RSS Feed     Twitter     Facebook
Blog > Archive by tag 'Global terrorism'

Posts Tagged ‘Global terrorism’

New claim of UK torture complicity

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

Papers suggest intelligence service knew men were being mistreated

A businessman who was held and mistreated in the United Arab Emirates following the London bombings believes he has evidence that British consular officials asked permission from the UK’s own security services to visit him while he was detained.

Heavily redacted documents seen by the Guardian appear to indicate that the request to visit Alam Ghafoor was made to an unidentified British intelligence officer and not to officials in the UAE.

Ghafoor is one of several British men who allege there has been British complicity in their detention and torture while abroad. The businessman, who is 38 and from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was detained and tortured while on a business trip to Dubai following the London bombings in July 2005.

Ghafoor and his business partner, Mohammed Rafiq Siddique, flew to the UAE on 4 July. They were dragged out of a restaurant as they dined on 21 July. The two British Muslims say they were threatened with torture, deprived of sleep, subjected to stress positions and told they would be killed and fed to dogs.

Ghafoor has obtained copies of correspondence from consular officials to the Foreign Office in London while he was in custody that show those officials were asking someone other than the UAE authorities for permission to see him. Who that person is, and who they represented, is unclear, as their name was censored before the copies were handed over. Some of the reports were so heavily redacted by the time Ghafoor received them that the only words not blanked are his name.

In one email, dated 25 July, 2005, a consular official wrote: “Today I phoned [name withheld] trying to get permission to see them. First [...] told me that there was no need because they would be deported soon. I asked if we could see them today or tomorrow. [...] told me that [...] would check with the UAE authorities… and would let me know. I didn’t hear from [...] since then. Tomorrow I’ll speak to [...] again.”

Ghafoor, who was released without charge on 30 July, is convinced that the individual to which consular officials were turning for permission to see him was a British intelligence officer. At the time of his interrogation, Ghafoor was told that British security services had requested his questioning.

MI5 and MI6 officers who question terrorism suspects they know are being tortured, are acting in line with a secret government interrogation policy, drawn up after the 9/11 attacks. The policy states: “we cannot be party to such ill treatment nor can we be seen to condone it” and that “it is important that you do not engage in any activity yourself that involves inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners.” It also advises intelligence officers that if detainees “are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene” to prevent torture.

According to Philippe Sands, QC, one of the world’s leading experts in international human rights law, the policy almost certainly breaches international human rights.

When Ghafoor asked why he had been picked up, he was shown a photograph and told he resembled one of the 7/7 suicide bombers and must be related to him. His business partner, Siddique, who was also detained and tortured, says he was told he must have been involved in the bombings – not only did he share a name with the bombers – but he lived in Dewsbury, the same Yorkshire town.

Ghafoor said his interrogators questioned his sexuality, as he is not married, and insulted him because he was unable to wash, saying he smelled. He was also punched in the groin.

One interrogator said to him: “In the morning you will be thrown into a pit and the dogs will tear you to bits and I will watch it and enjoy it.”

Eventually, he agreed to sign a false confession admitting he was a friend of the bombers and had organised the London attacks. “I wrote a false confession and put crazy things in it like ‘I have constant contact with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’,” he said.

He was told he would be shot by a firing squad the following morning.

When Ghafoor returned home, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His relationship with his partner broke down and he suffered nightmares, anxiety and paranoia.

Ghafoor is furious that there has been no explanation for his treatment, nor an apology. “I would like to know why I was put through this hell and I would like someone to be accountable.”

Clive Stafford-Smith, the legal director of Reprieve, a not-for-profit human rights organisation, said: “It is impossible for the victims of torture to move on without truth and reconciliation, yet the British government seems intent on covering up what it has done.”

He added: “Until recently, the British security services were told to effectively turn a blind eye to torture.”

The Foreign Office said in a statement that Ghafoor and Siddique were not detained at Britain’s request. “British consular staff visited them on July 30, 2005 to ensure their welfare needs were being addressed. Their detention was a matter for the Dubai authorities … they were not detained at the request of the UK government. We do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.

“Wherever allegations of wrongdoing are made, they are taken seriously and investigated as appropriate.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

‘Godfather’ of Swat Taliban arrested

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

Radical cleric held in Pakistan after claims he reneged on pledge to oppose terrorism

Pakistani police have arrested Sufi Muhammad, a radical cleric considered to be the political godfather of Taliban groups in the Swat region of Pakistan.

Muhammad brokered last February’s ill-fated peace deal which allowed the Taliban to seize control of the Swat valley. The deal’s collapse triggered an army attack in May.

An elderly, black-turbaned figure with a stern demeanour, Muhammad kept a low profile after fighting erupted. But in recent days he angered provincial authorities by holding public meetings.

“Instead of keeping his promises by taking steps for the sake of peace, and speaking out against terrorism, he did not utter a single word against terrorists,” said Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for the North-West Frontier Province.

It was not clear what charges were being brought against Muhammad, who was taken into custody in Peshawar, in the north-west of Pakistan. Although his group, the outlawed Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi, claims to be peaceful, two senior officials were detained during fighting. They later died when the army convoy they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb.

In late 2001 Muhammad gained notoriety after he led hundreds of Pakistanis, many of them untrained farmers, to fight US forces in Afghanistan. Many were killed and Muhammad was jailed on his return.

Last year the provincial government released him to help broker peace with the Swat Taliban, whose leader, Maulana Fazlullah, is his son-in-law.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Pakistan arrests two over Pole’s beheading

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

Pro-Taliban former politician among those suspected of killing Piotr Stanczak, kidnapped near Afghan border last year

Police in Pakistan are holding two men, including a former politician, over the beheading of a Polish geologist kidnapped near the Afghan border last year.

Police investigator Malik Tariq Awan says the men are linked to the Taliban and were arrested last month.

Awan named one of the suspects as Shah Abdul Aziz, a member of a pro-Taliban religious party elected to parliament’s lower house in 2002.

He said that Aziz is believed to be responsible for plotting the abduction of Piotr Stanczak, who was kidnapped in September while surveying oil and gas fields. A video showing his beheading surfaced in February.

The other man is a militant who has admitted to being involved in the beheading, Awan said.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Jakarta police find unexploded bomb

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

Timed device could have sent panicked crowds fleeing into path of suicide attacker at Marriott hotel

A third bomb on a timer was set to go off before suicide bombers blew themselves up at two hotels in Jakarta last week but malfunctioned, police said today.

The device, a laptop filled with explosives and bolts, was found on the 18th floor of the JW Marriott and was supposed to go off first, according to Ketut Untung Yoga of the national police.

The explosion would probably have sent panicked crowds fleeing to the ground floors, where a suicide attacker detonated his explosives pack.

“It is clear that the bomb found inside the hotel was equipped with a timer that shows the time of the [failed] explosion,” Untung Yoga said. “It was supposed to explode before the other two.”

