Several former Guantanamo Bay detainees who sued Britain for alleged complicity in their torture will receive unspecified settlement payments from the government, officials said Tuesday.
The former prisoners accused Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, and the country’s overseas intelligence service, MI6, of violating international law by doing nothing to stop the torture the detainees say they suffered at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. British agents were not accused of torturing the detainees.
Although British officials did not specify how many former detainees would receive settlements, 16 former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas detention centers were expected to receive payments based on the accusations of at least 12 of them, according to BBC and other reports.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said in a statement to Parliament that mediated settlements had been reached. The confidentiality of such agreements is legally binding and therefore details will not be made public, Clarke said.
Oddly, the US isn’t likely to do the same.
were the doormats of the world, they did it in the UK because they knew we would pay out.
British law no longer requires proof and then seals the settlement records?
16 former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas detention centers were expected to receive payments based on accusations – WTF?
Why don’t they just send the money direct toAl Qaeda?
Ok, we decided that the prisoners that are still at Gitmo were/are so dangerous that we don’t want to let them go.
And just by keeping them at Gitmo, they are becoming angrier, and more dangerous.
So why don’t we either execute all of them,
or,
give them each $5million, plus hookers and blow – at which point they will decide that they’d rather live the good life getting daily BJs than live in a cave stuck with a burka-wearing wife (who might actually be a man, since no one has ever seen her/him).
Happy Wednesday Uncle Dave!
The New “Terror Prison” in Illinois will offer prisoners HDTV and camel pizza….SHOCKING story at:
http://spnheadlines.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-terrorist-prison-will-offer-luxury_7795.html
Peace! 🙂
So are they going to pay Khalid Sheikh Mohammed too?
It appears they have canceled his trial and are going back to indefinite detention for him.
The real question is why are they doing this? Obviously they don’t want to. It’s real money. It makes them look like idiots. So why do it?
The alternative must be significantly worse. So whys the alternative to paying out lots of money and looking like idiots the ‘best option’?
A few reasons come to mind… most involving the outing of the truth. Which just makes you wonder either how bad the truth is, or how weak our appetite is for it or both.
@freddybobs68k
Perhaps the UK government just wants to spare them the unpleasantness of having to detail their experiences in open court?
If you object you could write to your MP – although don’t post his name in your blog or you will be arrested for possessing information useful to terrorists and be off to Gitmo yourself.
http://theregister.co.uk/2010/11/17/blog_charge_terror/
Britain is merely trying to right the wrong and restore the integrity of their laws.
It’s a way to forget the years where they were snookered by the Cheney administration to abandon their core principles.
So are you OK with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not having a trial?
Should have just shot them on the battlefield, would have solved allot of problems.
Not one of these people has been found guilty of terrorism in a court.
They are therefore legally innocent.
These innocent people have been kidnapped – some from withing Afghanistan, others from Pakistan – maybe elsewhere too.
Whilst illegally detained, they claim that people did nasty things to them.
The government here does not want it to come out in court what they are claiming.
The money is either to keep embarrasing things from coming out or????
Torture and forced silence are 2 sides of the same coin. This is the means to produce revisionary history by the state.
You Euros have been shut-mouthed by your states regarding World War 2 issues like Nazis for 65 years and still going.
Now the state of USA has joined the fun with the torture.
History is being rewritten as we watch.
Somebody said on Tv (I think it was NCIS) that “its easier to ask for forgiveness, than for permission.” Meaning go ahead and violate some rule, law, policy, or human right, and ask to be forgiven afterward. Because the latter is far more likely to happen, than getting permission to violate in the first place. Besides, those in power above you, don’t want to answer for having let you do something bad, knowingly in advance. This is basically one of the principles of modern warfare. The soldier in the field has to figure out how to accomplish certain goals, that aren’t spelled out enough to account for all circumstances and situations. So they “wing it” on the means and ethics, to get the job done. And should too many innocent civilians get burned. The brass always gets off, while the field soldiers get forgiven. But sometimes not.
And so it is with this settlement. The UK pays. The US military gets to keep on “detaining”, all forgiven.