TERROR WATCH
Michael Isikoff and
Mark Hosenball
All Locked Up and No Place to Go
Why can't the Brits deport a suspected terror figure?
A British appeals court Wednesday blocked the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown from deporting to Jordan a firebrand Islamic cleric who has long been suspected of close ties to Al Qaeda. The court's rationale: there were reasonable grounds to believe the Jordanians would jail him for life based on evidence obtained through the torture of other detainees.
The court ruling is the latest example of how the alleged use of torture is complicating efforts by the United States and its allies to prosecute high-profile terror suspects and their associates. In this case, the suspect at issue, Abu Qatada, is a notorious radical imam who, British authorities charge, has inflamed British Muslims with his anti-Western sermons. All the while, he has maintained "long-established connections with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda," according to a British government dossier entered into evidence in his court case. Abu Qatada has always denied being an Al Qaeda operative or leader, although in an interview broadcast after 9/11 he said that even though he has never met Osama bin Laden he would have been "proud" to have done so.
British authorities sought to deport Abu Qatada to his native country, Jordan, where he has twice been convicted in absentia for conspiracy to commit terrorist activities and was sentenced to life in prison. But the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for England and Wales stopped the move on the grounds that it would violate Abu Qatada's human rights. The court cited Jordan's long history of using torture against terror suspects, and pointed to a 2006 Amnesty International report detailing "persistent complaints of torture" against suspects in "incommunicado detention" by Jordanian security forces. Human Rights Watch, a group that campaigns against the use of torture, released a report this week that described how detainees held by Jordan's intelligence service, known as the GID, were allegedly subjected to brutal beatings and threats of rape. The report claimed that from 2001 to at least 2004, the GID served as a "proxy jailer" for the Central Intelligence Agency. The organization claimed that "more than just warehousing these men, the GID interrogated them using methods that were even more brutal than those in which the CIA has been implicated to date." In one such instance, a Jordanian detainee, in a note smuggled out of a GID detention facility in 2003, claimed that he had been "threatened ... with electricity ... and with snakes and dogs ... [They said] we'll make you see death."
A spokesman for the Jordanian Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. In the past, the Jordanian government has repeatedly denied that it engages in torture.
The British government said it plans to appeal the court's ruling. A government spokesman said that Abu Qatada, who has been detained without trial since 2005, "will remain behind bars."
The issue is especially sensitive for the CIA. After the 9/11 attacks, the agency flew a number of terror suspects picked up in Afghanistan and elsewhere to prisons in Jordan, Egypt and Morocco. The fate of many of these suspects, who were transported under what is known as the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, remains unknown. Bush administration officials have repeatedly insisted that Jordan and other countries reassured them that suspects would not be tortured. Asked for comment, a CIA spokesman said: "Renditions are a lawful, valuable tool and they have been used for years to take terrorists off the streets. The United States does not transport individuals for the purpose of torture, and has no interest in any process that would produce bad intelligence. The agency does not, as a rule, comment publicly on allegations of specific rendition activities."
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Member Comments
Posted By: Rolo1 @ 04/15/2008 12:43:00 PM
Comment: T hhink the biggest Terror threat we have and have had for some time now is really an ECONOMIC THREAT, that is the weapon of mass destruction . The smoking gun or mushroom cloud will be $5.00 /gallon at the pump.,and a ressission.
Posted By: eddiewhere @ 04/12/2008 5:49:56 AM
Comment: WE NEED TO MONITOR THE CyBER WAR CHINA HAS ALREADy LAUNCHED AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS project IS AT THE Top of CHINA"S MILITARy agenda against US.
THIS IS A FACT. THIS INCLUDES THE THEFT OF technological secrets. THE AMERICAN pEOpLE NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH. REMEMBER CLINTON SOLD THE LINCOLN BEDROOM TO THE CHINESE.
IN THE LONG RUN WE ALSO NEED TO MONITOR A pOSSIBLE MILITARy ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA. NOW, if McCAIN SETs A ONE HUNDRED yEAR AGENA FOR pREVENTING AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA, WELL THAT MAKES SENSE.
THE ONLy REASON THE REBpULBICANS SUppORT STAyING IN IRAQ IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE REBpULBICAN POWER BASE and it's backers are making BILLIONS IN IRAQ. WHILE OUR TREASURy IS BEING DRAINED EVERy DAy at the tax Payers exPense.
MORE THAN HUNDRED THOUSHAND DOLLARS A DAy. THIS IS A MODEST ESTIMASTE.
WHY CAN'T WE SEE THAT THE PeoPle Profiting from the war are haPPy with the status quo. WHo are these PeoPle,
Private Contrators who lobbied the RePublican adminstration
Cheney/ Halliburton who Provided billion dollar contracts to selected firms.
These caPitalists decided to unite and Profit in Iraq, Build a new economy in Iraq where the oil comPainies, caPitalists that suPPort the Bush Administration, War Profiteers and other Private comPanies could all make Billions at the tax Payers exPense. HERE"S THE proof, keep in mind this is just the tip ot the ice berg
Cheney's stock options which were worth $241,498 a year ago, are now valued at more than $8 million-- for an increase of 3,281% . Cheney has pledged to give the proceeds to charity. Cheney continues to receive a deferred salary from the Halliburton. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.
Halliburton, has already raked in more than $10 billion for work in Iraq, and was handed some of the first Katrina contracts. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of no-bid contacts in Iraq, and there have been numerous allegations of over charging for services. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company also built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay. "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. Lautenberg???
They even "pimped" our troops. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Do you think Bush and Cheney care that we are spending billions in IRAQ, NO. THis is why they hated the CLINTONS. THE CLINTON"S ACTUALLY USED TAX payer money to help the middle class and all AMERICANS.
Posted By: burbank @ 04/11/2008 2:21:50 AM
Comment: When England was faced with the terror of Nazi Gremany and the blitzkreg, it was the redoubtable pluck of the English citizens that gave England her finest hour. Today, that resolve has given way to politically correct censure that second guesses the accomplishments that England has given to the world. Americans like to think that we invented democracy, but it was the seed of the Magna Carta nurtured in the womb of English Common Law that gave birth to the idea that became America. You now have to recalim your past so that your children can inherit the future. Those of your countrymen who would debase the ideals that are the foundation of your country need to be re-educated on what England stands for, what she was and what she is today. I believe the saying goes, "The sun never sets on the British Empire". What was true then is true today. But now it is an empire of the heart. And when you recall the foundation upon which that empire was built, then you will achieve victory.
Good luck, God speed,
Burbank