In a House of Commons debate yesterday, David Davis detailed the case of Rangzieb Ahmed, a British citizen now convicted of terrorism, who was tortured by Pakistani authorities with the apparent complicity of British intelligence services. In fact, 'complicity' is too weak a word: they let him leave Britain for Pakistan despite having enough evidence to later convict him only to immediately suggest his arrest by Pakistani inter-services intelligence. His entirely predictable torture at their hands included whipping with 3 feet of tyre rubber nailed to a wooden handle, and the removal of three fingernails.
Davis drew a contrast between the way Britain and America have handled similar records:
The Americans have made a clean breast of their complicity, while explicitly not prosecuting the junior officers who were acting under instruction at a time of enormous duress and perceived threat after 9/11. We have done the opposite. As things stand, we are awaiting a police investigation that will presumably end in the prosecution of the frontline officers involved. At the same time, the government are fighting tooth and nail to use state secrecy to cover up crimes and political embarrassments to protect those who are probably the real villains in the piece – those who approved these policies in the first place.
The appropriate level of astonishment at how far we have gone down this road is well-captured by Peter Oborne at the end of this video for the Convention on Modern Liberty:
Comments
One doesn't have to look to Pakistan to find evidence of the complicity of British Intelligence Services in torture. My case is one example. Its URL is:http://zerzetzen.wikispaces.comThe torture is not of the medieval type that leaves marks, but a more modern Orwellian 1984 type of torture that is sometimes called Zerzetsen since it was developed by the former GDR secret police "the Stasi" to persecute dissidents.My family's experience of Zerzetsen was detailed in an earlier paper that I presented at McMaster University. This paper was formally put before the UK’s Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and has been circulated to committee members by their Chairman. It is to be hoped the committee will have the courage to hear the issue.Embedded in the Wiki is a file of letters from Cabinet Ministers, Police and others that proves that the matter is being covered-up at the highest levels to ensure that no honest investigation takes place. If you look at the Wiki you will see why. If politicians have the courage to examine this case it would prove that our intelligence services do not just condone torture but are actively involved in it. Is it just too shocking to be heard?Roderick Russell
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