Last Friday’s near-simultaneous explosions at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed seven people and wounded more than 50, breaking a nearly four-year lull in terrorist activity in the country. The two bombers, believed to have been associated to the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), also died.

An unknown number of suspects have been picked up in a manhunt that has also targeted Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive and alleged mastermind of four bombings in Indonesia.

JI used a combination of stationary, timed explosives and suicide bombers in the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings that killed more than 220 people. The group was also blamed for the first bombing of the Marriott in 2003 and an attack on the Australian embassy in 2004.

JI was thought to have been wiped out after a crackdown that has led to the jailing of hundreds of militants in recent years.

But last Friday’s attack showed that militants are still able to strike high-security targets in the heart of the capital, reviving fears that more bombings may follow.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

I’m not bothered if I hang, says Mumbai gunman

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving suspect from terror attacks, tells court that he wants no mercy and is ready to die

The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks said today that he was ready to go to the gallows and wanted no mercy from the court for his role in one of India’s worst terrorist acts, which left 166 people dead.

“Whatever I have done, I have done in this world. It would be better to be punished in this world. It would be better than God’s punishment. That’s why I have pleaded guilty,” Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani, told the court.

Kasab unexpectedly confessed on Monday to taking part in the three-day attack last November, leaving a trail of carnage across downtown Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.

“If I am hanged for this, I am not bothered. I don’t want any mercy from the court. I understand the implications of my accepting the crime,” he said.

The chief prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, had accused Kasab of trying to minimise his role in the attack to avoid the death penalty and protect his alleged co-conspirators in Pakistan. Nikam told the court that parts of Kasab’s confession were inconsistent with the evidence.

The judge, ML Tahiliyani, has yet to accept the confession, which has complicated the already onerous task of defending a man whose photograph showing him striding through Mumbai’s main train station with a gun has become an emblem of the terrifying three days.

The confession, which describes in detail his links with a shadowy but well-organised group in Pakistan, also bolsters Indian accusations that Islamabad is not doing enough to clamp down on terrorist groups.

Kasab said he was not tortured or coerced into making the confession. “If somebody thinks that I have confessed the crime to escape the death penalty, he should take it out of his mind,” he said.

In his confession, Kasab spoke of the killings by some of the other gunmen who came with him from Pakistan on a boat, and the role their handlers played in inciting them to carry out the attack with provocative videos.

After landing in Mumbai, the 10 gunmen split up into pairs and fanned out to carry out the killings at a railway station, a hospital, a Jewish centre and two five-star hotels.

Kasab’s confession goes into detail about the shootings by his partner, Abu Ismail, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, where more than 50 people were killed, and at the Cama hospital.

The pair later hijacked a Skoda car, which was stopped by police. In the resulting shoot-out, Kasab was injured and captured while Ismail was killed. The other eight gunmen were killed during the course of the siege.

Nikam urged the court not to rush to issue a judgment based only on Kasab’s confession, saying that only the parts of it that were consistent with the prosecution’s evidence should be accepted.

“The rest of the things that he has said are so many total lies,” Nikam told reporters later.

Nikam said the court should also allow the prosecution to finish presenting its case so it could expose inconsistencies in Kasab’s confession.

The Mumbai siege severely strained relations between India and Pakistan and slowed a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan is trying five alleged members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India says masterminded the attack. The five have denied allegations that they played a role in the Mumbai attack.

In his confession, Kasab said one of those men – Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi – saw him and the other attackers off on their suicide mission.

Kasab initially pleaded not guilty to 86 charges including murder and waging war against India, which is punishable by death. He said he made his abrupt about-face because the Pakistani government acknowledged he was Pakistani and began legal proceedings against the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai attack.

Two Indians, Fahim Ansari and Ahmed Sabauddin, also are on trial for allegedly providing maps that helped in the attack.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Mumbai suspect makes guilty plea

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

• Lone surviving terrorist denies pressure to confess
• Description of siege is greeted with scepticism

The lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai terrorist attacks today stunned a courtroom by changing his plea to guilty and giving a blow-by-blow account of his part in the siege in which 166 people were killed, in November last year.

Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab took everyone by surprise — including his own lawyer — when he told the judge, in Urdu: “Sir, I plead guilty to my crime.”

Denying that pressure had been put on him to confess, the teenager described how the 10 gunmen travelled to India by boat from Pakistan and how he and a colleague threw hand grenades and opened fire on members of the public at Mumbai’s main railway station.

His confession came two days after the government of Pakistan filed charges against five people it claims masterminded the attacks and identified Kasab as a Pakistani national. In a dossier handed to India, it blamed the attacks on the Laskhar-e-Taiba terrorist group under the direction of its operations chief, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

In court Kasab said he had decided to change his plea because of the change of heart by the government in Islamabad. But his volte face was greeted with scepticism both in India and Pakistan.

Ujwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the Mumbai court, suggested that Kasab may be trying to secure a lighter sentence and that he was covering up the involvement of others. He said the prosecution was examining what parts of the plot Kasab might have suppressed.

Chaudhary Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defence minister, claimed the confession did not amount to evidence and said Islamabad would not act on the word of one man. “The statements are one-sided and they were made by a person who is under the custody of Indian jail authorities. If he has stood up and given this statement I don’t know what pressure he was under,” he said.

Kasab’s own lawyer, Abbas Kazam, said his client had given no advance warning of his decision to change his plea.

Kasab’s detailed confession included the first suggestion of Indian involvement. He claimed that the terrorists had been coached in Hindi by an Indian national, who he named as Abu Jundal.

With the other nine gunmen dead, it was the first opportunity to hear in public from one of those who carried out the attacks.

He claimed that he was recruited after quitting his job as a shop assistant in Jhelum town, in Pakistan, because the wages were too low. He and a colleague, named Muzzafar, travelled to Rawalpindi intending to become robbers.

He said they approached some men with long beards at a festival in the city, guessing that they were Islamic radicals who could supply weapons, and the men put them in touch with Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said they received weapons training from the group.

Kasab claimed he lived in a house in Karachi with 10 other men for a month and a half before the attacks. They were then moved to another address before leaving Pakistan by boat.

On the boat, he said, they met their four handlers, one of them the Indian national, and received their instructions.

He said four different boats were involved in the voyage before they landed in the Colaba area of Mumbai in an inflatable dingy on the evening of 26 November. Once on dry land, they hailed taxis and headed for their targets. He and another gunman, Abu Ismail, made for the Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus.

In the railway station they went into a public toilet to attach a timer to a bomb, he said, then they launched their attack.

“I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades. I was in front of Abu who had taken such a position that no one could see him. I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing from the police’s side,” he said.

They escaped on foot and headed for the Cama hospital and Kasab gave details of the encounter in which three senior anti-terrorist officers were shot dead.

The two terrorists then jumped over the wall of the hospital and he said his colleague told him to wait. “After sometime Abu came back and asked me to come inside. Inside near the gate there was a dead body,” he said.

