Wednesday, February 18, 2009



Colluding in torture

More dirt is emerging on the UK's role in the torture of Benyam Mohammed, with news today that MI5 fed questions to the CIA for his interrogation despite knowing that he had been disappeared and rendered to a third country. As for what that interrogation consisted of, here's Mohammed's own description, smuggled out of Guantanamo Bay by his lawyer:

They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel. I was naked. I tried to put on a brave face. But maybe I was going to be raped. Maybe they'd electrocute me. Maybe castrate me.

They took the scalpel to my right chest. It was only a small cut. Maybe an inch. At first I just screamed ... I was just shocked, I wasn't expecting ... Then they cut my left chest. This time I didn't want to scream because I knew it was coming.

One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make cuts. He did it once, and they stood still for maybe a minute, watching my reaction. I was in agony. They must have done this 20 to 30 times, in maybe two hours. There was blood all over. "I told you I was going to teach you who's the man," [one] eventually said.

There is no question that this was criminal, and those involved should be held accountable for it, no matter which government they work for.