British prisoner 'confesses' plot to poison-bomb Parliament

[amberdisc]

The Independent on Sunday

By Severin Carrell
30 November 2003


A Briton held in Guantanamo Bay has claimed that he took part in an al-Qa'ida plot to attack the House of Commons with anthrax in an attempt to kill Tony Blair.

The confession by Moazzam Begg, 35, one of nine Britons being held at the US base in Cuba, was disclosed to The Independent on Sunday by his lawyer, who says it was obtained under duress and is completely implausible. Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer based in New Orleans, Louisiana, said his client's admission was secured after months of interrogation and segregation in Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Stafford Smith said Mr Begg, who now faces prosecution by a US military tribunal, was put under intense pressure to plead guilty because the White House wants to stage quick and successful trials in the run-up to next year's presidential elections.

"Moazzam has agreed to plead guilty to this absurd story that allegedly he was part of an al-Qa'ida plot to get a drone - an unmanned aircraft - and fly it from Suffolk over London to drop anthrax over the House of Commons," said the lawyer. "The Americans must think we're incredibly stupid."


2 paragraphs more

On edit: added bottom link.

[Dover]

1. These trumped up stories being forced on prisoners is disturbing

for several reasons. Of course the obvious is the attempt to frame innocents. But pay attention to the "absurd" nature of the story itself, which is being introduced into the public psyche to establish a potential type of attack as plausible. Is this a set up for an internal plot for a future attack on either a U.S. or other governmental body? I thought the same thing when I heard they were placing anti-missile launchers around D.C. These James Bond type attacks sound more like the sick James Bond-type wet dreams of the Bush junta.

[rustydog]

10. This would prove Bush claims that Saddam

had drones! Never mind Saddam and Al Qaeda are not connected and can't be connected...
Bush made the drone claim and a captured Al Qaeda (probably high-ranking) operative has confessed to anthrax attacks via drones.

How convenient. The only known Anthrax attack this millenium has been perpetrated in America and it was American-made. There is no proof or hint that Al Qaeda has Anthrax.

And, if they do, WTF are they waiting so long to use it for. They have a delivery system...the friggin mail, or UPS, FED0-EX! They do not need a drone.

[Fovea]

2. Confess Witch

Confess that you flew to the sabbath on a broom, that you have sex with the devil, that you poison cattle and babies.

Well, Cotton Mather John Ashcroft is having a field day isn't he? I am here to tell them, that the Goddess is a Goddess of poetic justice, John, and her sense of humor is not always of the 'hail fellow, well met' variety.

[htuttle]

3. "the White House wants to stage quick and successful trials..."

"...in the run-up to next year's presidential elections."

Do you suppose that Bush plans on feeding them to lions after their 'trials'? Perhaps he could have them fight each other to the death for entertainment.

Just making a modest proposition, that's all. :shrug:

[R Hickey]

4. Is this 'confession' designed to clear Bush's anthrax operatives?

Maybe I'm the only one, but I found it odd how al-Qa'da's anthrax attacks only struck Bush's opposition, and then abruptly stopped once the GOP achieved a majority in the Senate.

Glad John Ashcroft is on the job, and has finally found the real culprit. I know that now I'll sleep easier at night.

Maybe next we'll read that OJ has finally found his wife's "real killer." Was the grizzly Brentwood murder an al-Qa'da attack, too? Perhaps if Jeb Bush were to receive a sufficently healthy campaign donation from OJ this next election cycle, a Gitmo confession may yet exonorate OJ.

This voluntary anthrax confession should really set everyone's mind at ease. I guess torture works after all. What a suspicious fool I've always been. Here I'd always suspected that the anthrax mailings were done by that shadowy "person of interest" from South Africa who seemed to have connections in high places, like with the Bush family.

[amberdisc]

5. yeah

Yeah,
I'd forgotten about the anthrax letters for a moment. Didn't the investigations sort point domestically and then somehow ended?

(I'm in Europe and don't keep up with everything carefully).

Just such a stupid story. These people are detained indefinitely without any legal process and such stupid confessions then come out.

Makes me sick.

[htuttle]

6. Not just domestic -- they used a US military formula

After analyzing the anthrax they found, they determined that it was produced using the same processes that the US military's anthrax uses nowdays. Not the old cold war formula either -- the new one they are currently using.

After failing to to pin the crime on a biochemist out east, the investigation seemed to just fade out.

[Judi Lynn]

7. There's a reference to your article in this article from Australia

(snip) Detained terrorist suspects to return to Britain
December 1, 2003

Britain and the US are set to strike a deal for the return to Britain of nine terrorist suspects held by the US at a naval base in Cuba, a lawyer for the detainees was quoted as saying in a British newspaper.

Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer, added in a separate newspaper interview that one of the detainees had been forced to admit taking part in an al-Qaeda plot to attack Britain's parliament with anthrax in an attempt to kill the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

In the article published in The Observer yesterday Mr Stafford Smith said the deal to have the detainees returned to Britain would be tied up by Christmas, ending a two-year trans-Atlantic row over the issue. (snip)

(snip/...) In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Mr Stafford Smith said the British detainee Moazzam Begg had been forced to admit playing a role in a plot to blow up Mr Blair. Mr Stafford Smith, a British lawyer based in the US, said Mr Begg was alleged to have been part of a "laughable" plot to get a drone and fly it from Suffolk, eastern England, to drop anthrax on the House of Commons. (snip/...)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/30/1070127273134.html

That confessed plot sounded totally bogus from the very first. The ONLY conclusion anyone sensible could entertain would be that the poor man was simply driven to extremes and grabbed at the very first thing which he could invent, as a last desperate hope to get out of that hellish situation.

It actually sounds like something a child might contrive!

[amberdisc]

9. Thanks for the link

So this is what they do to get out?

[liberalmuse]

8. This is a lie.

I wonder how much torture he was subjected to before his confession? And this on the heels of Blair wanting Britons released from Gitmo.

On edit: Ah, nevermind. Didn't read all the replies and I'm just repeating stuff.

[rustydog]

11. Hasn't Al Qaeda proven to be masters of low-tech terror?

Hijacking with box knives. using fuel-laden airliners as bombs.
inserting explosives in tenny-runners and trying to ignite with matches. Hi-tech shit there.

If Bush* claims of Al Qaeda in iraq, they have the stealth donkey missile launcher.
They set off road-side bombs with a remote control device.

We are so busy trying to think of the coolest, most sophisticated devices and delivery systems because we want to produce them.
Check out the cost of manufacturing a drone (like ours!) capable of flying thousands of miles by RC and delivering a bio/chem or nuke weapon. They can't build one, but Cheny's Halliburton would sell them one.

[mistertrickster]

12. Incredibly stupid people

"The Americans must think we're incredibly stupid."

The trouble is, so many people ARE incredibly stupid. Look at the justification for the Iraq war--

1. links to Al Qaeda NO
2. weapons of mass destruction NO
3. establish a democracy (so far) NO
4. protect America from "a mushroom cloud" NO

You really have to wonder when the WH yarn spinners will tell one so blatently false that people will finally see it as a lie.