Miliband loses torture claim appeal

Virgin Media |10 February 2010 10:12am

'Torture files': Binyam Mohamed and Foreign Secretary David Miliband

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has lost his appeal court bid to prevent senior judges disclosing secret information relating to torture allegations in the case of Binyam Mohamed.

The former Guantanamo Bay detainee says he was tortured in Pakistan while held by the CIA, with the knowledge of the British.

The allegations claim that Mr Mohamed was subjected to sleep deprivation, was given threats and inducements and was shackled during interviews. His fears of being removed from the US and “disappearing” were also played upon.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones want to disclose summaries of information held by the British security services.

Mr Miliband, branded them “irresponsible” in an unprecedented attack on the judiciary, but three of the country’s highest-ranking judges rejected both the minister’s accusations and his appeal.

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Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates

By Gavin Lee | BBC News | Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Brandon Neely (above, centre)

Why would a former Guantanamo Bay prison guard track down two of his former captives – two British men – and agree to fly to London to meet them?

“You look different without a cap.”

“You look different without the jump suits.”

With those words, an extraordinary reunion gets under way.

The last time Ruhal Ahmed met Brandon Neely, he was “behind bars, behind a cage and [Brandon] was on the other side”.

The location had been Camp X-Ray – the high-security detention camp run by the US in Guantanamo Bay. Mr Ahmed, originally from Tipton in the West Midlands, was among several hundred foreign terror suspects held at the centre.

Mr Neely was one of his guards.

The scene of this current exchange of pleasantries couldn’t be more different from where they last met – a television studio in London. Also here is Shafiq Rasul, a fellow ex-Guantanamo prisoner, without whose Facebook page the reunion would never have happened.

Original story with video

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White House: Illinois Prison To Be New Home For Guantanamo Detainees

Thomson Correctional Center To House Some Guantanamo Detainees: White House

HENRY C. JACKSON | 12/14/09 11:49 PM |

WASHINGTON — Taking an important step on the thorny path to closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the White House plans to announce Tuesday that the government will acquire an underutilized state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo.

Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House.

Officials from both the White House and Durbin’s office confirmed that President Barack Obama had directed the government to acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town near the Mississippi River about 150 miles from Chicago.

A Durbin spokesman said the facility would house federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The facility in Thomson had emerged as a clear front-runner after Illinois officials, led by Durbin, enthusiastically embraced the idea of turning a near-dormant prison over to federal officials.

The White House has been coy about its selection process, but on Friday a draft memo leaked to a conservative Web site that seemed to indicate officials were homing in on Thomson.

The Thomson Correctional Center was one of several potential sites evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to potentially house detainees from the Navy-run prison at Guantanamo Bay. Others included prisons in Marion, Ill., Hardin, Mont., and Florence, Colo., where officials also have said they would welcome the jobs that would be created by the new inmates.

MORE HERE

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