Full text of a CIA document indicating UK role in rendition of a terror suspect | World news. "Our service has become aware that last weekend LIFG deputy Emir Abu Munthir and his spouse and children were being held in Hong Kong detention for immigration/passport violations. We are also aware that your service has been cooperating with the British to effect Abu Munthir's removal to Tripoli, and that you had an aircraft available for this purpose in the Maldives.
Our understanding is that the Hong Kong special wing (SW) originally denied permission for your aircraft to land in Hong Kong to enable you to assume control of Abu Munthir and his family. However, we believe that the reason for the refusal was based on international concerns over having a Libyan-registered aircraft land in Hong Kong. Accordingly, if your government were to charter a foreign aircraft from a third country, the Hong Kong government may be able to coordinate with you to render Abu Munthir and his family into your custody. Libyan papers show UK worked with Gaddafi in rendition operation | World news. Evidence that British intelligence agencies mounted their own "rendition" operation in collaboration with Muammar Gaddafi's security services has emerged with the discovery of a cache of Libyan government papers in an abandoned office building in Tripoli. A secret CIA document found among the haul shows that the British and Libyans worked together to arrange for a terrorism suspect to be removed from Hong Kong to Tripoli – along with his wife and children – despite the risk that they would be tortured.
The wording of the document suggests the CIA was not involved in the planning of the rendition operation, but was eager to become engaged during its execution and offered financial support. Other papers found in the building suggest MI6 enjoyed a far closer working relationship with Gaddafi's intelligence agencies than has been publicly known, and was involved in a number of US-led operations that also resulted in Islamists being consigned to Gaddafi's prisons. Sins of colonialists lay concealed for decades in secret archive | UK news. In June 1957, Eric Griffith-Jones, the attorney general of the British administration in Kenya, wrote to the governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, detailing the way the regime of abuse at the colony's detention camps was being subtly altered.
From now on, Griffith-Jones wrote, for the abuse to remain legal, Mau Mau suspects must be beaten mainly on their upper body, "vulnerable parts of the body should not be struck, particularly the spleen, liver or kidneys", and it was important that "those who administer violence … should remain collected, balanced and dispassionate". Almost as an after-thought, the attorney general reminded the governor of the need for complete secrecy. "If we are going to sin," he wrote, "we must sin quietly. " More than 50 years later, with the imperial endgame long over, evidence of those sins remained quietly concealed in a secret archive within one of the British government's most secure facilities.
On Secret Trials « simonmckay. On Secret Trials Jeremy Bentham said that secrecy was an instrument of conspiracy and ought never to be the system of regular government. The reason why can be no more eloquently captured than by Toulson LJ in the recent case of R (Guardian Newspapers) v City of Westminster Magistrates Court [2012] EWCA Civ 420: “Open justice. The words express a principle at the heart of our system of justice and vital to the rule of law. The rule of law is a fine concept but fine words butter no parsnips. How is the rule of law itself to be policed? It is an age old question. The proposals for secret trials go to the heart of these weighty questions. The Prime Minister’s position is expressly this: “As I see it, there are some significant gaps in our defences, gaps because of the moving on of technology – people making telephone calls through the internet, rather than through fixed lines. This is simply not correct.
There is a sobering warning about how these proposals can be abused in practice. Anti-cuts 'street parties' to rival Queen's diamond jubilee and Olympics | UK news. Anti-cuts campaigners are planning to stage a series of alternative street parties before the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations and the Olympics to highlight opposition to the government's austerity programme. They are calling on supporters to close roads and occupy public spaces as part of a nationwide anti-cuts campaign this summer. The group says it has no plans to directly disrupt either the jubilee celebrations in June or the Olympics, which begin on 27 July, but wants supporters to stage "street parties with a twist" on its first day of action on 26 May.
"We want people to stand up and demand that we keep our public services, our rights and our welfare system and to celebrate a new future that isn't dictated to us by a handful of millionaires but decided by us all – together," said Anna Walker of UK Uncut. The protests will focus on Britain in 1948, the year the National Health Service was founded and the last time the Olympics was held in London. "No, quite the opposite.
MI5 and MI6 Exposed 2. 1. 1979 - Powergen, Solihull: The young British Intelligence recruits entering this building, had no idea of the hell that lay before them. No idea that they would be forced to become slaves to a demonic, mind control program; run by MI6 and sanctioned by Royal Arch Freemasonry. No idea that they would be forced to sign the Masonic 'Sat B'hai' contract and swear allegiance to the Monarchy rather than to the UK State. No idea at all, in fact. The Powergen building was mostly unoccupied in 1979. Only a few Powergen employees worked in the building, which was almost deserted. To outsiders, the young people who entered this building each day, looked like a relatively normal, young bunch of Powergen graduate recruits and so nothing out of the usual. At 21 years old, Richard Tomlinson was one of the graduate intake onto this course - most of the recruits were aged between 18 and 21 years old. 'Your counterparts in the KGB'.
