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MoD may face hundreds of new torture claims
The inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa while held by the British Army begins tomorrow, with lawyers registering more claims of abuse

The Ministry of Defence faces the threat of hundreds of claims for alleged abuse and torture of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. Lawyers say emerging evidence of abuses, including use of electric shocks, points to a systematic policy of sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation and beatings throughout the occupation of Basra, which must have been authorised by senior officers or politicians and known to hundreds of soldiers. Some 20 Iraqi civilians last week began a fresh round of legal cases claiming human rights abuses against the Ministry of Defence.

Sir William Gage will tomorrow begin his inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, a recently widowed 26-year-old hotel worker and father of two small children, who was beaten to death by British soldiers while in custody in Iraq in 2003.

Mr Mousa’s family, including his father, Dawood Mousa, a former colonel in the Iraqi army, and other civilians who were arrested and beaten at the same time, will travel to London to attend the proceedings in September. Mr Mousa said yesterday: “The questions still remain: Who? And Why? I am eager for this inquiry… we want to know who killed Baha and whether what was going on was part of a wider policy.” He said he hoped “it will not be a whitewash” and that he was “speechless”
Related articles
- Robert Fisk: The story of Baha Mousa
when he was not allowed to take part in a military tribunal.

The MoD has already paid compensation for the death of Mr Mousa, who had 93 separate injuries on his body, although no soldier has been convicted for the killing. Seven soldiers did face court martial in 2006, but only one was convicted of inhumane treatment and sentenced to a year in prison. Corporal Donald Payne pleaded guilty after appearing in a one-minute video, shown at the court martial, in which internees could be seen forced to hold “stress positions” while wearing hoods.

Hooding was one of five techniques outlawed by the British government in 1972. The others were stress positions – where suspects are forced to squat in positions that become painful – sleep deprivation, constant noise and refusal of food and water. But it is emerging that the practices continued until last year; it is unclear when the ban was overturned, or by whom.

The latest cases – some of which are detailed below and which arose during five years of British military operations in Iraq – have similar complaints. They say homes were raided early in the morning by up to 60 British soldiers, men were beaten with rifle butts, plasticuffed and dragged to detention facilities where they were beaten, blindfolded, forced to wear ear muffs, hold stress positions, refused food and drink and not allowed to go to the toilet.

One man, Ali Nassih Mowannis, 24, claims wires were held to his tongue and feet and electric shocks administered. Another, Adil Abbas Fadhil Mohammad, says he was left hanging by handcuffs from a ceiling for an hour. Others say their wives or sisters were beaten, or they were stripped naked, while photographs were taken of them.

The MoD was forced last week to concede a further inquiry into allegations that Iraqis were tortured and killed by the British after what become known as the battle of Danny Boy in Maysan Province in May 2004. The MoD had claimed – in a case brought by nine survivors – that they had not complained at the time. But at the High Court last week government lawyers were forced to concede the case following the discovery of an email that the nine had in fact complained to the Red Cross and an investigation had been ordered. A draft letter outlining the complaints had been drawn up to be sent to Tony Blair. It is not clear if the investigation was ever carried out or the letter sent.

On Friday, Lord Justice Scott Baker condemned the MoD for its secrecy in the case and for making “partly false” statements in an effort to keep interrogation techniques secret under a public-interest immunity [PII] certificate. Until the MoD had demonstrated that “the whole content of such documents was scrupulously accurate” the courts should approach PII certificates from the MoD “with very considerable caution”, he said.

Yesterday, Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers in Birmingham, which represents many of the Iraqis, including Baha Mousa’s family, as well as the nine Danny Boy claimants in court last week, said: “There are hundreds of cases of Iraqi torture and abuse at British detention facilities… The systemic reasons for this are completely under explored.”

Mazin Younis, of the London-based Iraqi League, which carries out initial interviews with claimants, said there were at least another 30 or 40 potential claims. If jurisdiction reached beyond British bases, that number would double, he added. “I absolutely believe there have been incidents from 2004 until 2008,” he said. “Thousands of soldiers have either witnessed abuse or co-operated in it. The stories are all very similar. The raid starts at home, they are kicked and beaten and hooded.”