They were finally arrested by police who had set up a road block. The attacks ended when troops stormed the Taj Mahal hotel, where the remaining gunmen were holding out.

The trial continues.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Mumbai suspect admits shootings

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

The only surviving gunman from the Mumbai terrorist attacks has admitted his role in the shootings in an Indian court

The only surviving gunman from the Mumbai terrorist attacks dramatically changed his plea today and admitted his role in the shootings to an Indian court.

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab stood up during his trial at a special hearing held inside a high security jail in Mumbai and told the judge: “Sir, I plead guilty to my crime.”

The admission stunned the court and Judge M L Tahiliyani called lawyers from both sides to work out the significance of Kasab’s statement.

If the confession holds up, it will be a boost to India’s claims that terror groups in Pakistan were behind the attack, which left more than 170 people dead – nine of them the gunmen – and severely strained relations between the two nuclear-armed countries.

Kasab is charged on 86 counts, including waging war against India, murder and possessing explosives. In May, he pleaded not guilty to all charges and it is not clear what prompted him to make his latest statement.

Kasab was one of 10 gunmen who launched the attack on India’s financial capital on November 26. The assault ended three days later when Indian troops stormed the Taj Mahal hotel, where some of the terrorists were holed up.

In his lengthy statement, Kasab gave details of his group’s journey from Pakistan on a boat, their subsequent landing in Mumbai and the bloody rampage that followed.

According to the Times of India, his confession included details of his role in the attacks at Mumbai train station, where he and his associate Abu Ismail (who was shot by the police) used a public toilet to assemble one of the bombs.

“I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades. I was in front of Abu who had taken such a position that no one could see him. I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing from the police’s side,” he told the court.

Kasab, who said that he was from the small town of Fardikot in Pakistan, said he had received months of training before the attack and detailed his role in the assault on the nearby Cama hospital where three senior policemen were killed.

He also revealed the names of the men he claimed were his Pakistani handlers, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who he named as the plot “mastermind”.

Addressing the media on Kasab’s confession, a court representative said: “This is a big victory for the court today. Kasab has admitted to his crime.”

Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said: “Everybody in the court was shocked the moment he said he accepts his crime. It was unexpected. We are minutely assessing what he admitted in court.” But Harish Salve, a senior supreme court lawyer, said it was not clear whether Kasab had confessed voluntarily. “I am sorry to play the party spoiler, but I hope he doesn’t come the day after and give it another twist,” he said.

The developments came days after Pakistan gave a dossier to India with details of its investigations into the terror groups Delhi claims were responsible.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Suicide bombers kill eight in Jakarta

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

• Co-ordinated attacks on neighbouring buildings
• Killers checked in and made bombs in rooms

The menace of international terrorism returned to Indonesia when explosions ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta, killing eight guests and injuring at least 50 others.

Two suicide bombers who had checked in as hotel guests triggered the blasts, which occurred within minutes of each other at the neighbouring JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital’s business district.

Two Australians and a New Zealander were reportedly among the dead, and the wounded included 18 other foreign nationals from the US, Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea. The Foreign Office said it had no indication of any British casualties.

The attack forced Manchester United, who are on a pre-season tour of south-east Asia, to cancel a friendly fixture against an Indonesian XI in Jakarta on Monday. The team, currently in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, had planned to stay at the Ritz-Carlton this weekend.

Investigators say the bombers had checked in to the Marriott on Wednesday and assembled the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an unexploded device was found after the blasts. CCTV cameras recorded the moment of the Marriott blast; grainy images show a man pulling a bag on wheels across the lobby before the flash of the explosion.

The bombs went off in the hotels’ restaurants during breakfast. Witnesses reported seeing bloodied bodies being carried away moments after the explosions, which turned the facades of both hotels into masses of twisted metal. Others said they had seen hundreds of guests, most of whom appeared to be westerners, emerge dazed from the Ritz-Carlton as plumes of thick smoke engulfed nearby buildings and restaurants. “There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,” said a local man.”

The attacks came as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, appeared to be re-establishing itself as a tourist destination. They were the first in the country since 2005, when 20 people died in blasts on the resort island of Bali.

No group has claimed responsibility, but analysts believe they were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist militant group that advocates an Islamist super-state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Singapore and Brunei. The group carried out a bombing at the Marriott in 2003 in which 13 people died, and is blamed for over 50 other attacks in Indonesia in the last decade. They include the October 2002 bombings of two nightclubs in Bali in which 202 died, mainly westerners.

Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, condemned the attack as “cruel and inhuman” and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. Yudhoyono, who was reelected last week, has been credited with bringing peace and stability to a country that had become a target for Islamist militants.”[The bombers] do not have a sense of humanity and do not care about the destruction of our country, because this terror act will have a wide impact on our economy, our business climate, our tourism, our image in the world and many others,” he said.

Australia warned its citizens to reconsider plans to travel to Indonesia, and urged those already there to exercise “extreme caution.” Britons have been advised not to go there unless absolutely necessary.

The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said he was “sick in the stomach as I think all Australians would feel sick in the stomach. Australians accounted for 88 of the victims in the 2002 attacks on Bali.

“This is an assault on all of us and we are dealing with some very ugly people here,” Rudd said. “Very, very ugly people … and dangerous.”

President Barack Obama said: “These attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Mother of Iraq hostage speaks

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Avril Sweeney, whose son Peter Moore was abducted in 2007, wants high-profile Foreign Office campaign for his release

The mother of a British man held hostage in Iraq for more than two years has called on the Foreign Office to launch a high-profile campaign pressing for the release of her son and his fellow captives, expressing frustration at the government’s low-key approach.

Avril Sweeney, 53, said she had argued with the Foreign Office over its insistence of minimal publicity around the continued imprisonment of Peter Moore and two of his security guards, even after the bodies of two other guards were dumped in Baghdad last month.

“I’ve had arguments with the Foreign Office, I have felt frustrated,” said Sweeney, who describes the hostages as “forgotten men”. “They [the Foreign Office] wanted us to keep everything so low-key but that didn’t feel right to me. But if someone gets kidnapped abroad you have to rely on them [and] hope that they are doing the right thing.”

Moore, 35, an IT specialist, is being held along with two men who have not been officially named. The bodies of Jason Cresswell, 39, and Jason Swindlehurst, 38, were handed to the British embassy in Baghdad on 19 June. Both had been shot weeks or months before.

“After I found out that the two Jasons were dead, it did panic me,” said Sweeney. “But when I had a chance to calm down and reason about why the terrorists would do this, I thought in their culture this is probably a goodwill gesture to give the bodies back to their families. It’s not our culture but it was a goodwill gesture.”

Sweeney, from Blackpool, added: “But it made me think, I have had enough of this, I’ve got to get a message to him.”

Her message is simple: “Peter, you’ve never been forgotten.

“No one’s ever forgotten you. Peter, if you see this message, hopefully we will be seeing you soon.”

