossed the line of being an officer of the court [which is something other than a military officer] and is now an advocate without portfolio. Notice that she is so passionate on the issue, she's forgot to submit her resignation to continue serving in her commission when the issue is so repugnant to her that she needed to up the game by this political theater.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2009-02-08 08:24  

#5  Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, will step through the grand entrance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London tomorrow and demand the release of her client

Is this part of her assigned duties? BCD is in order
Posted by: Frank G   2009-02-08 08:18  

#4  I wonder where it is written that these vermin have a right to retain a US Military lawyer?
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-02-08 07:42  

#3  For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I find myself sceptical of ol' Binyam's claims of beatings and torture. Not to imply that he is a lying scumbag, but I'd sooner believe they turned him into a newt.
Posted by: SteveS   2009-02-08 04:32  

#2  And because the rest of us continue to breathe, don't forget that.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-02-08 02:11  

#1  But you see, Steve, the only reason that they would attack Britain is because their Muslim brothers are being tortured at Gitmo, and the UK is doing nothing about it. Oh, and because Gazans are dying and the UK is not stopping it. Oh, and because the British (except Prince Charles and possibly the Archbishop of Canterbury) have refused the Dawa and thus must be killed.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2009-02-08 01:52  

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