Security and intelligence - new material (10)
01 January 2009
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, Martin Scheinin. United Nations Human Rights Council, 4.2.09 (A/HRC/10/3), pp. 26. This report exposes the UK’s complicity in the US practice of “rendition”, in which citizens are abducted, transferred to “black sites” in failed states such as Afghanistan and Morocco, where they can be illegally tortured to obtain information on the “war on terror”. Scheinin observes that the US rendition process required an “international web of exchange of information” which created “a corrupted body of information which was shared systematically with partners in the war on terror through intelligence cooperation, thereby corrupting the institutional culture of the legal and institutional systems of recipient states.” Alongside the UK, he names and shames Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia and Pakistan. Available as a download: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/terrorism/rapporteur/docs/A.HR C.10.3.pdf
Just News. Committee for the Administration of Justice February 2009, pp. 8. This issue of Just News marks the twentieth anniversary of the murder of Northern Irish civil rights lawyer, Pat Finucane, on 12 February, who was shot to dead in front of his wife and family. Finucane’s death resulted in the first Stevens inquiry which uncovered the shadowy Force Research Unit (FRU), an intelligence outfit that infiltrated spies into paramilitary groups, such as Brian Nelson who was later convicted on five counts of conspiracy to murder (none of the charges related to Pat Finucane). Twenty years on from the assassination no state actor has been held accountable and the government has stonewalled on its promise to the Finucane family of an independent public inquiry. As Just News comments: “It is ironic that Patrick Finucane, who fought so hard to obtain justice for others, is still waiting for justice two decades later.” Just News, 45/47 Donegall Street, Belfast BT1 2BR, Tel. (028) 9006 1122.
Britain’s Hidden Guantanamo, Paul Donovan. Irish Post 14.2.09. Article on Britain’s “equivalent of Guantanamo”, the infamous control order detention regime in which individuals are detained under house arrest (for up to 24 hours a day) without ever having been brought before a court of law. Donavan examines a number of these non-prisoners, such as “U” (although his identity is widely known we are not allowed to name him) who has recently fought a legal battle with the Special Immigration Appeals Commission for the right to take a daily walk in the park – the outcome: “U learned that on his walks, twice weekly, he will be able to speak to his escort – but save for that he must be silent. He can stop for coffee, chocolate, maybe even cake, but on no account can he ask for them.” Donovan also interviews “G” who has been detained since 2001 but is still waiting to be interviewed, let alone informed of what he has done wrong. Mustapha Taleb is another of those detained under control order legislation. He did have his day in court and was cleared of all charges in the so-called “ricin plot” (there was no ricin) but this has not prevented his detention nor his being served with a deportation order back to Algeria.
Kenya and Counter-Terrorism: a time for change. Redress and Reprieve, February 2009, pp. 63. Excellent report which documents the arbitrary detention of at least 150 people (including children) of 21 nationalities as they fled to Kenya from the conflict in Somalia between December 2006 and February 2007. The majority were first held in Kenya for several weeks without charge, denied access to a lawyer or consular assistance and, in some cases, tortured. In addition at least one Kenyan citizen, Mohammed Abdulmalik, was rendered to the illegal US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The report notes that the “common thread in these cases is the invocation of national security and the threat of terrorist attack to justify these detentions and removals.” See: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/documents/KenyaandCounterTerrorism.pdf