On Wednesday 29 May 2007, Moore was installing computer software at the finance ministry in Baghdad that would help track billions of dollars that were unaccounted for. Up to 100 men raided the offices, abducting Moore and four British security guards.

It is believed that for the past two years the men have been held separately with no contact with each other.

From the start, the Foreign Office insisted on a low-profile approach, refusing to release the names of the hostages. A high media profile was “no guarantee of success and there are often grounds to think it can worsen the situation”, according to an official.

Sweeney described her son as “a big guy” who “likes his food” and she was shocked by the first video of him, released by his kidnappers 10 months after his capture. “He looked absolutely terrible. He had lost so much weight. He had big black rings around his eyes. He looked really awful.”

A more recent video sent to the British embassy in Baghdad in May reassured his mother. “On it, he looks great. He has put on weight … and he says we are all coming home soon.”

His mother thinks he will cope with whatever he has to face. “Peter won’t go to pieces. I think after the initial shock he would be intelligent and strong enough to pull himself through. I don’t know how he is coping over the last two years but he is strong and clever. He will be strong enough to bear it.

“I still feel he will be released. How long, I don’t know. Terrorists don’t have time limits, do they? They can wait and wait until they get what they want. I don’t know if it matters what the Foreign Office does, it doesn’t matter what the media do. The only time they will be freed is when they want to do it, I suppose.”

Moore was born when Sweeney was 18, the son of a troubled and soon-to-be estranged marriage. Sweeney remarried, but that relationship ended too, and she moved out of the family home when Peter was 12. Mother and son have not lived together since.

“He was 12, he had his friends, he was happy at school, he didn’t want to leave and come with me,” she said. “He was a very independent boy. A very strong and independent boy and that’s what I think will help him through all this.”

Moore was then raised by his step-parents, Pauline and Patrick Sweeney, who have also appealed publicly through the BBC for his release.

Sweeney remembers her son as having an early aptitude with computers. “He got his first job in computers working for an American lady who opened a computer shop in Lincoln. I remember her saying how brilliant he was at the computer thing. So he had to go off and get his qualifications.”

Moore was also an adventurer, signing up for the Voluntary Service Overseas, which sent him to Guyana to work in the IT department of a college of education.

Periodically he would turn up at Sweeney’s home on his motorbike. “One Easter, he turned up at my door in his big black helmet, black leather jacket and frightened the life out of me. He stands there like Schwarzenegger, takes his helmet off , and I just said well come on then, let’s go for a ride, and that was it. He loves his motorbike. It is a big thing for him. He was very much a free spirit.”

Additional reporting by Guy Grandjean and Mona Mahmoud

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Eight dead in Jakarta hotel bombings

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group being blamed for bomb attacks at Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Indonesian capital

At least eight people have been killed and 50 injured in two separate bomb attacks at western-owned hotels in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

No group has claimed responsibility but the bombings, which appear to have been carried out by suicide attackers, are being blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group suspected of carrying out similar attacks in south-east Asia.

The blasts occurred virtually simultaneously at the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in central Jakarta at about 8am local time. Several of the bombing suspects were believed to have been staying at the Marriott.

A New Zealander who died was identified by his employer as Timothy David Mackay, 62. He worked for the cement products manufacturer PT Holcim Indonesia and was reportedly attending a business meeting at the Marriott when the explosions occurred. Seventeen other foreigners were among the wounded.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a “terrorist group” and vowed to track down the bombers.

“Those who carried out this attack and those who planned it will be arrested and tried according to the law,” Yudhoyono told a news conference.

A third bomb exploded in a car along a toll road in north Jakarta, where it is thought two people were killed.

JI was suspected of attacking the same Marriott hotel in 2003, when a car bomb killed 12 people, but Yudhoyono said it was too early to say if they were was responsible for today’s attacks.

The south Jakarta police chief, Firman Santyabudi, confirmed that the explosions had occurred at the luxury hotels in the upmarket district of Kuningan, an area popular with foreigners and host to many bars, offices and embassies.

“There were explosions heard from two separate places, one the JW Marriott, the other in the Ritz-Carlton. We are still trying to check because right now we are still helping the victims,” Santyabudi said.

Theo Sambuaga, chairman of the parliamentary security commission, said there were “indications of suicide bombs” at both hotels.

The Manchester United football team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz tomorrow and Sunday for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars. In the wake of the attacks, United cancelled the game and its flight to Jakarta.

The bombings came two weeks after a presidential vote which is expected to result in the re-election of Yudhoyono, who has been credited with tackling militancy in Indonesia.

The bombs were planted in the Ritz-Carlton’s Air Langga restaurant and the basement of the Marriott, according to police intelligence reports.

Jakarta police chief Major General Wahyono said the suspects of the Marriott bombing were staying on the 18th floor of the hotel, where un-detonated explosives were found after today’s twin explosions.

“There were several perpetrators,” he told reporters. “They were disguised as guests and stayed in room 1808.”

An employee of the Marriott, named only as Yanuar, told Reuters: “I fell because of an explosion, I did not know where it came from, but after I saw clearly it came from the left side of the JW Marriott Hotel.”

“There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,” said a man who lives near the hotels and who arrived at the Marriott before emergency services. “It was terrible.”

There have not been any major bomb blasts in Indonesia for four years, and the presidential election passed off peacefully. A terrorism analyst, Rohan Gunaratna, said: “The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon western targets is Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack.”

Police have detained most of the key figures in the group, and rounded up hundreds of other sympathisers and lesser figures. But Gunaratna said radical ideologues sympathetic to the network were still able to preach extremism in Indonesia, helping provide an infrastructure that could support terrorism.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, condemned the bombings as reflecting “the viciousness of violent extremists” and said they “remind us that the threat of terrorism remains very real”.

Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamic militants for the International Crisis Group, said: “It’s more likely to be a splinter group than JI itself, which doesn’t mean you couldn’t have JI members but it’s very unlikely to be JI as an organisation behind this attack.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Act now over Afghanistan, says Cameron

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Tory leader says the government should act to reduce the number of lives lost in war against Taliban

David Cameron today told Gordon Brown he had to provide more leadership to reduce the numbers of British lives lost in Afghanistan.

In the last prime minister’s question time before the summer recess, the Conservative leader said the government should “show greater urgency and make more visible progress” in Afghanistan and said forces needed a more tightly defined mission.

This month 15 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan, taking the death toll to 184, more than that of the Iraq war.

Cameron also accused the government of failing to provide enough helicopters. He told Brown: “The number of helicopters we have in Afghanistan is simply insufficient.” Britain had fewer than 30 in Helmand while the Americans, with similar numbers of troops, had 100.

But as he and Cameron traded quotes by military figures on the issue, Brown said: “We have done everything we can to increase the numbers of helicopters and there will be more helicopters on the ground … While the loss of life is tragic and sad, it is not to do with helicopters.” The budget for helicopters was £6bn over the next 10 years.

