MPs criticise security services over Guantánamo prisoners

Posted on by Bob Pitt

guantanamo-bayMI5 contributed to the seizure of two British residents by the CIA, which secretly flew them to Guantánamo Bay in a move with “serious implications for the intelligence relationship” between Britain and the US, a cross-party committee of senior MPs said in a damning report released yesterday.

The security service passed information to the Americans on Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi, and Jamil el-Banna, from Jordan, as they flew to the Gambia to set up a business there in 2002. Both had lived in Britain for many years.

Mr Rawi was released from Guantánamo in March after evidence emerged in a British court that he helped MI5 monitor Abu Qatada, the radical cleric. Mr Banna is still held in the US base on Cuba. Though the US has said he can leave, the British government said his UK residence status had expired because of his absence.

In its report yesterday, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee said MI5 was “indirectly and inadvertently” involved in the rendition of the two men by passing on the information, which included claims about their Islamist sympathies. In unprecedented criticism of Britain’s security and intelligence agencies, the committee said both MI6 and MI5 “were slow to appreciate [the] change in US rendition policy” – a reference to the practice of seizing terrorist suspects and flying them to secret destinations where they risked being tortured.

Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve, which represents prisoners open to abuse, said last night: “The report makes clear some awful facts about the arrest and rendition of Jamil el-Banna and Bisher al-Rawi. The British government sent the Americans incorrect information that led directly to the arrest of these men … Jamil remains in Guantánamo Bay while the UK dithers about whether to allow him home to his wife and five British children. The UK started this chain of suffering. It must end it and bring Jamil back.”

Guardian, 26 July 2007

Brown plans to double terror detention limit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brown PlansBrown plans to double terror detention limit

By Louise Nousratpour

Morning Star, 26 July 2007

Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed a strong desire to double the current 28-day period of detention without charge or trial for “terror suspects” on Wednesday. But human rights campaigners slammed the proposal, warning that such an “assault on human rights and freedoms” would amount to internment.

During a speech on the “war against terror,” Mr Brown told MPs that the government would put forward a package of measures designed to combat terrorism. These include proposals to extend the pre-charge detention period to 56 days, allowing intercept evidence to be used in court, giving police powers to question suspects after they have been charged and placing a “highly visible” uniformed force at all ports and airports. The phone tapping and post-charge questioning proposals were first tabled by civil rights group Liberty.

Left MP John McDonnell vowed to monitor the proposals “very closely” once they are put to Parliament. He branded the plans “an unacceptable breach of human rights based upon unproved assumptions which will result in human suffering and miscarriages of justice.”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German urged MPs to defeat Mr Brown’s draconian proposals, just as they saw off his predecessor Tony Blair’s “disgraceful” plans to introduce a 90-day limit.

“These measures have nothing to do with stopping terrorism and everything to do with creating a climate of fear, where police and the government are given unprecedented powers,” she argued. “This is a complete betrayal of every aspect of our civil liberties and the millions of Labour supporters, many of who thought they would get better from Gordon Brown.”

Ms German warned that the proposals aimed to “criminalise communities – young Muslim men in particular.” She insisted: “The terror attacks in recent years, which many believe are the result of Britain’s foreign policy, will only stop once we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Nicola Duckworth of Amnesty International UK said that the government had forgotten “the lessons of Northern Ireland in the ’70s, where internment had devastating consequences for those affected and a disastrous impact on human rights, the rule of law and society as a whole.”

Continue reading →

Statement by Alex Salmond and Ken Livingstone

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alex Salmond MP MSP, First Minister of Scotland, and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London after meeting today said:

“We stand united in our condemnation of the recent attempted attacks in Glasgow and London and applaud the swift and courageous response of the emergency services and members of the public, which prevented any loss of life. The safety of all the inhabitants of Scotland and London rests on the professionalism of the police and security service and information supplied to these by all communities.

“We reiterate that actions like these are carried out by criminals, not by communities, and welcome as very important the clear and unambiguous statements by Muslim organisations, and all other communities, denouncing the killing of innocent people. Those who seek to use recent events to create divisions, foster prejudice and excuse mindless attacks on minority communities are contemptible.

“We are one Scotland and one London; places of rich history and diversity which welcome all those who seek to contribute to our society and abide by our laws, whatever their race, religion, creed or colour.”

