London: Britain was aware about the CIA’s barbaric torture techniques on terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, a former Gitmo detainee has claimed.
Secret reports exchanged between MI5 and the CIA in 2002 clearly state that the American security services were using torture practices, which included waterboarding, facial slaps and stress positions.
The extent of Britain's knowledge was made clear in the latest High Court judgment in the case of Binyam Mohamed.
Mohamed, who was held by the Americans seven years ago, claims that Britain actively colluded in his torture that included the cutting of his genitals with a razor blade.
“One of those memoranda dated August 1 2002, from Mr JS Bybee, Assistant Attorney-General, to Mr John Rizzo, acting General Counsel of the CIA, made clear that the techniques [the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed] described were those employed against Mr Zubaydah, alleged to be a high-ranking member of al Qaeda," the judgement revealed.
"Of itself, the treatment to which Mr Mohamed was subjected could never properly be described in a democracy as ‘a secret’ or an ‘intelligence secret’ or ‘a summary of classified intelligence’," it added.
However, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has argued that revealing details of the 10 torture techniques would threaten Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with the US.
‘Reprieve’, a human rights group, accused Miliband of using an "Alice in Wonderland" argument to suppress the details of the torture of Mohamed.
But the MI5 documents will still not be made public yet because Miliband is taking the issue to the Court of Appeal next month.
ANI
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 13:44