The prime minister added: “The purpose of our mission is very clear: to prevent terrorism coming to the streets of Britain.”

Brown said that Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, had responded favourably to his request that the Kabul government provide more police and soldiers in Helmand. “President Karzai has promised that he will provide additional resources to do that.” After October, Britain will provide more training to the Afghan security services, he said.

The head of the British army said earlier today that more coalition troops were needed in Helmand to provide the security for its people to go back to their ordinary lives.

General Sir Richard Dannatt said that “more boots on the ground” were key to success in Helmand, though he stressed that it did not matter whether they belonged to British, American or Afghan troops.

At PMQs, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, accused Brown of promising lots but doing nothing on bankers’ bonuses, the recession and cleaning up parliament. It was just “business as usual”, Clegg said.

Brown said the opposition parties should go away over the summer and reflect on why they had no policies to deal with the big issues facing Britain.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Bin Laden deputy warns Pakistan

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Zawahiri tries to halt slide in support for al-Qaida in country by playing on fears that Washington is orchestrating violence

Osama bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has attempted to halt al-Qaida’s plunging popularity in Pakistan by exploiting widely held fears that the US is plotting to seize the country’s nuclear bombs.

In an audio message released today Zawahiri warned Pakistanis that the US was striving to “break up this nuclear-capable country and transform it into tiny fragments, loyal to and dependent on the neo-crusaders”.

“The only hope to save Pakistan from this disastrous fate is jihad,” said Zawahiri who, along with Bin Laden, is believed to be sheltering in the tribal belt along the Afghan border. He called on Pakistanis to band together and form a “citadel of Islam” on the subcontinent.

The message echoes a widely believed conspiracy theory in Pakistan that Washington is orchestrating violent chaos so US troops can storm in and disable the country’s nuclear arsenal, estimated to number between 60 and 100 warheads.

“Zawahiri has cleverly read the situation and hit a very sensitive point,” said Amir Rana, a militancy analyst.

The message comes amid crumbling public support for al-Qaida. A poll conducted in May found that 82% of Pakistanis considered the group posed a “critical threat” to their country, up from 41% in late 2007.

Although the survey was commissioned by a US organisation, WorldPublicOpinion.org, most analysts agree that support for al-Qaida’s brand of extremism is sliding in Pakistan.

Many Pakistanis once lauded Bin Laden as a Robin Hood-style figure who defied America. But growing numbers are repulsed by al-Qaida claims of responsibility for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of people, such as attacks on the Marriott hotel and the Danish embassy in Islamabad last year.

Al-Qaida has also been hit by a swing in public opinion against their local allies and protectors, the Taliban, after a video was broadcast showing a young woman being flogged by a turbaned fighter, and an army operation in the Swat valley and surrounding districts that displaced more than 2 million people, some of whom have started to return home this week. Al-Qaida’s room for manoeuvre in Pakistan has also been pinched by US drone attacks that have killed 10 senior militants, according to US officials. That success, however, has been mitigated by hundreds of civilian deaths and a Pakistani backlash.

Analysts agreed that Zawahiri had hit a sensitive spot by mentioning US designs on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“It’s a very subtle move,” said Talat Masood, a retired army general and defence analyst. “They are saying, ‘The Americans are coming after your nuclear weapons and we can protect them.’”

Such theories were “very pervasive and deep rooted” in Pakistani society and were often fuelled by rightwing commentators in the Urdu-language press and sections of the powerful security establishment, Masood said.

“I’ve heard senior people saying this, including retired diplomats and generals. It’s a cause for concern, because it shows the low levels of trust [between Pakistan and America],” he said.

Rana said the statement would have a limited impact on public opinion, but would “raise the morale of militant groups fighting with the Taliban”.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

General urges bigger Helmand force

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

General Sir Richard Dannatt says success in Helmand can only be achieved with more British, US or Afghan troops

The head of the British army said that more coalition troops were needed in the Afghan province of Helmand to provide the security for its people to go back to their ordinary lives.

General Sir Richard Dannatt said that “more boots on the ground” were key to success in Helmand, though he stressed that it did not matter whether they belonged to British, American or Afghan troops.

Dannatt, paying his last visit to Afghanistan before retiring later this month, also said he would like to see “more energy” put into speeding up the provision of equipment to UK troops.

He was transported around Afghanistan by a US Black Hawk helicopter from a pool of resources shared by British and American forces, and said it was important that the UK was able to put as much into that pool as it took out.

“I have said before, we can have effect where we have boots on the ground. I don’t mind whether the feet in those boots are British, American or Afghan, but we need more to have the persistent effect to give the people [of Helmand] confidence in us,” Dannatt told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.

In the town of Sangin, the scene of fighting between British troops and the Taliban over recent years, control had been imposed to such an extent that local people were willing to bring their goods to what is now a bustling market, he said. That could only be maintained by a security presence on the ground.

Asked whether Britain’s 9,100-strong force in Afghanistan has the equipment it needs, Dannatt said: “We have got a plan to increase the amount of campaign equipment we have got. It has probably not moved as fast as I would have liked it to have moved, but we are increasing the numbers.

“I would like to get more energy behind it if we possibly can.”

Noting that he was being transported in a US helicopter, Dannatt said: “There is a pool and we share the assets, but we have got to put as much into the pool as we take out.

“We are reworking a number of Chinook helicopters – eight – which will come on line soon, and a number of Merlins that were previously in Iraq … Air mobility is a key enabler and I know the commanders need a lot of that.”

After 15 British deaths so far this month in Afghanistan, Dannatt said it was “a sad fact and part of reality” that casualties would occur during operations to tackle the Taliban insurgency.

“Of course, we do the absolute maximum we can to protect our people and give them as good equipment as we can, but we are pushing to increase our influence and increase the number of people who are exposed to our influence,” he said. “When we push, inevitably there is a possibility of taking casualties.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

China warns workers after al-Qaida threat

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Embassy in Algeria issues advice in response to call by al-Qaida affiliate for vengeance over Muslim Uighur deaths in Urumqi

China’s embassy in Algeria has urged Chinese companies and workers to be on guard after reports that al-Qaida’s north African affiliate has called for retaliation for the deaths of Muslim Uighurs in Urumqi.

Stirling Assynt, a British-based risk analysis firm, warned yesterday that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – based in Algeria – had issued a call for vengeance, basing its statement on information from people who have seen the instruction.

Postings on an Islamist website have also suggested killing Han Chinese in the Middle East, the Associated Press reported.

A notice posted on the embassy website late last night said: “In light of the [riots], the Chinese embassy in Algeria reminds Chinese-funded companies and personnel to enhance security awareness and strengthen security measures.”

Stirling Assynt stressed its report that it was not suggesting any direct link between Uighurs in Xinjiang province and al-Qaida, and said it was unlikely the central leadership of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network has decided to stage attacks within China.

