US threatened to end UK spy cooperation, say judges

February 5, 2009 by 1 Comment

David Miliband

David Miliband

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Two British judges published scathing criticism yesterday of the British government’s decision to withhold documents on the case of a Guantánamo detainee who says he was tortured, thus giving in to alleged pressure by the US to keep the information secret. The two high court judges, Justice Lloyd Jones and Lord Justice Thomas, accused the British government of keeping “powerful evidence” secret after being threatened by Washington that it would “stop sharing intelligence about terrorism with the UK”. The judges also dismissed claims by the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, that “the public of the United Kingdom would be put at risk” if the American threats were to materialize. The court case involves allegations of torture by Binyam Mohamed, a resident of Britain, who is currently imprisoned by US authorities at the Guantánamo Bay camp. Mr. Mohamed was abducted in 2002 by Pakistani authorities, who delivered him to US intelligence agents. The latter employed the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition and had Mr. Mohamed secretly imprisoned in Morocco and Afghanistan before taking him to Guantánamo. The Ethiopian-born Mohamed says he was brutally tortured while in Moroccan and US custody. Read more of this post

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British MPs to consider torture allegations of MI5 detainees

February 2, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In 2007, British newspaper The Guardian disclosed that several Pakistani “war on terror” detainees in Pakistan were severely tortured by Pakistani intelligence agents before being interrogated by British security officers. Nearly two years after the revelations, a joint British Parliament committee has agreed to consider the allegations. On Tuesday, February 3, the British Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights will hear evidence that interrogators with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) brutally tortured a number of prisoners before handing them over to interrogators working for MI5, Britain’s foremost counterintelligence agency. In exposing the story in 2007, The Guardian suggested that the MI5 agents were aware of the torture, which involved severe beatings, fingernail extractions, and even physical threats with electric drills. Read more of this post

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Confirmed: CIA extraordinary renditions to continue under Panetta

February 2, 2009 by 2 Comments

Leon Panetta

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On January 22, I examined the possibility that Leon Panetta, Barack Obama’s nominee for CIA Director, may favor the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition. The Los Angeles Times has now confirmed that the new US President has authorized the CIA to continue its policy on renditions under Mr. Panetta –a Clinton-era administrator who has publicly come out against the use of torture in interrogations. Extraordinary rendition involves extrajudicial kidnappings of wanted terrorism suspects by CIA or FBI paramilitaries, often abroad, followed by extrajudicial transfers of same suspects to third countries, such as Egypt or Syria, where they are usually tortured. The extracted information is then utilized by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their pursuit of the “war on terrorism”. This notorious practice became widespread under the first George W. Bush Administration, but it was first implemented under former US President Bill Clinton. As White House aide to Mr. Clinton at the time, Leon Panetta was reportedly  “a consumer of intelligence at the highest level”. It follows that he must have known about the practice, though he apparently failed to speak out against it. Read more of this post

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Comment: Is CIA Director Nominee a Hypocrite?

January 22, 2009 by 11 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On January 6, I wrote that the President’s nominee for CIA Director, Leon Panetta, draws many of his intellectual positions from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party –most notably in the case of torture, of which he is a strong opponent. It is for this reason that many in the CIA hesitate to embrace Panetta, who is seen as representing “the left flank of the Democratic Party”. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that what passes as “left” in the eyes of the CIA is not necessarily –and should not be– considered “left” in the real world of politics. Leon Panetta’s stance on the practice of extraordinary rendition might be a case in point. Read more of this post

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Outgoing CIA head confirms Obama backing down on torture

January 16, 2009 by 3 Comments

Hayden

Hayden

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On January 15, I suggested that, after nominating Panetta, incoming US President Barack Obama was slowly backing away from his dispute with the CIA leadership. This interpretation has now been publicly confirmed by no other than departing CIA Director, Michael V. Hayden. Speaking to journalists about his imminent departure from the Agency, Hayden made sure to let them know that Mr. Obama privately assured him “he has no plans to launch a legal inquiry” into the CIA’s use of controversial interrogation methods in the “war on terrorism”. He also stated that the President Elect offered similar guarantees to Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnel, during a secret meeting in Chicago in December 2008. Read more of this post

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Obama said to be backing down in rift with CIA

