The US Supposedly Bullies the UK on Intel

Today a story came out on the BBC entitled “Letter shows Guantanamo torture, which the US has requested letter not be published do to the sensitive nature and possible damage it could cause, sighting our war on terrorism still remains a continuing  thread.

The story centers around Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident held in the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, had been tortured.

America’s relationship with the UK has always been cooperative and friendly and the UK likewise has shown these same attributes to the US, and at this time when our two nations are tied so closely economically in today’s troubling times I would like to think the BBC might be sensationalizing what actually took place today.

Here’s the BBC – YouTube video entitled “US bullied UK would sever intel sharing released details of Gitmo torture of UK resident!”.

February 4, 2009

High Court ruling on Wednesday alleged that Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident held in the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, had been tortured.  The judges said the UK’s attorney general has begun a criminal investigation into possible torture against Mr Mohamed.

Court pointed to complicity by the UK and US authorities in his torture, was prevented from being published after the US put pressure on the UK.
The BBC’s Jonathan Beale in Washington said a former Bush administration official who dealt with Guantanamo Bay confirmed that US intelligence agencies did tell the UK that they opposed the release of certain US intelligence without their consent.

Civil liberties campaigners described the judges’ remarks on the case as “astounding”.
The judges said they wanted the full details of the alleged torture to be published in the interests of safeguarding the rule of law, free speech and democratic accountability.

But they had been persuaded that it was not in the public interest to publish those details as the US government could then “inflict on the citizens of the United Kingdom a very considerable increase in the dangers they face at a time when a serious terrorist threat still pertains”.

These details were a summary of a report by the US government to the British security services about the detention and treatment of the individual concerned which amounted to 25 lines.