MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects

[kskiska]

Source: The Guardian

British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Those men have given detailed accounts of their alleged ordeals at the hands of the ISI over the last four years. Some of them appear to have been taken to the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi, where they say they were repeatedly tortured before being questioned by MI5.

Tayab Ali, a London-based lawyer for two of the men, said: "I am left with no doubt that, at the very worst, the British Security Service instigates the illegal detention and torture of British citizens, and at the very best turns a blind eye to torture."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/humanrights.uksecurity1

[LynnTheDem]

1. Torture is GOOD! When we do it.

Whoever could have known bushCabal would sink us all this far down into the stinking evil slime in so short a time???

[struggle4progress]

2. Fourth Briton accuses MI5 of collusion in torture of detainees

Ian Cobain
The Guardian,
Wednesday April 30 2008

... The fourth man to claim that he was tortured after being detained in Pakistan during a British-led counter-terrorism investigation .... says that for several months the ISI kept him in a pitch-black cell not much bigger than a coffin, and that he was brought out to be beaten, whipped and subjected to electric shocks. On one occasion, he alleges, he was kept hooded and interrogated by people speaking English, with both British and American accents.

The man, who is not being named for legal reasons, made the allegations to family members and to a lawyer in Islamabad who was eventually allowed to see him. The allegations cannot be corroborated, and Pakistani authorities claim the man's whereabouts are unknown now that he is no longer in their custody. However, his claims follow similar allegations made by three other British citizens of Pakistani origin. These men all say they suffered severe torture at secret ISI interrogation centres shortly before receiving questioning by British counter-terrorism officials ...

The 27-year-old's family say he gave a detailed account of mistreatment after being brought to court on a number of occasions. His brother said: "He described being dragged off a bus and having the living daylights beaten out of him. At first he was held in what he called a 'grave cell'. It was like a coffin: there was so little room that when he was lying down if he brought up his knees they touched the roof ...

A court in Pakistan eventually ruled that there was insufficient evidence to convict the man on terrorism charges.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/humanrights.terrorism