Joe Hack

Americas growing and enthusiastic use of torture has backfired on them and risked the lives of American citizens. In the UK Government Ministers insisted that British secret agents would only be allowed to pass intelligence to the CIA to help it capture Osama bin Laden if the agency promised he would not be tortured, it has emerged.

MI6 believed it was close to finding the al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan in 1998, and again the next year. The plan was for MI6 to hand the CIA vital information about Bin Laden. Ministers including Robin Cook, the then foreign secretary, gave their approval on condition that the CIA gave assurances he would be treated humanely. The plot is revealed in a 75-page report by parliament’s intelligence and security committee on rendition, the practice of flying detainees to places where they may be tortured.

The report criticises the US administration’s approval of practices which would be illegal if carried out by British agents. It shows that in 1998, the year Bin Laden was indicted in the US, Britain insisted that the policy of treating prisoners humanely should include him. But the CIA never gave the assurances.

“In 1998, SIS [MI6] believed that it might be able to obtain actionable intelligence that might enable the CIA to capture Osama bin Laden,” the committee says in its report. It adds: “Given that this might have resulted in him being rendered from Afghanistan to the US, SIS sought ministerial approval. This was given provided that the CIA gave assurances regarding humane treatment.” British intelligence made a similar request in 1999, and obtained the same response from Whitehall, but in the event MI6 did not provide the information.

But 1998 and 1999 were not the only times Britain had Bin Laden in its sights. In January 1996 the Home Office wrote to him when he was in Sudan. The letter, seen by the Guardian, advised him that Michael Howard, then home secretary, had “given his personal direction that you be excluded from the United Kingdom on the grounds that your presence…would not be conducive to the public good.”

What it comes down to is this. Torture is wrong. Period. No excuses. No ifs, ands, buts or maybes. Anyone who practices it or condones it is utter scum and deserves to be shunned by decent people everywhere. Any politician who allows it must be hounded out of office and, ideally, locked up as a criminal. Bush, Cheney and Gonzalez may see no problem with torturing prisoners but the rest of the civilized world damn sure does, thank God, and ultimately that is bound to work to the disadvantage of America. Until some semblance decency is restored to the Whitehouse and to American foreign policy we can expect more of this kind of thing to happen.

You get what you deserve. Who says so ? Joe Hack does.

-Tags:Afghanistan al quaeda Bush Iraq osama bin laden Political Rants scandal terrorism terrorist war on terrorAfghanistan, al quaeda, Bush, Iraq, osama bin laden, Political Rants, scandal, terrorism, terrorist, war on terror

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I look at the daily newspapers. I look at news online. I look in vain for any evidence that they actually contain anything that even remotely resembles news. In case we forget, there are allied forces of occupation in Iraq, civil war edges ever closer, the body-bag count rises every day. Meanwhile over in Afghanistan events spiral out of control, drug traffic to the west is greater than under the taleban, and no-one has anything that resembles an exit plan. And those are just the messes Bush and Blair caused. War, pestilence and famine on a biblical scale stalk the continent of Africa, corrupt dictatorships are propped up by greedy western governments, the planets melting and crooked politicians smile as they steal your trust. Surely in amongst that lot theres something worth reporting that the news media can get its teeth into ? You’d think ! But all I see is wall-to-wall Paris bloody Hilton.

Hell I’ve got nothing against the girl. She’s probably no worse than any other air-head  with too much money what is this international obsession with ‘celebrity‘ thats  turned the news media into trivial gossip magazines for the mentally challenged ? They say its a reflection of the society we live in. The lonely fragmented lives where we have no real friends or sense of neighborhood or social support networks. No more gossip over the garden fence about local folks. We live in a world where characters in soaps and people famous just for being famous have taken the place of real people as our topics of conversation. The young have no real role-models except the air-head ‘celebs‘ they’re supposed to aspire to be like. Well if thats true its so damn sad. Get a life ! The way politics is these days we desperately need the counter-balance of a principled, brave press to hold the liars and wrong-doers to account on our behalf. Is it happening. Hell no !

Anyway, when you’re in the shit the best thing to do is hold your nose and get the hell out of it as quick as you can,. So no more Paris Hilton, right ? This is not about her. Its about you. Read a book. Take a walk. Give someone a hug. Scratch your ass. Anything.  Just throw the worthless, empty celebrity trash in the waste-basket where it belongs and leave it there. Believe me, there is life after Paris Hilton.Tags:Afghanistan Africa allied forces Blair Bush celebrity celebs dictatorships drug traffic evidence famous gossip Hilton Iraq media mentally challenged money news obsession Paris Paris Hilton politicians politics press Scratch your ass society taleban War who gives a shit anyway Zeitgeist ZooAfghanistan, Africa, allied forces, Blair, Bush, celebrity, celebs, dictatorships, drug traffic, evidence, famous, gossip, Hilton, Iraq, media, mentally challenged, money, news, obsession, Paris, Paris Hilton, politicians, politics, press, Scratch your ass, society, taleban, War, who gives a shit anyway, Zeitgeist Zoo

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