The MoD, which denies all allegations in relation to Danny Boy, said other cases had yet to be proven. In a statement, the armed forces minister Bill Rammell said: “Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast majority have conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism. All allegations of abuse are investigated… and where proven, those responsible are punished and complainants compensated. Allegations must not be taken as fact, and formal investigations must be allowed to take their course.”

What the claimants say: ‘We were beaten… blindfolded… threatened with dogs… forced to strip’

These are the allegations made in statements to British lawyers by some of the Iraqis seeking legal redress from the Ministry of Defence.

Ali Nassih Mowannis, 24, arrested January 2006

Ali was arrested with Nassih Mowannis Abdul-Ali, 45, and his teenage brother, Anwar, by 60 or 70 soldiers who raided their home at 2.30am. Nassih’s wife was forced to strip her baby naked. Jewellery and £12,500 was taken and never returned. All were blindfolded and earmuffed and beaten. Ali had electric shocks administered to his tongue and feet.

Hussain Salman Muharib, 23, arrested April 2004

Claims he was beaten with rifle butts after going outside in his pyjamas to investigate gunfire. His father was shot in the arm and his brother in the neck. He was dragged back into the house by 30 soldiers who beat his family, including his mother, sister and children. He was taken to a detention centre, beaten for 19 hours, forced to strip and parade in front of six or seven soldiers who photographed him on mobiles. Released without charge after three weeks.

Mustafa Abdul Amir Haddada, 31, arrested March 2006

Mustafa was woken by the sound of his door being kicked. As he investigated, it was blown in with explosives. He was injured by shrapnel, including a serious wound to his eye. Soldiers kicked and beat him and his wife. He was handcuffed and blindfolded. He was denied medical care, which led to the loss of his eye. Released without charge after one year and four months.

Abbas Mowannis Abdul Ali, 34, arrested January 2006

Abbas was arrested during a night raid on his home. He was hooded in front of his children and pushed down the stairs. In detention he was hooded, earmuffed and beaten. Also claims he was urinated on and at one point shot in the leg at close range with a rubber bullet. Released in September 2007 without charge.

Badr Salman Muharib, 31, arrested twice, in April 2003 and April 2004

On both occasions Badr was hooded and beaten. On the first occasion he was released after 19 days with an apology. On the second he was repeatedly dragged across the ground, forced to strip and bend backwards and forwards while soldiers took photographs of him.

Adil Abbas Fadhil Mohammad, arrested March 2006

A night guard, Adil was approached by British troops, beaten and arrested while on duty. Repeatedly beaten and threatened with dogs. At one point he was forced to stand on a wobbly table, with cuffs tied to a hook on the ceiling. He could reach the table only on tiptoe. When it fell over he was left hanging from the ceiling for half an hour and beaten. He was later stripped and had his penis pulled. Tricked into believing he had been taken to Guantanamo Bay. Released without charge after 48 hours.

Tarek Hassan, 22, arrested April 2003

Detained by British forces during a raid on his family home. The soldiers were looking for Tarek’s brother, Khadim, a high-ranking Ba’ath party official, and said they would hold Tarek until Khadim turned himself in. Four months later Tarek’s body was found in the desert north of Baghdad. He had been shot eight times and his hands were tied with plasticuffs commonly used by British and US soldiers. Khadim is now seeking an inquiry at the European Court.

Kammash family, arrested April 2007

The family home was raided, and six men, including 70-year-old Jabbir Kammash, were arrested, hooded and handcuffed and beaten. Jabbir was released after a day with his son, and his other son four days later. The other three were held for several months, deprived of sleep, forced to go without clothes and sexually humiliated.

Muslim Abbod Mohammed and Najim Abbod Mohammed, arrested August 2006

The claimants were arrested at 2.30am by 20 soldiers and beaten so severely Najim’s arm was broken. More than once he was dragged by his broken arm. Muslim was forced to stand in the sun for two hours in a stress position and had stones thrown at him. Both were deprived of sleep through banging and by pornographic films played loudly. Both released without charge after almost a year.

Moayaad Jabbar Ibrahim, Imad Oraibi Abdulla Al-Iqabi, Ali Jabbar Hassan, arrested August 2003

The three were beaten for 30 minutes in their homes and in front of children so severely one lost consciousness. They say soldiers smelled of alcohol. Released the following day and received a letter of apology.

