Evidence of UK Complicity in Torture

by craig on April 20, 2009 1:02 pm in Rendition

I have just sent this email to the clerk to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights:

Mark -

Do we have a venue yet?

I will be assisted by Professor Douwe Korff, Professor of International Law

at London Metropolitan University and an acknowledged authority in this

area. While I was Ambassador in Tashkent he did work on torture there for

both the OSCE and the British government. Members of the committee may wish

to take advantage of Prof Korff’s presence to ask him questions including

about the interpretation of complicity in Article 4 of UNCAT, which concept

is at the heart of my evidence. If the committee do not wish to do this,

Prof Korff is content just to sit with and advise me.

I will also refer to the discussion of the use of torture intelligence on

page 15 of the FCO’s latest annual report on human rights, and to the four

legal memos on CIA torture techniques recently released on the instructions

of President Obama, in the context of the US/UK intelligence sharing

agreement. It may be helpful for members of the committee to have those

documents to hand.

Best wishes,

Craig

12 Comments

  1. Grumpy Old Man

    20 Apr, 2009 - 1:26 pm

    Apparently a suspect was water-boarded 266 times in 2 years. Didn’t anyone realise it wasn’t working? Or were the perpetrators doing it for pleasure?

  2. ceedee

    20 Apr, 2009 - 2:28 pm

    @GOM: Perhaps his interrogators didn’t believe his first 265 ‘confessions’?

  3. Rich

    20 Apr, 2009 - 2:31 pm

    Dear Craig -

    Yes we have a venue. A lovely lecture hall among the leafy glades of Belmarsh prison. Please come alone!

  4. George Dutton

    20 Apr, 2009 - 2:36 pm

    “Do we have a venue yet?”

    YES,it’s called “The Hague”

  5. John D. Monkey

    20 Apr, 2009 - 2:49 pm

    “Dear Craig

    For reasons of national security

    we have decided to cancel your appearance. We will also be telling the media not to report on anything you say in future and will be closing down your blog. Also we know where you live.

    Signed

    The Government”

  6. Jon

    20 Apr, 2009 - 3:00 pm

    Craig, for those of us considering popping along to the public gallery, is there significant chance that it might be cancelled at short notice, like court dates? Or, once fixed, is it a good bet that it will go ahead?

  7. Jon

    20 Apr, 2009 - 3:20 pm

    “We know where that cheeky Mister Monkey lives too, and have already dispatched someone to slip plutonium into his bananas.

    Signed,

    The Government”

  8. anticant

    20 Apr, 2009 - 3:53 pm

    And whatever you say we shan’t take the slightest bit of notice, because you’ve just admitted to being a drunken lecherous lunatic. But we still wouldn’t even if you hadn’t.

  9. MerkinOnParis

    20 Apr, 2009 - 4:37 pm

    Nothing wrong with a bit of drunkenness and lechery, AntiCant.

    Our Gordon turned you Puritan?

  10. anticant

    20 Apr, 2009 - 5:12 pm

    Well, Merkin, having once holidayed with you I couldn’t possibly comment.

  11. George Dutton

    22 Apr, 2009 - 10:55 pm

    21 April 2009

    “Binyam Mohamed: MI5 officer gave false evidence in Guantanamo detainee case”…

    http://tinyurl.com/c9zxe8

  12. George Dutton

    23 Apr, 2009 - 11:51 pm

    “Indeed, as I have repeatedly noted, the 9/11 Commission Report was largely based on a third-hand account of what tortured detainees said, with two of the three parties in the communication being government employees.”…

    http://tinyurl.com/c9qltz

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