Club Gitmo on Strike

The London Guardian reports today on an unusual visitor to the Foreign and Commonwealth office. Lt.Col Yvonne Bradley, an American military lawyer, is going to demand the release of her client Binyam Mohammed, age 31, a British resident who claims he was repeatedly tortured at the behest of US intelligence officials at Guantanamo. Yvonne Bradley, a US military attorney for 20 years, is requesting the disclosure of 42 secret documents that chronicle how he was tortured.

According to Lt.Col Bradley, conditions at Gitmo have deteriorated badly since Barack Obama took office. Fifty of the 260 detainees are on a hunger strike and, witnesses claim, they are being strapped to chairs and force-fed. At least 20 are described as being so unhealthy there are on a critical list.

Bradley claims Mohammed told of witnessing a savage beating of a detainee who refused to be strapped down and having a feeding tube forced into his mouth. Bradley said that the Joint Task Force are not commenting because they do not want the public to know what is going on.

For Britain, the questions concerning its support of American techniques have just begun and they will become a transatlantic issue. This Tuesday High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr justice Lloyd Jones will decide whether to reopen the case that claims Foreign Secretary David Miliband is suppressing evidence of torture by Americans.

Curiously, in San Francisco, ACLU lawyers are suing a firm that carried out renditions for the CIA. Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, helped carry people like Mohammed to nations where they claimed they were tortured. The case had been suppressed by the Bush Administration when it asserted the "state secrets privilege". If the Obama Administration asserts the same, then it could indicate it also wants to suppress the evidence of torture.

While Washington fights about immunity and moving on, the courts are moving to a place where Attorney general Eric Holder and the President won't be able to hide anymore and they may have to take steps to investigate all the allegations of torture at Gitmo, the CIA 'secret sites" and Bagram Air Base.