Andrew Johnson

The Independent
July 15, 2009
Police fear far-right terror attack

• Extremists want to stoke race tensions, officer warns
• Counter-terrorism unit diverting resources to threat
• No specific intelligence of planned strike, sources say

Vikram Dodd

Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command fears that right-wing extremists will stage a deadly terrorist attack in Britain to try to stoke racial tensions, the Guardian has learned.

Senior officers say it will be a “spectacular” that is designed to kill. The counter-terrorism unit has redeployed officers to increase its monitoring of the extreme right’s potential to stage attacks.

Commander Shaun Sawyer told a meeting of British Muslims concerned about the danger to their communities that police were responding to the growing threat.

Sawyer said of the far right: “I fear that they will have a spectacular… they will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere. They’re not choosy about which community.”

He said the aim would be to cause a “breakdown in community cohesion”.

Sawyer revealed that the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, had asked the counter-terrorism command, SO15, to examine what the economic downturn would mean for far-right violence. The assessment concluded that the recession would increase the possibility of it.

Sawyer told the meeting last Wednesday that more of his officers needed to be deployed to try to thwart neo-Nazi-inspired violence. He said the terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida remained the unit’s priority, but said of its far-right section: “It is a small desk … we need to grow that unit.” Sources have told the Guardian that while they believe the neo-Nazi terrorist threat has grown, they have no specific intelligence of an attack.

“There is an increased possibility of violence from the far right. There is a trend,” said one senior source, adding that the ideology of the violent right was driven by “people who don’t like immigration, people who don’t like Islam. We’re seeing a resurgence of anti-semitism as well.”

The meeting at which Sawyer spoke was staged by the Muslim Safety Forum, whose chair, Abdurahman Jafar, said: “Muslims are the first line of victims in the extreme right’s campaign of hate and division and they make no secret about that. Statistics show a strong correlation between the rise of racist and Islamophobic hate crime and the ascendancy of the BNP.”

It is a decade since an extreme rightwing terrorist has used bombs to claim lives in Britain. In 1999, David Copeland struck three targets in London. His attack on a gay pub in Soho, London, killed three people and left scores injured. It followed attacks against the Muslim community in Brick Lane, east London, and the bombing of a market in Brixton, south London.

The senior source said: “When Copeland attacked we did not have the religious tensions with the Muslim community. What kind of schism would a Copeland-type event cause now?”

The far-right threat to Britain’s Jewish communities is monitored by theCommunity Security Trust, which says attempted terrorist violence by neo-Nazis has increased in the past few years. It says nine white men have been “convicted of offences involving explosives, terrorist plots, violent campaigns or threats to carry them out”.

David Rich, of the CST, said: “There’s no one directing people, it’s a mindset” – a reference to the easy availability of extremist right-wing material and information about making bombs.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, 6 July 2009

July 14, 2009
Inquiry into MI6 chief on Facebook

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an inquiry into whether the new head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, should be allowed to take up his post after his wife apparently published personal details and photographs on the Facebook website.

Lady Shelley Sawers disclosed potentially compromising information, including the location of the London flat used by the couple and the whereabouts of their three children and of Sir John’s parents on the social networking site, The Mail on Sunday has reported.

The details, which were removed after the newspaper contacted the Foreign Office, also revealed the couple’s friendships with actors Moir Leslie and Alister Cameron.

Lady Sawers’ half-brother, Hugo Haig-Thomas, a former diplomat, was said to be among those featured in family photographs on Facebook.

Mr Haig-Thomas was an associate and researcher for controversial historian David Irving, who was jailed for three years in Austria in 2006 after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial, the paper reported.

Lady Sawers put no privacy protection on her account, allowing any of Facebook’s 200 million users in the open-access “London” network to see the entries, the paper said.

Senior politicians said the security lapse raised concerns about Sir John’s ability to take up his post as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, giving him responsibility for Britain’s overseas spying operations.

Edward Davy, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, called on Gordon Brown to launch an inquiry into the matter.

ITN

July 5, 2009
UK swine flu can no longer be contained

Government moves to ‘treatment phase’ as health secretary says infection rate could reach 100,000 a day by end of August

Swine flu is spreading so rapidly across Britain that there could be 100,000 new cases a day by the end of next month, the health secretary, Andy Burnham, said today.

