Blair faces allegations of complicity in torture

[cal04]

Pressure is mounting on the White House to answer claims that the CIA is using UK airports to fly terrorist suspects for torture in secret prisons in Europe. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the former Foreign Office lawyer who resigned over the Iraq war, warned Tony Blair last night that he cannot duck the questions crowding in about the flights which could mean Britain has been complicit in torture. In The Independent, Ms Wilmshurst, now a fellow of Chatham House, said the Prime Minister could not justify breaking the international convention against torture by saying the "rules of the game have changed" because of the war on terrorism. Britain's European partners stepped up the pressure for details to be disclosed about hundreds of secret flights by CIA-operated jets.

Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, said: "I am not at all reassured that there is sufficient determination by to establish the truth," she said. "The allegations are now beyond speculation. We now have sufficient evidence involving CIA flights. We need to know who was on those flights, where they went." EU leaders are ready to follow up their request to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to challenge the White House. On Tuesday he wrote to Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, calling for details of the secret flights to be revealed. Mr Straw said yesterday he had raised the issue with Ms Rice. She is likely to face direct challenges about flights when she visits Brussels next week.

This month, prisoners were reported held in two eastern European countries, believed to be Romania and Poland, brought there on flights the CIA calls "extraordinary rendition". Michael Ratner, director of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: "It's a secret. No one knows what happens in the rendition process or in the gulag of secret CIA hellholes."
But journalists and campaigners have tracked some of what is happening by monitoring the flight records of planes known to be used by the CIA. Plane-spotters have helped compile information on the aircraft - including one Gulfstream originally identified as N379P but now renumbered N44982 - and their movements.

There are growing calls at Westminster for Mr Blair to block the CIA flights. The Labour MP Harry Cohen said: "It is not for the UK Government to connive in and facilitate people disappearance. The Government's blind-eye approach to enforcing the law is not acceptable." An all-party group to challenge the UK and US Governments over the transport of suspected terrorists, was launched yesterday at Westminster. It will be chaired by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, former Labour foreign affairs minister, Chris Mullin, and Sir Menzies Campbell, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article330660.ece

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. For all the torture that the U.S. has honored some of these radicals/

insurgents/terrorists/civilians/children with..... if it was so gd effective, wouldn't you think that the "insurgency" would be in its last throes??? It is if anything growing...

[EuroObserver]

2. Straw's letter to Rice

The WSWS says "Straw's letter was not publicly released," and I can find it nowhere posted or printed in English.

On 1 December the often excellent Spanish newspaper El País, however, printed this (rough translation follows):

http://www.elpais.es/articulo/elpepiint/20051201elpepiint_3/Tes/La%20UE%20exige%20explicaciones%20a%20Bush%20sobre%20vuelos%20y%20c%26aacute%3Brceles%20de%20la%20CIA

<snip>

La carta de Straw a Rice, muy breve, lleva fecha de 29 de noviembre y dice así:

"Querida Secretaria, como Presidencia del Consejo de la Unión Europea, le escribo en nombre de la Unión Europea en relación con las informaciones de prensa que sugieren que ha habido violaciones de la ley internacional por parte de Estados Unidos en la supuesta detención y transporte de sospechosos de terrorismo en o a través de Estados miembros de la UE. Este asunto fue discutido por los ministros de Exteriores de la UE en la reunión de su Consejo de Asuntos Generales y Relaciones Exteriores el 21 de noviembre".

Y añade:

"Las informaciones han suscitado considerable atención parlamentaria y mediática. En consecuencia, la UE le estaría agradecida por las aclaraciones que Estados Unidos pueda darnos respecto a esos informes en la esperanza de que eso va a apaciguar las preocupaciones parlamentarias y públicas".

-> Translation:

The letter from Straw to Rice, very brief, is dated 29th November and reads as follows:

"Dear Secretary, In {the UK's temporary} role as Presidency of the Council of the European Union, I am writing to you in the name of the European Union with reference to the press reports which suggest that violations of international law on the part of the United States have occurred in the alleged detention and transport of terrorism suspects in or across the member States of the EU. This matter was discussed by the Foreign ministers of the EU in the meeting of its Council of General Affairs and Foriegn Relations on the 21st November."

It adds:

"The reports have given rise to considerable parliamentary and media attention. As a consequence, the EU would be grateful for the clarifications which the United States may be able to provide us with respect to these reports in the hope that this will pacify this parliamentary and public concern."

->imo this last prase says it all about the Straw/Blair attitude: They are offering to help snuff out ('apaciguar' - to calm down, quieten, placate or pacify) the concern about this issue. This looks not only like arse-licking (sorry, ass-licking), fawning or sucking-up to the US Govt., but also like, shall we say, disloyalty to the EU. Note, in the above translation I have reproduced the 'selective' (somewhat uncommon) capitalisation (and lack of same) in the Spanish original - which may or may not follow that actually employed by Straw. 'International Law', for example, I believe would normally be capitalised in such a document at this level, as would the 'Ministers' in 'Foreign Ministers'.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Here's the letter in English, released by the State Department

(presumably the original language, so this won't have a double translation, though I can't see any significant difference):

"Dear Secretary,

"As the president of the Council of European Union, I am writing to you on behalf of the European Union, following media reports suggesting violations of international law in the alleged US detention or transportation of terrorist suspects in or through EU member states.

"This matter was discussed by EU foreign ministers at the meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council on November 21.

"The reports have attracted considerable parliamentary and public attention.

"The European Union will therefore be grateful for clarification the US can give about these reports in the hope that this will allay parliamentary and public concerns.

"I am sharing a copy of this letter with my European colleagues.

"Your sincerely,

"Jack Straw"

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=5497

Yes, it does read like "please tell us something soothing so that people will shut up about this". Straw is far too close to Rice. I strongly suspect that people in the UK government know exactly where the prisons are, and who some of the people in them are; and may well have known when the flights refuelled in the UK. Whether Straw knows I don't know - he might have rather not known, to protect himself in case it became public.

[EuroObserver]

4. Thanks Muriel

(You do know your way around, don't you );-)

'Allay' - yes, I should have thought of that possible language.

I agree with your analysis, and thought so as soon as I read the El País article.

Once upon a time, the best way to 'allay' parliamentary and public concern would have been to make sure that 'justice be seen to be done' (pace the Dr. David Kelly case (sic)).

Straw, the man who helped Pinochet to escape justice while juggling his mental 'two hats' (as Interior Minister (Home Secretary) and as the head of the Judiciary) is clearly capable of all sorts of acrobatics...

(Pinochet, btw, was recently found by Chilean court-appointed doctors to be perfectly mentally fit to stand trial, all these years later).

[donkeyotay]

5. This can't be right. I thought Pvt. England and a few bad apples

(sounds like the name of a band) were the only ones doing torture, and our President cleary said, "We don't torture."

Now I'm confused. I don't know what to believe anymore. Surely our president isn't lying to us.