What was 'real' communism, according to Manningham-Buller? Why 1994? How secret renditions shed light on MI6's licence to kill and torture | World news. In fiction, James Bond drew quite judiciously upon his licence to kill, bumping off just 38 adversaries in a dozen Ian Fleming novels. In each case, the individual received his or her just deserts. In real life, MI6 insists its officers do not kill anyone. "Assassination," its former head Sir Richard Dearlove has said, "is no part of the policy of Her Majesty's government" and would be entirely contrary to the agency's ethos. But there can be circumstances in which MI6 officers do have a licence to kill or commit any other crime, enshrined in a curious and little-known law that was intended to protect British spies from being prosecuted or sued in the UK after committing crimes abroad.
Section 7 of the 1994 Intelligence Services Act offers protection not only to spies involved in bugging or bribery, but also to any who become embroiled in far more serious matters, such as murder, kidnap or torture – as long as their actions have been authorised in writing by a secretary of state. Libyan dissidents sue MI6 officer over abduction and torture claims | World news. Abdel Hakim Belhaj, pictured, and and Sami al-Saadi are suing MI6's Sir Mark Allen for 'complicity in torture' and 'misfeasance in public office'. Photograph: Francois Mori/AP Two prominent Libyan dissidents are suing a former senior MI6 officer in a move which could expose the role of ministers in the men's abduction to Tripoli, where they say they were tortured by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's secret police.
Lawyers for Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi have served a claim on Sir Mark Allen, the MI6 officer at the centre of the affair. They are suing Allen, then the most senior officer in MI6 responsible for counter-terrorism, alleging "complicity in torture" and "misfeasance in public office". Whitehall officials have repeatedly defended MI6's actions, saying the agency was following "ministerially authorised government policy. " Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary at the time, and former prime minister Tony Blair, have both sought to distance themselves from the matter. Rendition of Abdul Hakim Belhaj. 8 April 2012Last updated at 22:58 GMT By Peter Taylor BBC News Mr Belhaj was intercepted as he tried to fly from Malaysia to claim asylum in the UK M16's alleged involvement in the 2004 rendition to Libya of Abdel Hakim Belhaj was approved by the government, the BBC can reveal.
Mr Belhaj is suing the British government, saying it was complicit in his illegal rendition and subsequent imprisonment and torture under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's former regime. BBC correspondent Peter Taylor explains. It seemed to be one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's defining moments: a photo opportunity on 25 March 2004 with Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in the Brother Leader's desert tent. The setting had been specifically requested by Number 10 "as the journalists would love it".
This remarkable turnaround was primarily orchestrated by MI6's senior counter terrorist officer, Sir Mark Allen, an Arabist who was personally close to Gaddafi and his court - including his head of intelligence, Musa Kusa. Redacted Motorman Blue Book - Google Docs. Motorman: Britain’s Biggest Establishment Cover-Up Thousands of Crimes Committed By Over 300 Journalists Protected from Exposure by a Judge and Newspaper Editors. The protest Games: demonstrators target Olympics - Olympics - Sport. The vow came as the first major demonstration on an Olympic site – a protest camp against the construction of a training hall to be used during the Games – moved into its seventh day.
Construction of the basketball facility at Leyton Marsh in east London was halted on Wednesday as protesters from Occupy London joined local residents who had set up camp there. Olympic organisers were recently forced to more than double the number of security guards required for the Games from 10,000 to 23,700, pushing the cost of security up from £282m in 2010 to £553m in December 2011. They also announced earlier this month that 7,500 of the extra guards would be military personnel. Police have also been given extra measures to deal with demonstrations, including the ability to fast-track the process of dismantling makeshift camps.
Games organisers Locog did not respond to a request for comment. Flash Player. Justice and security green paper: silence in court. The government's proposals to extend secret hearings – "closed material procedures" – to all manner of civil proceedings would deprive people of their rights to a fair trial, and undermine the principle of open justice. If the proposals set out in the green paper on justice and security become law, the secretary of state would decide if a claim against government should be heard in secret. Ministers whisper sweet reason about judges retaining a say on whether a case should be heard behind closed doors. That is true enough, but misleading. The judge will only be able to challenge secrecy where the secretary of state's deliberations were outright "irrational", as opposed to being free to strike a proper balance between open justice in public and any harm caused by disclosure.
