UK’s secret policy on torture: a threat to national security




Today the Guardian exclusively revealed  the UK’s secret policy on torture.
The document shows intelligence officers were instructed to “weigh the importance of information sought against the pain inflicted”.

One section states: “If […] that information will be or has been obtained through the mistreatment of detainees, the negative consequences may include […] adverse effects on national security if the fact […] were to be publicly revealed”

Not only does this document expose the UK’s complicity with torture, which it acknowledges is illegal under UK and international law, but it also attempts to justify the need for keeping the policy secret because it may increase the threat from terrorism. In other words it is not the illegal torture policy that is a problem- just people finding out about it.

In other words, as any criminal will surely agree, the real crime is being found out.  The document attempts to blame the messenger or whistle-blower for any potential negative “blow back” rather than the torture policy itself.

Behind this lies a remarkable confidence that both the victims and the perpetrators of torture will keep silent or will not be believed if they speak out.
This policy of secrecy would explain why credible witness and UK resident Shaker Aamer is still in Guantanamo. It would appear he will be held until tormented into insanity.

Please join the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Watch video- Omar Deghayes, former Guantanamo Bay detainee, describes his interrogation by British Intelligence agent, “Andrew”, and others (MI5 and MI6) while held illegally in Pakistan.

Order Spectacle’s DVD Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo

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Screening Creativity and the Capitalist City: the Struggle for Affordable Space in Amsterdam

Creativity and the Capitalist City: the Struggle for Affordable Space in Amsterdam
Film screening and Q+A with Director and fellow INURIAN Tino Buchholz

28 July 2011
4pm – 5.30pm

Christopher Ingold Ramsay Lecture Theater, UCL, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ

This film is a two year project (2009-11) and independent production with support of the University of Groningen, Medienprojekt Wuppertal and Inura, and features the economic geographer Professor Jamie Peck.  In the film, the search for creativity is linked to existential struggles for affordable housing and working space in Amsterdam. Yet it is more than a local documentary on Amsterdam, exploring the implications of the latest urban re-/development patterns in advanced Western capitalist cities.

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UK’s Olympic win could leave London tourism a major loser

The official agency behind promoting tourism for London has admitted that the 2012 Olympic Games could lead to a lull in visitors to the capital next year, which may have a damaging impact on the UK’s stuttering economic recovery.

London & Partners has acknowledged there “could be a problem” with people not wanting to come to London over fears, such as over-crowded transport, a lack of, or high prices for, hotel rooms, and the capital resembling a building site, from 1 January until the Olympics end on 27 August.

More on the Independent

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National demo against racist EDL in Tower Hamlets: Sat 3 Sept

Unite Against Fascism, together with United East End and other community organisations, is calling a national demonstration against the racist English Defence League on Saturday 3 September .

The EDL is threatening to come to Tower Hamlets that day to spread race hatred and attack the local Muslim community.

Last year, around 5,000 people marched through Tower Hamlets in an impressive show of strength and unity against the EDL, although the racists had already been forced to call off their own protest, admitting it would be “a suicide mission” to attempt to march through London’s East End.

more on: unite against fascism

see also: tower hamlets alarm

Antifa Saar Screening of The Truth Lies in Rostock

The Antifa Saar group are organising a screening of the new German version of the Truth Lies in Rostock on  Thursday July 7th as part of a campaign to commemorate the murder of Samuel Yeboah, a refugee from Ghana, in 1991 in the Saarbruecken area. There will also be a talk and discussion about the murder and the lack of an official remembrance.

For more details contact: AntifaSaar

antifasaar@yahoo.de

Filmvorführung: „Die Wahrheit liegt/lügt in Rostock“ – mit Kurzvortrag zum Mord an Samuel Yeboah
Donnerstag, 7. Juli 2011
20 Uhr im Kino achteinhalb
Nauwieserstraße 19, Saarbrücken

Am 19. September 1991 wurde der Flüchtling Samuel Yeboah bei einem rassistischen Brandanschlag in Saarlouis ermordet. Diese Tat ist bis heute nicht aufgeklärt, bis heute erinnert nichts in Saarlouis an den gewaltsamen Tod Yeboahs. Im Rahmen einer Kampagne anlässlich seines 20. Todestages zeigen wir den Film „The truth lies in Rostock“.

Zum Film:
Im August 1992 griff ein Mob aus Anwohner_innen und Nazis vier Tage lang die ?Zentrale Aufnahmestelle für Asylbewerber? (ZaST) im Rostocker Stadtteil Lichtenhagen an. Begeisterte und applaudierende Deutsche machten aus dem brutalen Pogrom ein rassistisches Volksfest, auf dem sie weitgehend ungestört von der Polizei den Wahn eines ?Deutschlands nur für Deutsche? realisieren konnten. Verhaftet werden vor allem Antifaschist_innen die gekommen waren um zu tun was die Polizei nicht Willens war: Die Nazis zu vertreiben. Rostock ist nur ein Beispiel für eine ganze Reihe von Anschlägen zu Beginn der 90er Jahre. Die Politik reagiert auf Rostock, Mölln, Solingen, Hoyerswerda und andere, indem sie der Straße nachgibt: Das Asylrecht wird 1993 faktisch abgeschafft.
Die Videoproduktion ?The Truth lies in Rostock? entstand 1993 unter maßgeblicher Beteiligung von Menschen, die sich zum Zeitpunkt der Geschehnisse im attackierten Wohnheim befanden. Deshalb zeichnet sich die Produktion nicht nur durch einen authentischen Charakter aus, sondern versteht sich auch Jahre danach als schonungslose Kritik an einer Grundstimmung in der bundesrepublikanischen Gesellschaft, die Pogrome gegen Migrant_innen oder einfach nur ?anders aussehende? überhaupt erst möglich macht.
Eine Montage von Videomaterial, gedreht aus den angegriffenen Häusern heraus, Interviews mit Antifaschist_innen, den vietnamesischen Vertragsarbeiter_innen, der Polizei, mit Bürokraten, Neonazis und Anwohnern. Eine Dokumentation über das heimliche Einverständnis der Politik und über die verbreitete Angst.

Diese Aufführung wurde ermöglicht durch www.Spectacle.co.uk

To order The truth lies in Rostock DVD in English, French, Spanish or German

New Olympic legacy website: London-Rio: Olympic Cities

Mega Event Cities

London-Rio: Olympic Cities

“Cities across the globe are using mega events to catalyse urban development and social, economic and cultural change. Here we present insights and analysis of these events, examining their impact upon city-building and exploring their contribution to the design and shaping of place.

Our research is policy focused and practical. Our approach is focused upon the social impacts and legacies of mega events. We use interdisciplinary analysis to discover new ways of comparing and thinking about the mega event city.

We are interested in receiving comments on the site and suggestions for relevant material or links to be placed on it. The site will be dedicated primarily to housing academic work on the social legacies of mega events, particularly those referring to London 2012 or Rio 2016. We would also welcome links to our site being placed in sites addressing similar themes.”

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British MPs view film highlighting the reality of Guantanamo

Ekklesia

A new way of thinking

A powerful new documentary on the United States’ detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been shown to MPs at the House of Commons.

The film screening this week was followed by a question and answer session with a panel of commentators including former Guantanamo prisoner Moazzam Begg, lawyers Tom Wilner and Gareth Peirce, and former Guardian newspaper journalist, Victoria Brittain.

‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo’ gives a vivid and penetrating account of the torture, extraordinary rendition and the network of secret prisons employed by the Bush administration in its infamous ‘war on terror’.

Proceed to Ekklesia to read full article.

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