United States torture flights, new evidence

This video is about Britain’s top senior officers letting the CIA use its airports to transport its prisoners to other countries for torture.

Hundreds of documents detailing how the CIA covered its tracks on extraordinary rendition suggest greater British complicity in kidnap and torture than previously thought, campaigners said today: here. See also here.

Britain: When former foreign secretary Jack Straw denies categorically that the government of which he was a key member was complicit in or turned a blind eye to torture, you can’t help smelling a rat: here.

WikiLeaks: European complicity in CIA rendition program blown open: here.

A report for Europe’s human rights watchdog has called for greater scrutiny of secret services and support for whistleblowers: here.

Obama Transition Team Member Explains Why Administration Chose Not to Prosecute Torture. David Swanson, War Is a Crime: “If you can think back all the way to January 2009, back when wars were ending, Guantanamo was closing, the Pentagon was getting oversight, employees were going to have free choice, the rich would start paying taxes, the air would be getting cleaner, and so forth, you’ll recall that the Obama transition team was acting super populist and high-tech. They had questions from ordinary people for the President Elect submitted on their website and voted up or down. The top question at the end of the voting had come from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com and it was this: ‘Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor – ideally Patrick Fitzgerald – to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?’ (Bob Fertik, New York City) Not only was the answer no, but it had to be inferred because President Change U. Wish refused to answer the question…. However, we now have an account from someone involved in the decision process way back when”: here.

Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer, the last UK detainee at the prison, on a hunger strike: here.

Cleared for release in 2007, British resident Shaker Aamer is on hunger strike as lawyers say he was routinely beaten on days his legal team was due to meet him: here.