Not an April Fools’ Joke: MI5 Investigated for Mistreating Jihadist
As terrorists plot more attacks, British police are busy probing a British intelligence agency.
How would you like to wake up one morning and hear that the cops are going to probe the FBI?
Notwithstanding my high regard for Scotland Yard, when I heard the news that the British police are to investigate the one-hundred-year-old intelligence service known as MI5 because of allegations of torture by a suspected al-Qaeda operative, I thought it was an April fool. It is unprecedented: most of us sleep soundly at night knowing how efficient the British intelligence services are. They have never been investigated by the police.
Sadly, in the topsy turvy world that is Britain, in which high-ranking Israelis (one assumes they are here to help British authorities tackle terrorism) are stopped at Heathrow and turned back as an alternative to being arrested and charged with “war crimes,” the news that MI5 is to be probed is for real.
Binyam Mohamed, who lived in Britain but who was, to use Don Rumsfeld’s favorite expression, “scooped up” by American authorities in Karachi, Pakistan, in April 2002 and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention center, has registered a formal complaint against MI5 for allowing him to be tortured. There was even talk at the end of March of the British police going to the United States to interview Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney. (This was mooted on one of the talk shows; I thought I was hallucinating.)
It is a complicated story: Mohamed was born in Ethiopia in July 1978 and came to England as a young adult, where he found work as a caretaker at a London mosque led by radical imam Abu Qatada. His father, an executive with Ethiopian Airlines, had fled his native country for the United States after the rise of the Mengistu regime, but the boy was taunted at school in Washington and was brought to London. He went to Afghanistan in 2001 to “cure a drug habit” (ever heard the expression “sending coals to Newcastle“?) but was detained in Pakistan after MI5 and the CIA asked to question him about his connections with radical groups and individuals. He was reported to have been using a fake passport.
Jump to February 2009: Mohamed is freed from Guantanamo without charge and arrives back in Britain claiming he was brutalized by torturers in Pakistan, Morocco, and Guantanamo. MI5 is not implicated in torture but American, Pakistani, and Moroccan interrogators are accused of tormenting him and even cutting his genitals with razor blades.
None of this is nice and the accusations made by Mohamed suggest MI5 was complicit in interrogating him, knowing he had been tortured into confessions during extraordinary rendition. Confessions included reading a recipe for constructing an H-bomb on what he insisted was a “joke website.” What is interesting is the timescale in which Mohamed says he was interrogated by MI5; they threatened him with rendition to an Arab country where he would be tortured, but this does not fit together. The unnamed British officer who was present at his interrogation in Karachi in 2002 says it was impossible that his colleagues knew about overseas torture because American rendition practices only came to their attention some time after.
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Carol Gould is the Philadelphia-born author of Don’t Tread on Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad, Spitfire Girls, and A Room at Camp Pickett, a play about her mother’s experiences as a WAC in World War II; she has just completed films about black GIs and GI babies. Carol has been a panelist on BBC's Any Questions?, hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby, and is a commentator on Sky News, Press TV, the BBC World Service, and Five Live.
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17 Comments
1. JD:Nothing bad about the UK should come as a surprise anymore.
The police there are ignoring the real threats to focus on soft targets, such as a Conservative councilor who dared to tell a joke at a public meeting (and it wasn’t even about Islam):
http://trackacrat.com/2009/03/30/beware-the-thought-police/
Apr 1, 2009 - 5:59 am 2. Blackwater:I can’t believe we’re setting these people free. If you were a driver for Al Queda, a delivery boy, a financial donor, a vocal supporter, etc, you’re JUST as bad as the suicide bombers and should be executed for treason or jailed for life. It’s common sense. Which of course means the leftists are bitterly opposed to it.
Apr 1, 2009 - 6:39 am 3. HalifaxCB:I disagree. It is absolutely necessary in a free society that those who enforce the power of the state (such as the FBI & the CIA, the RCMP & CSIS here in Canada, MI5 in GB) be subject to the scrutiny that keeps them operating within the rule of law. If that’s not done, it’s not much of a step for misdirected governments to transform those organizations into the Western equivalent of the KGB.
Here in Canada we’ve seen such abuses happen far to often – ranging from the RCMP orchestrated barn burning in the 70’s to torturing of Maher Arar to the recent killing of a hapless and somewhat disoriented Polish visitor to British Columbia. America has many similar stories (look up the behaviour of J. Edgar Hoover for lots of examples).
If these organizations are to be trusted by the citizens they are mandated to serve, we have to be able to keep them in line, and punish transgressions on their part severely. An out of control security force is a far greater threat to civil liberties than the occasional terrorist who escapes on technicalities.
Apr 1, 2009 - 9:07 am 4. Mary Jackson:Just because they’re investigating doesn’t mean they’ll find anything. Without checks and balances, abuses do happen.
Gitmo Geek is lying through his teeth of course, but the law is the law.
Apr 1, 2009 - 9:54 am 5. Tonya:God Save The Queen From Sharia Law!
Apr 1, 2009 - 10:03 am 6. Ian:Binyam Mohamed should have been shot in the head and left to rot.
