MI6 torture by proxy
wikipedia reader | 11.12.2005 14:26 | Analysis | Health | Repression | World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binyam_Mohammed
Benyam (Benjamin) Mohammed al Habashi (also transliterated as Binyam Mohammed) (b. 1979) is an Ethiopian national who is detained in Guantanamo Bay prison. In 1994, Mohammed sought asylum in the UK.
In June 2001, Mohammed travelled to Afghanistan. The reasons for the trip are in dispute. UK and U.S authorities contend that Mohammed trained in a paramilitary Al-Qaeda camp. Mohammed's supporters contend that the trip was for innocent purposes. After 9/11, he went to Pakistan. On April 10, 2002, Mohammed was arrested at the Karachi airport by Pakistani authorities as a suspected terrorist. Mohammed contends that he was a subject of the United States extraordinary rendition policy, and entered a "ghost prison system" run by US and UK intelligence agents.[1]
Before his transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Mohammed states that he was incarcerated in prisons in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, and that while in Morocco, interrogators tortured him by using scalpels to cut his chest and penis.[2] Mohammed's lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, states that Mohammed participated in recent hunger strikes to protest against the harsh conditions and lack of access to any judicial review.[3] The hunger strike started in July 2005, and resumed in August 2005 because the detainees believed the US authorities failed to honour promises to meet their demands. From a written statement by Mohammed dated 11 August, 2005:
"The administration promised that if we gave them 10 days, they would bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva conventions. They said this had been approved by Donald Rumsfeld himself in Washington DC. As a result of these promises, we agreed to end the strike on July 28.
"It is now August 11. They have betrayed our trust (again). Hisham from Tunisia was savagely beaten in his interrogation and they publicly desecrated the Qu'ran (again). Saad from Kuwait was ERF'd [visited by the Extreme Reaction Force] for refusing to go (again) to interrogation because the female interrogator had sexually humiliated him (again) for 5 hours _ Therefore, the strike must begin again." [4][5]
Charged with conspiracy
On November 7, 2005, Benyam was charged with conspiracy. The complaint alleges that Benyam was trained in Kabul to build dirty bombs (weapons combining conventional explosives with radioactive material intended to be dispersed over a large area). According to the complaint, he was planning terror attacks against high-rise apartment buildings in the United States and was arrested at an airport in Pakistan, attempting to go to London while using a forged passport. [6] [7]
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References
1. ^ 89 Guantánamo detainees resume hunger strike, Boston Globe, August 27, 2005
2. ^ 'One of them made cuts in my penis. I was in agony' The Guardian, July 2, 2005
3. ^ Suspect's tale of travel and torture The Guardian, August 2, 2005
4. ^ Hunger strikers pledge to die in Guantánamo, The Guardian, September 9, 2005
5. ^ Guantanamo Hunger Strikes Resume, NewStandard, August 30, 2005
6. ^ Five More Guantanamo Detainees Charged, The Guardian, November 7, 2005
7. ^ Pentagon IDs suspected terror accomplice: Detainee's lawyer denies accusation, alleges torture, CNN, December 9, 2005
External links
* Amnesty International USA
* Center for Constitutional Rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binyam_Mohammed
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