Sweeping things under the carpet

Harper's Magazine reports:

"In English court proceedings surrounding released Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, British Foreign Minister David Miliband has reinforced his claims that disclosing details of Mohamed’s mistreatment would harm British national security. He now states that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally intervened in the matter to state that disclosing information given by the CIA to a British court would damage the Anglo-American special relationship in intelligence matters."

In analysing what this all means, Scott Horton rightly concludes:

"....... it is fairly obvious that the American State Department is acting as a proxy for American intelligence services in this process. And there is a far more powerful principle in play. The torture practiced on Binyam Mohamed was a serious crime. Evidence is being suppressed to preclude the full investigation of that crime and to block possible criminal prosecutions of those involved. That’s called obstruction of justice, and it’s also a crime. This case well exemplifies how the Obama Administration is using claims of national security interests to preclude serious investigations of criminal conduct and accountability of those involved."

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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