Justin Crump, head of terrorism and country risk at the firm, said such a move would be counter-productive strategically because their main assets are in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last week’s inter-ethnic violence in Urumqi, capital of China’s north-western Xinjiang province, left at least 184 dead. Officials say 137 were Han Chinese, 46 Uighurs and one a Hui man, but Uighurs have claimed far more of them died – either in a crackdown by security forces or at the hands of Han Chinese retaliating for brutal assaults by Uighurs.

Muslim Uighurs make up almost half the 21-million population of Xinjiang, but many resent strict cultural and religious controls.

China’s foreign ministry yesterday rejected suggestions that the Urumqi riots would affect Beijing’s relations with Muslim countries.

“If they have a clear idea about true nature of the incident, they would understand China’s policies concerning religion and religious issues and understand the measures we have taken,” said a spokesman, Qin Gang, at the ministry’s regular news conference.

Wolfram Lacher, a north Africa analyst at another firm, Control Risks, downplayed the impact of events in Urumqi. He said although there was a “significant and credible threat” against Chinese firms, that threat had existed for some time and was not likely to change.

“Almost all foreign companies operating in Algeria – and the security forces who escort and protect foreign personnel – are regarded as legitimate and attractive targets by AQIM … Companies are targeted to attract public and international attention with the goal of demonstrating the inability of the authorities to fully protect foreign companies and thereby disrupt foreign investment and political stability,” said Lacher.

“Also, some Chinese companies – particularly in infrastructure and construction [industries] – operate in areas known as strongholds of AQIM.”

The Philippines national police directorate said it had tightened security around the Chinese embassy and consulates after a request from China’s defence attache in Manila.

In a statement, the Uighur American Association (UAA) and the World Uighur Congress (WUC) said they were “extremely disturbed” by the threats, which they condemned. They said terrorist groups such as al-Qaida did not represent the aspirations of the Uighur people.

“I abhor violence,” said Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the exiles. “I do not believe violence is a solution to any problem. Global terrorists should not take advantage of the Uighur people’s legitimate aspirations and the current tragedy in East Turkestan [Xinjiang] to commit acts of terrorism targeting Chinese diplomatic missions or civilians.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

China warns workers after al-Qaida threat

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Embassy in Algeria issues advice in response to call by al-Qaida affiliate for vengeance over Muslim Uighur deaths in Urumqi

China’s embassy in Algeria has urged Chinese companies and workers to be on guard after reports that al-Qaida’s north African affiliate has called for retaliation for the deaths of Muslim Uighurs in Urumqi.

Stirling Assynt, a British-based risk analysis firm, warned yesterday that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – based in Algeria – had issued a call for vengeance, basing its statement on information from people who have seen the instruction.

Postings on an Islamist website have also suggested killing Han Chinese in the Middle East, the Associated Press reported.

A notice posted on the embassy website late last night said: “In light of the [riots], the Chinese embassy in Algeria reminds Chinese-funded companies and personnel to enhance security awareness and strengthen security measures.”

Stirling Assynt stressed its report that it was not suggesting any direct link between Uighurs in Xinjiang province and al-Qaida, and said it was unlikely the central leadership of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network has decided to stage attacks within China.

Justin Crump, head of terrorism and country risk at the firm, said such a move would be counter-productive strategically because their main assets are in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last week’s inter-ethnic violence in Urumqi, capital of China’s north-western Xinjiang province, left at least 184 dead. Officials say 137 were Han Chinese, 46 Uighurs and one a Hui man, but Uighurs have claimed far more of them died – either in a crackdown by security forces or at the hands of Han Chinese retaliating for brutal assaults by Uighurs.

Muslim Uighurs make up almost half the 21-million population of Xinjiang, but many resent strict cultural and religious controls.

China’s foreign ministry yesterday rejected suggestions that the Urumqi riots would affect Beijing’s relations with Muslim countries.

“If they have a clear idea about true nature of the incident, they would understand China’s policies concerning religion and religious issues and understand the measures we have taken,” said a spokesman, Qin Gang, at the ministry’s regular news conference.

Wolfram Lacher, a north Africa analyst at another firm, Control Risks, downplayed the impact of events in Urumqi. He said although there was a “significant and credible threat” against Chinese firms, that threat had existed for some time and was not likely to change.

“Almost all foreign companies operating in Algeria – and the security forces who escort and protect foreign personnel – are regarded as legitimate and attractive targets by AQIM … Companies are targeted to attract public and international attention with the goal of demonstrating the inability of the authorities to fully protect foreign companies and thereby disrupt foreign investment and political stability,” said Lacher.

“Also, some Chinese companies – particularly in infrastructure and construction [industries] – operate in areas known as strongholds of AQIM.”

The Philippines national police directorate said it had tightened security around the Chinese embassy and consulates after a request from China’s defence attache in Manila.

In a statement, the Uighur American Association (UAA) and the World Uighur Congress (WUC) said they were “extremely disturbed” by the threats, which they condemned. They said terrorist groups such as al-Qaida did not represent the aspirations of the Uighur people.

“I abhor violence,” said Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the exiles. “I do not believe violence is a solution to any problem. Global terrorists should not take advantage of the Uighur people’s legitimate aspirations and the current tragedy in East Turkestan [Xinjiang] to commit acts of terrorism targeting Chinese diplomatic missions or civilians.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Al-Qaida threatens China over Uighur deaths

July 14th, 2009 | No Comments

Algeria-based group issues threat to Chinese workers and projects within north Africa in retaliation for Uighur deaths

Al-Qaida’s north African wing has threatened to target Chinese workers and projects in the region in retaliation for Muslim deaths in Urumqi last week.

It is the first time Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network has directly targeted Chinese interests, according to experts at a London-based risk analysis firm.

Stirling Assynt’s report says that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – based in Algeria – has issued a call for vengeance, basing its statement on information from people who have seen the instruction.

But the assessment does not suggest there is any direct link between Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province and al-Qaida. It also suggests it is unlikely that al-Qaida’s central leadership has decided to stage attacks within China.

Justin Crump, head of terrorism and country risk at Stirling Assynt, said: “For al-Qaida central, it is really not in their interests or part of their plan at all. I think you will see action where it is easy by al-Qaida franchises, but it won’t be al-Qaida policy.

“Strategically it would be highly counter-productive for them if you look at the fact their main assets are in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

He suggested that AQIM’s decision was partly “opportunistic”, reflecting the ease with which they could target Chinese nationals and anger in some Muslim communities worldwide. Indonesia saw anti-Chinese protests yesterday.

At least 184 people were killed and 1,680 injured in the inter-ethnic violence in Urumqi, which first broke out on 5 July, officials say. According to government figures 137 were Han Chinese, 46 Uighurs and one a Hui man. But Uighurs have alleged that far more of them died – either in a crackdown by security forces or at the hands of Han Chinese during revenge attacks for vicious assaults by Uighurs.

Muslim Uighurs make up almost half the 21-million population of China’s vast north-western region of Xinjiang. Many have long chafed at strict rules restricting their religion, which include banning under-18s from mosques, as well as Han migration and policies which they believe favour Han Chinese.