GLA press release, 26 July 2007

Anti-Muslim bigotry: ‘Islamophobic’ or informed?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer (4)“Despite the best efforts of Islamic advocacy groups to obscure the connection between Islam and violence and supremacism, the sheer volume of Islamic terror attacks (over 9,000 around the world since 9/11) has awakened at least some Americans to the fact that the ideology that fuels those who are determined to destroy us is deeply rooted within Islam….

“The Newsweek poll should become the occasion for renewed debate about the attitude of Muslims in America toward Islamic Sharia law, and about the posture of American Muslims advocacy groups toward the U.S. Constitution. It should be the occasion for a new public examination of Muslim immigration and the monitoring of mosques. It should provide the foundation for a new public call to Muslims in America to renounce Sharia and Islamic supremacism….”

Robert Spencer responds to the recent Newsweek poll of US Muslims.

Front Page Magazine, 24 July 2007

Another wacko conspiracy theory

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Crescent of BetrayalThe planned crescent-shaped “memorial to heroes” of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania is nothing less than a huge outdoor mosque that pays homage to Islam, charges the author of a new book.

Alec Rawls’ Crescent of Betrayal: Dishonoring the Heroes of Flight 93, published by World Ahead, documents a long list of Islamic and terrorist memorializing features in the Flight 93 National Memorial.

The primary feature, he says, is the giant central crescent of what originally was called the “Crescent of Embrace” design. A person facing into this half-mile wide crescent – still present in the superficially altered “Bowl of Embrace” redesign – will be oriented almost exactly at Mecca.

That is significant, Rawls said, because a crescent that Muslims face to point them in the direction of Mecca – called a “mihrab” – is the central feature around which every mosque is built.

World Net Daily, 25 July 2007

Yes, that’s the same World Net Daily who brought you the “Muslims eat children” revelations.

Street warden called Saddam awarded £42k

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim street warden nicknamed “Saddam” during a four-year ordeal of racist abuse has won £42,500 after an employment tribunal. Iqbal Rasheed, 59, was the target of a vindictive campaign while working for a security firm under contract for Westminster council and the Greater London Authority.

Father-of-three Mr Rasheed, of St John’s Wood, told how colleagues at Chubb Security nicknamed him “Saddam”, branded him a “madman who believes in God” and laughed at him when he fasted during Ramadan. He said he was once told not to clean the spray-painted word “n****r” from the side of Selfridges because it was “not offensive”.

Shortly after British hostage Ken Bigley was decapitated in Iraq, Mr Rasheed said he was told by a colleague: “I hope they nuke you Iraqis now.” One South African supervisor told him: “I don’t make tea, I get n*****s to make it for me.”

Mr Rasheed, who was born in Aden, Yemen, said he was the subject of a bullying campaign by line manager Mike Edwards and colleagues Marie Robinson and Carol Wheeler, who are mother and daughter. He told the Lite today: “From the moment I stepped in the office I could feel the tension against me. I have lived in this country since I was a child but I was made to feel like a total outsider.”

The tribunal in Kingsway awarded the payout after finding that Mr Rasheed had been the subject of “racial and religious discrimination”. The panel also found he had been unfairly dismissed, having been forced out by racially motivated harassment.

Chubb Security has been ordered to pay £10,000 in costs. No staff have been dismissed. Company spokeswoman Jackie Gregory said: “The tribunal relates to an incident more than two and a half years ago. We regret what has occurred, and have taken steps to address it.”

London Lite, 25 July 2007

See also Evening Standard, 25 July 2007

Trial under way in Muslim charity case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Holy_Land_FoundationDALLAS — A group that was once the nation’s largest Muslim charity went on trial on terrorism-support charges Tuesday, with federal prosecutors saying it hoped to destroy Israel and the defense claiming leaders sought advice on staying true to their humanitarian mission.

The trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development is expected to last several months and caps an FBI investigation that lasted more than a decade. The organization and five of its top officials are charged with aiding terrorists, conspiracy and money laundering.

Prosecutor James T. Jacks said in his opening statement that the foundation was created to raise money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The charity’s leaders lied about their purpose “because to tell the truth is to reveal what they were all about – the destruction of the state of Israel and replacing it with a Palestinian Islamic state,” he said. Some of the money went to support the families of suicide bombers, according to authorities.

Defense attorneys say Holy Land supported humanitarian efforts in Palestinian neighborhoods and did not knowingly aid Hamas. “Holy Land had nothing to do with politics. Its focus was on children in need,” Nancy Hollander, lawyer for Holy Land chief executive Shukri Abu Baker, said in her opening statement.

Associated Press, 24 July 2007