January 15, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
This author has been reporting on the continuing rift between the incoming Democratic Administration and many in ledership positions at the CIA. The latter openly warned the President Elect last month that he “may have difficulty finding a candidate who can be embraced by both veteran officials at the agency and the left flank of the Democratic Party”. As I explained on January 6, Obama’s nomination of Leon Panetta to head the CIA should be expected to spark further protests by the troubled agency. It now appears that, having nominated Panetta, the Obama team is slowly backing away from its dispute with the country’s intelligence leadership. The New York Times reports that there is “a growing sense” among observers that the incoming President is “not inclined” to pursue any broad inquiries on warrantless eavesdropping (Operation STELLAR WIND) or the use of torture against CIA detainees in the “global war on terrorism”. Read more of this post

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Senate Committee report blames Bush Administration for detainee torture

December 13, 2008 by Leave a comment

In 2004, after the eruption of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, the US Department of Defense dismissed the torture practices as the work “of a few bad apples”. Now a report by a bipartisan Senate committee concludes that the abuses conducted by CIA and US military guards and interrogators were direct results of the Bush Administration’s detention policies and “should not be dismissed as the work of bad guards or interrogators”. The report, detailing a two-year study by the US Senate Armed Services Committee, has yet to be made public and much of it will remain classified. This being the case, it is not expected to have any impact on the Bush administration, which “continues to delay and in some cases bar members of Congress from gaining access to key legal documents and memos about the detainee program”. [IA]

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Letter suggests CIA destroyed torture tapes after damning report

December 12, 2008 by Leave a comment

Almost exactly a year ago, the US Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of two videotapes by the CIA, which reportedly showed acts of torture committed during interrogations of detainees in the so-called “war on terrorism”. After an initial interest in the case, the US media then forgot about it and moved on to other things. One person who chose not to forget this issue is investigative reporter Jason Leopold. In a new article, Leopold references new information showing that the CIA destroyed the videotapes in question after –not before, as the Agency has claimed– a spring 2004 report by the CIA’s inspector general, which described the interrogation methods employed against CIA prisoners as “constitut[ing] cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment”. Read the article here. [IA]

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Rift between CIA and Obama transition team continues

December 10, 2008 by Leave a comment

During the past several weeks we have been reporting that US President-Elect Barack Obama’s plans for the CIA have “created anxiety in the ranks of the agency’s clandestine service”, as the The New York Times put it. The Agency has effectively warned Obama a that he “may have difficulty finding a candidate who can be embraced by both veteran officials at the agency and the left flank of the Democratic Party”. It is believed that Obama is trying to alleviate the agency’s “anxiety” by proposing to retain the CIA’s current leadership. On Tuesday the Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Rees of Texas, was enlisted by the CIA to pressure Obama to “keep the country’s current national intelligence director and CIA chief in place for some time to ensure continuity in US intelligence programs”. Read more of this post

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Comment: Obama may retain current CIA leadership

December 8, 2008 by 2 Comments

In early November, US President-Elect Barack Obama appeared to be determined to install John Brennan, former head of the National Counterterrorism Center and supporter of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques”, to the post of Director of the CIA. The stir caused by Brennan’s support of torture techniques soon caused him to resign from the candidacy. The New York Times described Brennan’s resignation as “the biggest glitch so far in what has been an otherwise smooth transition for Mr. Obama”. On December 3, the paper warned that Obama’s decision to exclude Brennan from the CIA has “created anxiety in the ranks of the agency’s clandestine service”. It also quoted an unnamed intelligence official who cautioned the Obama transition team that Obama “may have difficulty finding a candidate who can be embraced by both veteran officials at the agency and the left flank of the Democratic Party”. In other words, the Clandestine Service does not intend to co-operate with a progressive attempt to restructure the CIA along essentially democratic lines. The threat appears to have been received. US News and World Report has cited the usual anonymous “intelligence sources” in speculating that “it is possible that [the President-Elect] might ask CIA Director Mike Hayden to stay on for a while”. Read more of this post

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USAF interrogator says torture caused thousands of US troops’ deaths in Iraq

December 3, 2008 by Leave a comment

Matthew Alexander is the pseudonym used by a former US Air Force interrogator. He served for fourteen years, undertook special missions in over 30 countries and conducted or supervised over 1,300 interrogations. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his tour in Iraq, which he completed in 2006. Alexander has authored an editorial in The Washington Post, titled “I’m Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq”. The article is deeply critical of what Alexander describes as “the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the US military conducts interrogations in Iraq”. Read more of this post

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