Mr Miliband Shamelessly Denies Everything (Again) - a never ending series?
Or 'Don't Blame Mr Miliband for CIA torture, etc, he's only the British Foreign Secretary ...'
Am I alone in feeling shame that the MP for my home town is helping to cover up torture (on a huge scale)? How did we ever get such a disgrace of an MP landed on us?!
I note with interest what the brother of the tortured man said:
Mr Mohamed's brother, Dr Benhur Mohamed, said he had written to Mr Miliband asking him to help his brother but had not got an answer from him.
He told the BBC: "I feel very sad. I feel betrayed. It's very cruel from a person who is elected by the people to protect humanity and freedom and the rule of law."
Phil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7871226.stmDavid Miliband statement on US 'torture pressure'
David Miliband has said that disclosing classified information provided by the US could do "real and significant damage" to British national security.
He defended his decision not to release the US papers in a Commons statement about Binyam Mohamed, a Guantanamo detainee who claims he was tortured.
The foreign secretary said the UK would "never condone" torture.
And he denied the US threatened to "break off" security cooperation if its secret papers had been made public.
But he told MPs it was his judgement that "the disclosure of the intelligence documents at issue by order of UK courts against the wishes of the US authorities would indeed cause real and significant damage to the national security and international relations of this country".
He added: "Our intelligence relationship with the US is vital to the national security of the UK.
"It is essential that the ability of the US to communicate such material in confidence to the UK is protected. Without such confidence they will simply not share that material with us."
Binyam Mohamed, 30, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for four years after being accused by the US authorities of planning a terrorist attack.
He alleges he was tortured while being questioned in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, and that UK intelligence agencies were complicit in the practice. He wants US papers detailing his treatment to be released.
But the High Court ruled they should remain secret as Mr Miliband felt there was a risk to intelligence co-operation from the US if they were published.
Mr Miliband told MPs there would be "no prejudice" to Mr Mohamed's case as a result of the ruling as the information was available to his US legal counsel.
"The issue at stake is not the content of the intelligence material but the principle at the heart of all intelligence relationships - that a country retains control of its intelligence information and it cannot be disclosed by foreign authorities without its consent.
"That is a principle we neglect at our peril."
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague urged him to raise the issue with the new Obama administration in the US.
He suggested that, with the changes in the new administration's policy as well as personnel changes in the CIA, "would it not be right to put it to the US administration that it could change its approach to this case without fundamentally breaching the principle of which the foreign secretary has spoken?"
He pointed out that the High Court had said there was nothing in paragraphs kept secret that could be considered "highly sensitive, classified by US intelligence".
Mr Miliband replied that only the Americans could make a decision about whether sources would be compromised by disclosure adding: "I am not going to join a lobbying campaign against the American government for this decision. It is a decision they have to make... This case hinges not on the content of the redacted paragraphs but of the nature of the redacted paragraphs."
Ed Davey, for the Liberal Democrats, suggested the government had "rolled over in the face of a scarcely credible threat from a friend".
"The truth is, the question of publication of the summary was not about security and intelligence, it was about whether or not to cover up torture and the United States' interest in avoiding political embarrassment and potential criminal investigations against their security services," he said.
The White House has thanked the UK government "for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information".
On Wednesday, two British judges claimed that the US had threatened to stop sharing intelligence with the UK if it made public details of Mr Mohamed's treatment.
They said it was "difficult to conceive" that a democratically elected and accountable government could have any rational objection to publishing the summary of Mr Mohamed's treatment by US agencies.
The government has asked the attorney general to investigate the torture claims. But Amnesty International director Kate Allen said: "It's not enough to pass this matter to a semi-secret committee or the attorney general, instead we need a proper independent public inquiry into Binyam's case and the wider practice of rendition and secret detention."
Mr Mohamed's brother, Dr Benhur Mohamed, said he had written to Mr Miliband asking him to help his brother but had not got an answer from him.
He told the BBC: "I feel very sad. I feel betrayed. It's very cruel from a person who is elected by the people to protect humanity and freedom and the rule of law."
Dr Mohamed said of his brother: "He is very supportive and very considerate. He is not the kind of person who would want to hurt anybody."
