Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Can anyone tell me where the proof is behind the Independent's Terror suspects describe alleged torture 'in front of MI6 agents' headline? I don't doubt that it's possible, but it hardly tallies with the sixth paragraph of the article:
"However, the Pakistanis did not confirm that British agents were present, referring only to "two male non-Greek speakers, one of them black". However, Mr Munir's interpreter, Irfan Tamour, said that others from the group had told him that they had heard some of the captors speaking English."
Wow! People in Europe speaking the most widely spoken language in Europe! Surely not!

Note to everyone who's worried about this whole possibility of our government being involved in torture business: make sure your evidence is conclusive, or it'll be dismissed as mere nutjob consipracy theories. So far this Greece thing seems plausible but not indisputable, so remains largely ignored.

Update: Hmmm... Just picked up this week's Private Eye, which names the MI6 Athens station chief the Indy says the government is banning the publication of in the UK, and says that the Foreign Office has admitted he was present at interrogations. Curiouser and curiouser. Were these interrogations torture or weren't they? In other torture news Craig Murray notes the lack of official response to his breaking of the Official Secrets Act. What on earth is going on here?

3 Comments:

Blogger Phil said...

Curiouser and curiouser. Were these interrogations torture or weren't they?

If one of our chaps was present, obviously they weren't. Keep up.

In other torture news Craig Murray notes the lack of official response to his breaking of the Official Secrets Act. What on earth is going on here?

Very similar tactics - soft-pedal the story and wait till it goes away.

1/04/2006 06:34:00 pm  
Blogger talos said...

Well, we do know that the MI6 officers were present because some of their Greek EYP counterparts told jounalists as much - and because it has been admitted by British officials.

It's a long story and, at the risk of seeming self-promoting, I have been covering it over at histologion (parts 1, 2, 3, 4).

Regarding the spoken english thing, the fuller version of the press conference that the victims gave yesterday states that

"Two or three Pakistanis heard outside the (interrogation room) door people speaking to each other in English," interpreter Irfan Tamour said.

another Pakistani had told him he addressed one of his guards, who answered in English: "I don't speak Greek."


Note that the immigrants will soon have the opportunity of identifying Langman - or not.

1/05/2006 03:47:00 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

The guy's name has already been published by Cryptome.

1/05/2006 06:45:00 pm  

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