“Although AQIM appear to be the first arm of al-Qaida to officially state they will target Chinese interests, others are likely to follow,” adds the note.

“The general situation (and perceived plight) of China’s Muslims has resonated amongst the global jihadist community. There is an increasing amount of chatter … among jihadists who claim they want to see action against China. Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China’s interests in the Muslim world, which they could use for targeting purposes.”

Stirling Assynt estimates that hundreds of thousands of Chinese work in the Middle East and north Africa, including 50,000 in Algeria alone.

The firm’s report points out that AQIM attacked an Algerian security convoy protecting Chinese engineers on a motorway project three weeks ago, killing 24 paramilitary police. The workers themselves were not targeted or injured, but the note adds: “Future attacks of this kind are likely to target security forces and Chinese engineers alike.”

It also suggested that other al-Qaida groups in the Arabian peninsula “could well target Chinese projects in Yemen”.

Despite the huge security presence in Urumqi, violence broke out again yesterday. Officials said police shot dead two Uighur men armed with knives and sticks and injured a third as the trio attacked another Uighur man.

But a Han man in the area told the Associated Press that he saw three Uighurs with knives come out of a mosque and attack paramilitary police.

In a separate development, more than 100 Chinese writers and intellectuals have signed a letter calling for the release of an outspoken Uighur economist who disappeared from his Beijing home last week and is believed to be detained.

“Professor Ilham Tohti is an Uighur intellectual who devoted himself to friendship between ethnic groups and eradicating conflicts between them. He should not be taken as a criminal,” said the letter, posted online yesterday.

Xinjiang’s governor accused Tohti’s website of helping “to orchestrate the incitement” of last week’s riot – but the letter’s authors said it was an important site for dialogue between Han Chinese and Uighurs.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Cheney ‘hid plans to kill al-Qaida’

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

• Ex-CIA officials say foreign leaders were also in dark
• Investigation demanded into post-9/11 strategy

Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.

Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.

The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.

A former intelligence official said the plan was hatched in the cauldron of the September 11 attacks when officials were pushing various forms of unilateral action and some settled on the Israelis as an example.

“One of the most sensitive areas has been what we do in friendly countries that don’t want to co-operate or maybe we don’t have enough confidence to entrust them with information. If you have an al-Qaida guy wandering around certain bits of the world we might decide that we need to deal with that ourselves, directly, without making a lot of noise,” he said. “There was a plan to deal with that. It was much talked about in the CIA and the military had its own operation.”

Another former senior intelligence official responsible for dealing with al-Qaida said that assassination plans were reined in after similar covert operations by the military were botched and proved to be embarrassing, particularly the killing in Kenya. He did not give details of the operation.

The official said he believes from conversations with serving members of the CIA that the area of real concern in Congress is that the planned operations may also have involved the covert surveillance of American citizens.

There appears to be common agreement among knowledgeable former intelligence officials that the controversy goes beyond the immediate question of assassination and capture of al-Qaida operatives as there have been numerous killings and detentions since the 9/11 attacks.

One former official said that the Bush administration discussed assassinations in the context of a ban introduced in the 1970s that responded to several failed CIA attempts to murder Fidel Castro, and concluded that as the US had declared itself at war with al-Qaida and the Taliban, this ban did not apply.

Peter Bergen, a senior security analyst at the New America Foundation, said that the secret operation must have gone further than that to have created such a backlash in Congress: “If it’s an assassination programme of al-Qaida leaders that is hardly surprising. Clinton had an assassination programme against bin Laden. There have been 27 drone missile strikes against al-Qaida alone this year.”

The CIA has declined to comment and members of Congress who were finally briefed about the issue by the CIA director, Leon Panetta, last month are bound by confidentiality.

Some former intelligence officials and Republicans have attempted to portray the programme as barely getting out of the planning stages but others in the intelligence community have said it is highly unlikely that the CIA would have kept such an operation going for eight years without advancing it.

The evident anger in Congress is fuelling demands for a full blown investigation in to the CIA’s failure to disclose the programme and Cheney’s role in the cover up. The Senate majority whip, Dick Durbin, said the programme could have been illegal: “The executive branch of government should not create programs like these programs and keep Congress in the dark. To have a massive program that was concealed from the leaders in Congress is not only inappropriate, it could be illegal.”

Anna Eshoo, a senior Democrat on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, is also calling for a probe. “We, by no means, have the full story. We don’t know who gave the order. We don’t know where the money came from. We don’t know all the people who were involved,” she told Politico. “We need a full investigation. My preference is that we hire an attorney to come in and run this, someone that is known for their prosecutorial knowledge as well as their knowledge of this particular area of the law.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Pakistan officials back torture claims

July 9th, 2009 | No Comments

Human Rights Watch says Pakistani intelligence officials have confirmed torture took place with full knowledge of British agents

Further evidence of the close involvement of British agents in the torture of British citizens in Pakistan has emerged during a series of interviews with Pakistani intelligence officers.

Researchers from the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) say several Pakistani officials have corroborated accounts of torture given by several victims. The officials not only made clear that their counterparts in British intelligence were fully aware of the methods they were employing during interrogations but claim the British agents were “grateful” it was happening.

In a statement issued today , HRW said senior Pakistani officials had told it “on numerous occasions” that British officials were aware of the mistreatment of a number of terrorism suspects from the UK, including Rangzieb Ahmed and Salahuddin Amin, who are now serving life sentences in the UK, Zeeshan Siddiqui, whose whereabouts is unknown, and Rashid Rauf, who is said to have died in a US missile strike after escaping from custody.

HRW said senior officials in Pakistan had confirmed the “overall authenticity” of the allegations made by Ahmed, from Rochdale, who had three fingernails ripped out of his left hand after MI5 and Greater Manchester police drew up a list of questions and handed them to his Pakistani captors.

The sources said that an account given by Amin, from Luton, of the manner in which he was tortured in between meetings with MI5 officers was “essentially accurate”, adding that his was a “high pressure” case in which the demand for information made by both British and American intelligence officers was “insatiable”.

HRW says it was told by senior Pakistani officials that the UK and the US were “party” to Amin’s detention and were “perfectly aware that we were using all means possible to extract information from him and were grateful that we were doing so”.

HRW was told by senior Pakistani intelligence officers that their British counterparts were well aware that Siddiqui, from London, was being “processed in the traditional way”. These sources said they worked so closely with the British officials that those officials were in effect interrogating Siddiqui even though they were not in the torture chamber.

In other cases, Pakistani agents who were dealing with their British counterparts while torturing British citizens say they were “under pressure to perform” and to extract as much information as possible.

Furthermore, HRW says a British intelligence source has told it that plans to deport one British citizen from Pakistan to the UK and prosecute him for terrorism offences had to be dropped because the individual had been so severely tortured.

The Pakistani interrogators’ accounts of their close working relationship with British intelligence officers are to be detailed in a HRW report later this year.