As a British tax payer I’m f*cking sick of this sh*t. This guy hates us and our country. He will now win loads of money and spend the rest of his life living on benefits having children who will also grown up hating the country they are born in while the honest tax payers pay for him and the other hundreds of thousands of Muslims like him.
Can’t wait to vote Labour out at the next election and we can hopefully start to turn our once great country around.
Why have we become so scared of hurting the feelings of a tiny minority in this country??
Lots of people are seriously thinking about voting for the BNP as the average man cannot understand why on earth this is happening.
The worst thing is that this is not surprising any more.
I hope that the financial crisis gets much worse and people will wake up and see what is happening instead of being do apathetic.
Maybe I will become a Christian suicide bomber and start bombing mosques.
I have fought for my country. My Granddad died for it along with millions more and now a few hundred liberal students who never grew up with good PR skills have ruined it in 15 years.
Apr 1, 2009 - 10:10 am 7. ReConUSMC:3. HalifaxCB:
Apr 1, 2009 - 12:27 pm 8. HalifaxCB:I disagree. It is absolutely necessary in a free society that those who enforce the power of the state (such as the FBI & the CIA, the RCMP & CSIS here in Canada, MI5 in GB) be subject to the scrutiny that keeps them operating within the rule of law. If that’s not done, it’s not much of a step for misdirected governments to transform those organizations into the Western equivalent of the KGB.
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To a Typical Canadian pacifist Socialist .
When One Side Plays by all the Rules and the other side play by NO RULES ..because they have ZERO ….
The Good GUY ALWAYS LOSE ! IT IS THE SAME AS YOU FIGHTING ANOTHER MAN WITH YOUR HANDS TIED BEHIND YOUR BACK …… WANT TO FIGHT NOW LEFTY ? Hell no you don’t but the other guy damn sure does ….
SUICIDE BOMBERS WIN BY DECEPTION BECAUSE THEY HIDE AND LIVE IN COMPLTE FREEDOM THEY WANT TO DESTROY YOU FOOL . IT’S NICE TO KNOW YOUR KIND IS WILLING TO HELP THEM … I LOST TWO FRIENDS AT 9/11 AND ONE OF THEM WAS A MOSLEM .
PC CORRECTNESS IS IN A COLLEGE CLASS ROOM NOT IN THE REAL WORLD WITH THOSE ONLY GOALS IS TWO KILL ALL CHRISTIANS AND JEWS AND THEN GET 72 VIRGINS IN ALLAH’S HEAVEN .
I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED THOSE THAT THINK LIKE YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL BEEN AT THE TRADE CENTERS IN NY THAT DAY ….YOU KIND DESERVED TO BE THERE SINCE YOU AID AND ABET OUR REAL ENEMIES THEY THANK YOUR FORE THAT UNTIL THEY CAN CUT YOUR HEAD OFF LIKE THEY HAVE 1, 091 IN IRAQ and with Daniel Pearl a totally innocent man AS WELL .
RetConUSMC;
First a request – could you please temper the ad himinem’s and perhaps the use of caps? They are appropriate perhaps for places like Daily Kos, but not here.
Second, please note that by addressing the issue “To a typical Canadian pacifist Socialist”, you simply reinforce the inane stereotypes of Americans that do so much damage to Canadian support for the US in Afghanistan and Iraq – and there is a significant amount of that. It makes you sound like that Gutman Red-eye nutter on Fox. I acknowlege that we do not do enough, but we’ve still got a long way to go climbing out of the swamp Trudeau created, the same one Americans are just heading into via Obama.
Finally, to the major point. I assume from your handle you are retired from the USMC; you might want to ask yourself why the Corps is held in such high esteem, including by people like myself. It’s not just because of their fighting ability (though I won’t take anything away from them on that); it’s because hisorically they’ve held themselves to a much higher moral and disciplinary standard than your average citizen. They live up to the responsibility of power. Imagine if that were to lapse – or even to be seen to lapse. You know as well as I do that there are those – like the left wing MSM in general – who seem to lie in wait for any transgression in order to condemn the people who keep the rest safe. (If you are old enough to be retired than I assume you are old enough to remember Vietnam, and what the media did to the Armed Forces during that period). We’ve also seen it in Canada, for example the disbandment of the Canadian Airborne regiment after Somalia.
Bringing the key institutions of liberty – from the Constitution to the military – into sufficient disrepute to destroy the bond between them and the citizenry is a key tactic of those who want to destabilize the West. And there is no one to stand in their way except those who actually care enough to make sure that the standards of those institutions are kept high.
Apr 1, 2009 - 1:41 pm 9. Brita:So much misery created by the muslim refusal to integrate, so much trouble caused by the ‘religion of peace’, so much disruption fomented by the followers of the unappealing Mo.
Just another day in the life of the world: we shouldn’t be surprised by all this, yet sadly we are.
Apr 1, 2009 - 2:43 pm 10. Leatherneck:Put Ian #6 in charge!
Apr 1, 2009 - 3:25 pm 11. ReConUSMC:8. HalifaxCB:
RetConUSMC;
First a request – could you please temper the ad himinem’s and perhaps the use of caps? They are appropriate perhaps for places like Daily Kos, but not here.
