05 February 2009

British the United States on Wednesday of Threats to Conceal Torture

We now have a report that the UK government demanded that court proceedings detailing torture be suppressed because the United States on Wednesday was threatening to end intelligence cooperation if the details were releases:
Two senior British judges accused the United States on Wednesday of threatening to end intelligence cooperation if Britain released evidence about the alleged torture of a Guantanamo detainee.

The judges quoted lawyers for British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as saying the U.S. government, by reviewing intelligence cooperation, "could 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."

According to the ruling from High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Lord Justice Lloyd Jones, Miliband's lawyers said the threat had existed for some time and was still in place under President Barack Obama's administration.
(emphasis mine)

If you think that your behavior is egregious enough that you need to threaten allies to keep it away from public view, that's a pretty good sign that you should not be doing it in the first place, and that you should be looking at criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.

0 comments :

Post a Comment