The UK would immediately move to the “treatment phase” of its plan to combat swine flu, meaning doctors would no longer test for the H1N1 virus and urge anyone with symptoms to stay at home, Burnham told the House of Commons.

The first swine flu vaccine would be made available from August, with 60m doses available by the end of the year, he added.

“We have reached the next stage in management of the disease,” Burnham said. “The national focus will be on treating the increasing numbers affected by swine flu. We will move to this treatment phase across the UK with immediate effect.”

The move does not mean the H1N1 virus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation last month, is becoming more deadly, just that it can no longer be contained.

Burnham said there was a “considerable rise” in swine flu cases last week.

“We have always known it would be impossible to contain the virus indefinitely and at some point we would need to move away from containment to treatment.

“Cases are doubling every week and on this trend we could see over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August.

“The pressure on the system is such that it is the right time to take this step. Scientists can expect to see rapid rises in the number of cases.”

Burnham added that the public should be reassured by the steps being taken to tackle the virus. He said: “We are the only country in the world to be able to offer anti-virals to everyone as well as those at greater risk.”

The government’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, said the production of a vaccine was “at an advanced stage” and denied that the outbreak was out of control.

Speaking at a special briefing at the Department of Health, he said: “We are continuing to take a very firm grip on this situation. We have a big stockpile of anti-virals, the biggest probably in the world. We have vaccine at an advance stage of production.”

Donaldson added that despite its rapid spread, the virus outbreak was “following a predictable path”.

The Health Protection Agency said a further 458 patients in England had been confirmed with swine flu, while the figure for the UK as a whole rose to 7,447.

Efforts to trace people who had been in contact with swine flu cases would now stop and schools no longer needed to close when hit by the virus, unless particular circumstances made it necessary.

The government has said that not everybody with swine flu would receive anti-viral drugs, which may be reserved for at-risk groups.

The daily collation of swine flu cases would also end because it was proving time-consuming. Instead, “more general” estimates of numbers would be given. Other affected countries already update their swine flu numbers less frequently, such as weekly or every other day.

The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, announced a similar shift in swine flu policy at a simultaneous briefing in Edinburgh.

She said: “We’ve always said it would be impossible to limit the spread of what is a contagious virus indefinitely.

“We’ve always said that, when it did start to spread more widely within communities, we would require to make a judgment about when to shift efforts from intense containment to treatment, or mitigation.”

Sturgeon, who is also the deputy first minister of Scotland, said “high-risk” groups such as children under five, pregnant women and the elderly would get priority access to medication.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Harry Burns, said the country could expect to have a tenth of the UK cases of swine flu. He predicted there would be about 10,000 new cases a day in Scotland by August.

He said: “It could be a bit less, it could be a bit more. It also presupposes that there isn’t a downturn, if it continues to rise at this rate, and it’s doubling approximately every week, you can do the sums yourself.”

However, Scottish health officials said the swine flu infection rate may have already peaked, as the number of new cases in three hotspots in the greater Glasgow area appears to be in decline.

After infection rates peaked at 111 confirmed cases on 25 June, with Scotland experiencing the first two swine flu deaths in Europe, the rate has remained steady at about 60 new cases a day over the last week.

The rapid spread in two of the major hotspots – Dunoon in Argyll and Paisley south of Glasgow – now appears to have stopped and cases have begun to decline sharply.

The official statistics on the virus were likely to underestimate the true scale of infection in the UK because now only a sample of patients in the hotspots had a diagnosis of swine flu confirmed by lab tests. Many people were thought to have such mild symptoms that they were not bothering to contact their doctors while others were being treated in surgeries without being regarded as suspected swine flu cases.

In swine flu hotspots such as London, the West Midlands and parts of Scotland diagnosis of the virus was already being done by doctors rather than laboratory testing, and tracing the contacts of people with swine flu and the use of preventative anti-viral drugs had stopped. Anti-viral drugs were still being offered to all people with symptoms.

Although a bout of swine flu was currently causing less serious illness than traditional seasonal flu, three people with other serious health conditions in the UK have died after catching the virus and there are concerns it could mutate into a more virulent form.

The chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has warned that there may be tens of thousands of cases each week this autumn, because the virus is more likely to thrive in a colder climate.

Guardian

July 3, 2009
Deutsche Telekom wants asset swap for T-Mobile UK

FT names Vodafone Turkey as likely candidate to swap assets with German operator’s U.K. unit.

Deutsche Telekom AG executives would prefer an asset-swap deal with any suitor for its T-Mobile UK unit, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing two people familiar with the company.

The executives are interested in swapping T-Mobile for an asset in another country rather than selling or merging the business, although they acknowledge it would be a difficult deal to consummate.

The sources said Vodafone Turkey – a unit of Vodafone Group PLC, which is reportedly mulling a bid for T-Mobile – is the ideal for an asset swap. One of the sources said EUR3 billion would be the “absolute minimum value” for T-Mobile if Deutsche Telekom opts to sell.

Total Telecom

July 3, 2009
A Better Way to Promote Financial Stability

Dr DeAnne Julius, Chairman, Chatham House, and former MPC member

An unseemly turf battle broke out at the Mansion House last week over who should be in charge of spotting and squelching future threats to financial stability: the Bank of England or the Financial Services Authority. Neither the Bank nor the FSA covered itself with glory in the early stages of the current crisis. Both are secretive organizations with hierarchical decision-making. Such a culture works well for handling confidential information but it does not foster open debate or the early recognition of external change.

I propose that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee be given the task of promoting medium-term financial stability. In addition to its current remit of targeting inflation by setting interest rates, it would need an additional instrument, outlined below. It would also need an adjusted membership and monthly process. But fundamentally it has the expertise and governance structures to take on this new role – and would have significant advantages over either the FSA or the Bank’s internal bureaucracy. Putting a re-shaped MPC at the centre of the tripartite arrangement for preventing future financial crises would also add cohesion and coherence to crisis resolution – led by the Treasury – should that need arise.

The MPC, with its independent external membership, its published minutes, its transparent votes and its good track record in controlling inflation is well suited to make judgments about the build-up of systemic risks in the economy. It already monitors household debt, asset price changes, financial market spreads and money and credit aggregates. These are important indicators of financial stability. In addition, the FSA could provide the MPC with aggregate data on financial institutions such as borrowing ratios and liquidity mismatch.

The membership of the MPC should be adjusted for the new task. The governor of the Bank should remain chairman but two of the four internal Bank members should be replaced with two FSA members, including either the FSA chairman or chief executive. And at least one of the four external MPC members should have financial market experience. External members might also need to be full time, rather than working three days a week, to handle the extra workload.

At every third monthly meeting, the MPC would give special attention to financial stability concerns – with pre-meeting briefings from FSA staff – and it would decide if a change were warranted in the target capital adequacy ratio of UK-regulated banks and other financial institutions. The lower bound of this ratio, the amount of capital that must be held, is set internationally by the Basel II agreement, but subject to that minimum the MPC would decide if it should be adjusted for UK institutions in accordance with our economic cycle. A change in the capital adequacy target announced by the MPC would become a regulatory requirement three months later, giving banks time to adjust. The aim would be for gradual movements in bank capital to provide a cushion that would be built up in good times and available in downturns, similar to the Spanish system.

During the adjustment period, the FSA staff would work with individual institutions to determine whether other changes in their leverage or funding profiles were also warranted. The FSA would continue to have sole responsibility for the regulation of financial institutions and products, such as mortgages and insurance. So, for example, the FSA could decide to impose maximum loan-to-value ratios on mortgages to complement a decision by the MPC to raise the aggregate capital adequacy ratio.

The Treasury is the third leg of the stool of financial stability. It would continue to send a non-voting representative to MPC meetings, thereby ensuring frequent and substantive tripartite communication. If, despite this new system of regular monitoring and action on capital requirements, a banking crisis should arise, then the Treasury would take the lead as crisis manager to convene meetings and decide what risk the taxpayer should bear. But for crisis prevention, a non-political MPC, with clear lines of responsibility, transparent procedures, and the best internal and external expertise available would be a major improvement over the current arrangements, where responsibility is muddled and false demarcation lines between monetary and financial stability have created dangerous gaps.

The Chatham House

July 1, 2009