Second, please note that by addressing the issue “To a typical Canadian pacifist Socialist”, you simply reinforce the inane stereotypes of Americans that do so much damage to Canadian support for the US in Afghanistan and Iraq – and there is a significant amount of that. It makes you sound like that Gutman Red-eye nutter on Fox. I acknowlege that we do not do enough, but we’ve still got a long way to go climbing out of the swamp Trudeau created, the same one Americans are just heading into via Obama.
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Don’t pull your PC Correct crap on me or talk down to me .
First off Your all Wet … I was a USMC Captain and served 6 years in my beloved Corp ..2 Tours in Nam ..Siver Star winner and Two PH’s .You know nothing about my beloved USMC and Honor codr as well .
No Marine any longer wants to take Racial Moslem prisoners for obvious reasons since they don’t want them on the streets in their own Home Towns where their FAMILIES LIVE ..duh .
Next I am a UVA Grad with a MBA in Business( 381 ) with a minor in Economics (391 ) ..KA .
I own a huge Estate here in Race Horse Country of VA .
Next I was President of Sealy Posturepedia of Canada .. in Toronto ( Weston ) for 9 years and lived there .
I ran the USA Furniture Div and am a well known International Sofa designer . Yes I played on Young St and Eaton Sq. down town Toronto IF you know Toronto …. I was sorry to see Eatons Dept.-Stores go out of business in Canada .I hear the Brick is still going strong .
Canada is as bad as England with their B/S PC Correctness …. Example you ask ….. A Buddy of mine in Toronto can’t even take his 3 kids swimming there at a pool in Toronto that is OFF LIMITS on WED. unless Your Moslems …..
Next MARK STEIN wrote the Truth on Moslems and can no longer write there about Moslems because of CIR power there Canidians are scare to death of sadly . He spent 2 Million dollars there in Court after the Canadian PC Police arrested him ….. Free speech no longer exist in Canada ….. coming to America as well .
Next you didn’t address the facts I Made ..Not one ….. again you used Kos talking points .
Apr 1, 2009 - 5:23 pm 12. SeanLA:You lectured the wrong man ….. You obviously as I said know nothing about the real world I not only know quite well but traveled for 36 years ……. lefty
I’m thinking of the last shot from `A Clockwork Orange’ Where Binyam, um, I mean Alex looks into the camera (at us) and says `Yes, I was cured all right…’
Apr 1, 2009 - 5:47 pm 13. Little Banana:Ian @6 says “Can’t wait to vote Labour out at the next election and we can hopefully start to turn our once great country around”
Ian, I sincerely hope that will be the case. However, do you really think pussy-boy Cameron will be any better?
Apr 2, 2009 - 9:57 am 14. Oldguy:The British police need a good dose of the IRA.
Apr 4, 2009 - 6:43 am 15. MiamaMan:This Muslim/Islam BS is getting to a point where they will get the devil in on people here, and Europe as well.
In Britain I would vote for the BNP in no time, in Holland for Geert Wilder, in France for Le Pen. Here in the US, will see.
Now people realize what the Serbs tried to do. And how Clinton fought the wrong war, a dirty war, again the West, to finally help establish a little Iran/Saudi Arabia in Bosnia.
I don’t even like to see a woman with the Islamic robe, for all that that represents. Visited London in 2003, sorry, but will never return, hotel right across Hyde Park in the middle of a 100% Muslim/Arab neighborhood, hundreds of women with Burkas, pulling several kids each. In London!
France will soon be taking by stealth by Islam, unless something drastic happens, the youth intifada that they tried to mask as discontented youth were majority Muslims.
Apr 4, 2009 - 3:46 pm 16. JERRY BORIS:CAROL GOULD ALWAYS SHOWS EMINENT GOOD SENSE IN EXPOSING THE ENEMY AMONG THOSE IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD, PARTICULARLY THOSE TRYING TO ISLAMICIZE TRADITIONAL BRITAIN. . THERE ARE ALWAYS THOSE PSYCHOLOGICAL MISFITS TRYING TO INJECT THEIR NEUROTIC PREJUDICES …. OR MORE INSIDIOUS … INTO THE MAINSTREAM CONSCIOUSNESS, AS ‘SOBER JUDGMENT.”
Apr 4, 2009 - 6:05 pm 17. roGER:I AM ALWAYS REMINDED OF HOW EVEN TEMPERED CAROL GOULD IS WHEN SHE, AN AMERICAN, STANDS UP FOR BRITISH SANITY,AND TRIES HER BEST TO EXPOSE THE , USUALLY MUSLIM, ENEMY AMONG THE BRITS. PERHAPS IT IS HER JOURNALISTIC TRAINING.
CHEERS TO CAROL GOULD. LET’S HEAR FROM HER MORE REGULARLY.
If the police and inteligence services are shown to be above and beyond the law, or just as importantly they believe that they are above the law, then Britain is finished as a free country.
It horrifies and shocks me that some people here can’t see that. No government agency private company or any other organisation is above the law.
That’s just fundamental.
Apr 6, 2009 - 5:49 am