The government, in the person of the secretary of state, may be easily persuaded that embarrassing evidence of misconduct by government officials should be kept under wraps. The cybersnoops are always one step ahead of ministers - Crime - UK. Because if a journalist can access someone like Gordon Brown's personal correspondence just imagine what the Chinese are reading. During the past few years, the Government has invested millions of pounds trying to ensure its communications are as secure from interception as possible. But two glaring problems remain. The first is that while the Government can secure its own communications it cannot secure the communications of those it corresponds with. Every time a minister writes an email to anyone outside Whitehall that correspondence is vulnerable from the moment it arrives in the recipient's inbox. They do not have access to the kind of security available to members of the Government and are probably as lax with passwords and other basic precautions as the rest of us.
The second security flaw is even more significant. All this makes ministers vulnerable to pretty basic interception. Revealed: bankers' secret meetings with ministers - UK Politics - UK. Bank bosses are fighting furiously behind the scenes to limit any changes to the way they do business. Fears are growing – articulated by Sir John himself – that the banks are successfully thwarting the Government's plans to overhaul the British banking system and the Treasury is weakening some of the key reforms as a result of intense lobbying.
Mr Osborne also personally met the Barclays boss Bob Diamond, the Royal Bank of Scotland's Stephen Hester and Lloyds' Antonio Horta-Osorio on separate occasions in the days before the Vickers report. Mr Osborne will announce his official response to the Vickers Independent Commission on Banking proposals on Monday – it is certain to be scrutinised for any sign that the Government's resolve to tackle the sector has been weakened. Mr Hester attended a meeting with Mr Alexander on the very day the report was published. Mr Hoban held his own meeting with Mr Hester two days later. In quotes: What they said about bank reform George Osborne, 8 April 2009. Miliband's intervention is a victory for the Occupy Movement. Let's be clear. It is impossible to imagine a Labour Party led by Tony Blair or Gordon Brown -- in opposition or in government -- having a single positive thing to say about the protesters huddled around St Paul's Cathedral.
But Ed Miliband has penned a piece for today's Observer that, with a few predictable caveats, argues he is coming from the same place as the Occupy movement. The protests "reflect a crisis of concern for millions of people about the biggest issue of our time: the gap between their values and the way our country is run," he argues. Firstly, it's a victory for Occupy. The left is so accustomed to defeat that it is often incapable of acknowledging a step forward, however limited or modest in scale. For some, Miliband is to be damned whatever he does: to be rightly condemned if he denounces the protests, and to be accused of attempting to co-opt them if he welcomes them.
No, I don't expect or want the Occupy protesters to mock up posters of Miliband as Che Guevara. The Saviour. Oppose the extradition of Julian Assange. 7 November 2011 The decision last week by the High Court in London to dismiss the appeal of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of his extradition to Sweden is an attack on democratic rights. The judgement by Sir John Thomas and Mr. Justice Ouseley upheld the February 2011 decision by District Judge Howard Riddle at Belmarsh Magistrates Court for extradition, rejecting every issue of substance in Assange’s appeal. Relying on antidemocratic and arbitrary European Arrest Warrant (EAW) legislation, the judges pronounced, “The Prosecutor must be entitled to seek to apply the provisions of Swedish law to the procedure once it has been determined that Mr.
Assange is an accused and is required for the purposes of prosecution.” Assange has still not been charged with any crime in Sweden, or in any other country. The judges’ ruling amounted to a decision that if Sweden wants to have Assange extradited under an EAW, then that is what will happen. Robert Stevens. Back down at #occupylsx demo, tented village seems to be thri. Global protests: Occupy the London Stock Exchange takes over the City. St Pauls under siege. #occupylsx #OccupyLondon. Occupy London Stock Exchange 15 Oct - storify.com. Liam Fox resignation exposes Tory links to US radical right | Politics | The Observer. 16 YEAR OLD GIRL BATTERED BY TOTTENHAM RIOT POLICE - THIS IS WHAT STARTED IT ALL! England riots: pair jailed for four years for using Facebook to incite disorder | UK news. Cameron: Police got riots wrong.
London Riots: it's not about police numbers | Politics. I blame the British government for the riots. #EDL's Steve Guest wants to use the #LondonRiots as a co. London disturbances - Sunday 7 August | UK news. Farewell youth clubs, hello street life – and gang warfare | UK news.