In today’s statement it said: “Officials in both the Pakistani and UK governments have privately confirmed to Human Rights Watch that British officials were aware of specific cases of mistreatment, knew that Pakistani intelligence agencies routinely used torture on detained terror suspects and others and failed to intervene to prevent torture in cases involving British citizens and in cases in which it had an investigative interest.

“A well placed official within the UK government told Human Rights Watch that allegations of UK complicity made by Human Rights Watch in testimony to the UK parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee in February 2009 were accurate. The official encouraged Human Rights Watch to continue its research into the subject. Another Whitehall source told Human Rights Watch that its research was ‘spot on’.

“According to these UK officials, as a result of co-operation on specific cases, the Pakistani intelligence services shared information from abusive interrogations with British officials, which was used in prosecutions in UK courts and other investigations. UK law enforcement and intelligence officials passed questions to Pakistani officials for use in interrogation sessions in individual cases knowing that these Pakistani officials were using torture.”

HRW said there was now a compelling case for a judicial inquiry into Britain’s role in torture in Pakistan. Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, said: “The prime minister, the foreign secretary, former prime minister Tony Blair and others have repeatedly said that the UK opposes torture. They repeatedly deny allegations that the UK has encouraged torture by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. But saying this over and over again doesn’t make it true. There is now sufficient evidence in the public domain to warrant a judicial inquiry.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

Courts convict 331 in Saudi al-Qaida trials

July 8th, 2009 | No Comments

Saudi Arabian special security courts have convicted more than 300 people for al-Qaida terrorist activities in the first known trials of members of the group in Osama bin Laden’s ancestral homeland.

Al-Arabiya, a privately-owned Saudi TV station, reported today that 331 people in 179 cases had been tried and one given the death sentence. It quoted a justice ministry official as saying there had also been prison terms, travel bans, fines and house arrests, with an unspecified number of defendants acquitted.

Those convicted were described as having been involved in “supporting and financing terrorism” as well as going to “areas of conflict to fight” – an apparent reference to Iraq and Afghanistan, where Saudi nationals have made up a large proportion of all foreign fighters.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the west, has pursued a successful anti-terrorist strategy since May 2003, when al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula first surfaced in the kingdom, home to 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Qaida’s 30 attacks targeted expatriate residential compounds, oil installations and government buildings. The authorities claimed to have foiled a further 160 attacks. In the worst single incident 22 foreign workers were killed in an attack on the Gulf city of al-Khobar in May 2004.

Hundreds of alleged militants have passed through government rehabilitation and re-education programmes. But there have also been allegations of torture and ill treatment. Human Rights Watch has said Saudi trials may not meet international standards and that up to 3,000 people were still detained without charge.

The Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, announced last October that 991 suspects had been charged with participating in attacks over the preceding five years. It was not known before yesterday’s announcement that any trials had begun, probably for security reasons.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »

MI5 ‘tried to bribe torture victim’

July 7th, 2009 | No Comments

Exclusive: Jailed torture victim says he was offered cash to drop collusion claim

The security service MI5 is being accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by offering a man inducements to drop his allegation that its officers colluded in his torture.

Rangzieb Ahmed had three of his fingernails ripped out after MI5 and Greater Manchester police (GMP) drew up a list of questions for officers from a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency who had detained him in Pakistan. He was later deported to the UK and jailed for terrorism offences. Ahmed says he was visited in prison by an MI5 officer and a police officer who offered to secure a reduction in his sentence or a payment of money to withdraw his torture complaints when his appeal against conviction is heard later this year. His lawyers have written to the Crown Prosecution Service to complain that the approach was “grossly inappropriate” and amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

As well as lodging an appeal against his conviction, Ahmed is also suing the British government for damages arising out of his treatment in Pakistan. It is thought that his lawyers are planning to rely to some extent on a judgment made after legal argument that preceded his trial, the full details of which are being kept secret at the request of MI5 and GMP.

In an interview with the Guardian last week, Ahmed, 33, from Rochdale, says he received a visit at Manchester prison last April from a man in his 40s who identified himself as an MI5 officer, accompanied by a man in his mid-30s who said he was a police officer. “They said they wanted my advice about tackling extremism and then said they could offer me protection if I helped them. Then they said, ‘If you withdraw what you are saying about torture, we can make a deal with you to reduce your sentence, or if you want to take money we can give you money.’ “

Ahmed’s solicitor, Tayab Ali, of the London law firm Irvine Thanvi Natas, said: “Any attempt to conceal evidence of torture would amount, in this case, to an attempt to pervert the course of justice, and I would expect the courts to take a very serious view of the matter.”

Asked about the allegation, a Home Office spokesman said: “We don’t comment on matters of security. Security service officers act within the law.”

Ahmed had been under surveillance in Manchester and Dubai before travelling to Pakistan where he was picked up and tortured by that country’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).

He was deported to Britain 13 months later and prosecuted on the basis of evidence gathered during the surveillance operation. His lawyers argued unsuccessfully that his trial should not proceed because of the torture he had suffered.

Ahmed was convicted of being a member of al-Qaida and directing a terrorist organisation, and jailed for life. What role, if any, MI5 and GMP may have played in his detention is unclear.

The court heard that two British intelligence officers questioned Ahmed while he was in ISI custody, and he says that the signs of the torture he was enduring would have been obvious to them.

The officers would have been operating in line with a government interrogation policy drawn up for MI5 and MI6 officers in the wake of the September 2001 al-Qaida attacks, which permitted them to question people whom they knew were being tortured, and to submit questions to the torturers, as long as they were not seen to condone what was happening.

The existence of the policy remained a secret until earlier this year, when the high court released a transcript of the cross-examination of an MI5 officer who interrogated Binyam Mohamed, a British resident detained in Pakistan in 2002. The attorney general has since called in Scotland Yard to investigate possible criminal conduct on the part of that officer and those who managed him. Last month the Guardian disclosed that Tony Blair knew of the existence of the secret policy. It remains unclear what Blair knew of its consequences, however.

He has been asked repeatedly what role he played in approving it and whether he was aware that it had led to people being tortured. His spokesman responded by saying that he had never authorised the use of torture.

There has been mounting international concern about Britain’s involvement in the torture of detainees held by overseas intelligence agencies during the so-called war on terror. Earlier this year Martin Scheinin, a UN special rapporteur on human rights, reported that British intelligence personnel had “interviewed detainees who were held incommunicado by the Pakistani ISI in so-called safe houses, where they were being tortured”.

Scheinin said: “The active participation by a state through the sending of interrogators or questions, or even the mere presence of intelligence personnel at an interview with a person who is being held in places where he is tortured or subject to other inhuman treatment, can be reasonably understood as implicitly condoning torture.” Several men have alleged that they were questioned by British intelligence officers after being tortured by Pakistani agents. Most of the men were subsequently released without charge. Allegations of British collusion in torture have also been made by British men detained in Egypt, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Read More »
Page 1 of 212