Breaking the rules on torture (Guardian)

[struggle4progress]

The details of the government's post-9/11 torture policy are shocking. A full investigation must be carried out
Clive Stafford Smith
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 June 2009 08.00 BST

... The ISC report tells us that British security agents "were not given specific training on the rights of detainees and the Geneva conventions, nor were they aware of the 1972 announcement banning certain interrogation techniques" prior to being sent to Afghanistan. That is bad enough. However, when this omission came to the attention of the authorities, the instructions they came up with were far worse.

A British officer witnessed Americans abusing prisoners in early January 2002. Sensibly, he asked what he should do. On January 11, 2002, the British government sent advice to all agents stating: "Given that they <the prisoners> are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene to prevent this."

The ISC reports that "<f>ollowing receipt of these instructions, the <intelligence> officer … took no further action … " In other words, notwithstanding his initial instincts, he did nothing to put a stop to the abuse because those in authority told him he did not have to.

It is hardly surprising, then, that just four months later another British agent relied on the same "advice" to ignore the torture that was happening to Binyam Mohamed. He knew it was happening, and he let it go on. Binyam would suffer years more of torture ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/19/torture-policy-investigation