British Arab Lawyers’ Association

MI5 and MI6 are facing claims that they systematically colluded in the torture of 29 terrorism suspects during interrogation in foreign prisons, it can be disclosed.

A campaign group representing prisoners detained for terrorism has compiled reports from a large number of detainees and former detainees who claim that the security and intelligence services were aware of their torture and mistreatment and did nothing to stop it.

The United States and Britain remain at odds over what could be the last case of a British-connected detainee at Guantanamo prison, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on Friday.

Smith, in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, said Britain seeks the return of Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer. Aamer is a Saudi citizen who had lived in Britain and has a British wife and four children in London.

Three houses of Palestinian supporters were raided yesterday morning and two people were arrested on suspicion of ‘conspiring to commit racially aggravated criminal damage’, the third person was not at home. Police seized three computers and papers relating Palestine and Israel. The 3 are outraged at the racist slur implied by the charge. Police raided three houses yesterday and arrested two people – on suspicion of ‘conspiring to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.’ They seized three computers and a lot of papers relating to Palestine/Israel affairs.

The claims by a former Guantanamo Bay detainee have been referred to the attorney general but David Cameron said that did not go far enough. He said it would only look at whether a crime was committed not whether “our moral authority has been maintained”. The PM condemned torture and said “all the evidence” would be looked at.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners with hands dyed blood red will gather at the City of London Magistrates Court on March 12th in support of a Jewish activist arrested for protesting at a celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary last June. For almost 10 million Palestinians around the world, 70 percent of whom are refugees, the foundation of the State of Israel was a catastrophe they call the Nakba. At least 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes.

Speaking for the first time since his release from Guantanamo Bay, Binyam Mohamed today claims that horrific torture he experienced while being held was directly influenced by the British Government.

Mr Mohamed, 30, a British resident, said secret telegrams sent by MI5 to the CIA show that the men responsible for his torture were being influenced by questions from the British security service in London.

Is it racist to criticise Israel ? Before we address that question, let’s flashback to last year’s Edinburgh International Festival. The scene is a concert in The Queens Hall attended by those solidly middle-class, older-than-average citizens who support live classical music, people of comfortable means who, though they complain about the cost, nevertheless stump up the hefty ticket price for an official Festival event. Douce and respectable, the audience settles down to a relaxing evening of Haydn, Smetana and Brahms, only to have the recital interrupted by middle-aged men and women, dotted among them, protesting about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians shouting things like “End the Siege of Gaza”, and “Boycott Israel”.

Members of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, these protesters have targeted this performance because it is being given by the Jerusalem Quartet. Before the concert, Marion Woolfson, the Jewish chair of the campaign group, had written to festival organisers asking them to rescind the invitation.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed the future of detainees in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison with European Union officials in Brussels on Friday in the highest-level talks to date on the subject, dpa reported.

“I thanked the EU for working with us to determine a policy regarding detainees from Guantanamo … If we determine that it would be appropriate for a particular detainee to be relocated, we will discuss that with our friends and partners, like the EU,” she said.

A graphic account by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed of his alleged torture during interrogation sessions has been passed to the high court.

The account details how he was beaten with a leather strap, held down and punched by masked men, cut with a scalpel on his chest and penis, and subjected to psychological torture by being forced to listen to loud music, including Meat Loaf. It is among documents, including testimony from the US, presented to high court judges by the Guardian and other media organisations challenging the UK and US governments’ refusal to disclose evidence of his ill-treatment.

In 1966 a thin, bespectacled youth, far from his home in Jerusalem, discovered Speaker’s Corner, a patch of London’s Hyde Park where anyone with something to say can harangue a crowd. He was captivated by the orators – some with years of experience, others having a go for the first time. The next Sunday he returned, found a couple of plastic milk crates to stand on, and began to speak about Palestine. In an instant his shyness disappeared; he found that the hecklers only gave him strength and clarified his thoughts. Soon the largest crowd in Speaker’s Corner was gathered around the gangly Palestinian.