British pimps outsource torture to Pakistan

The true depth of British involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas and the manner in which that complicity is concealed behind a cloak of courtroom secrecy was laid bare last night when David Davis MP detailed the way in which one counter-terrorism operation led directly to a man suffering brutal mistreatment.

In a dramatic intervention using the protection of parliamentary privilege, the former shadow home secretary revealed how MI5 and Greater Manchester police effectively sub-contracted the torture of Rangzieb Ahmed to a Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), whose routine use of torture has been widely documented.

This is the first time that the information has entered the public domain. Previously it has been suppressed through the process of secret court hearings and, had the Guardian or other media organisations reported it, they would have exposed themselves to the risk of prosecution for contempt of court.

Davis told MPs that although sufficient evidence had been gathered to ensure Ahmed could be prosecuted for serious terrorism offences, he was permitted to fly from Manchester to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, in 2006 while under surveillance. He then detailed the way in which the British authorities:

• Tipped off the ISI that Ahmed was on his way.

• Told the ISI he was a terrorist and suggested that he should be detained.

• Were aware of the methods used by the ISI while questioning terrorism suspects.

• Drew up a list of questions for the ISI to put to Ahmed.

• Questioned him themselves after he had been in ISI custody for around 13 days.

The officers from MI5 and MI6 who interrogated Ahmed should have known his detention was unlawful because he had not been brought before a court. Ahmed says he told these officers he was being tortured and that signs of his mistreatment would have been evident.

He says he was whipped, beaten, deprived of sleep and sexually humiliated. At one point three fingernails were ripped out of his left hand. He says this was done slowly, over a period of days, while he was being asked questions which he believes were handed to the ISI by British and US authorities.

Researchers from the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) say several Pakistani officials have corroborated accounts of torture given by several victims. The officials not only made clear that their counterparts in British intelligence were fully aware of the methods they were employing during interrogations but claim the British agents were "grateful" it was happening.

In a statement issued today , HRW said senior Pakistani officials had told it "on numerous occasions" that British officials were aware of the mistreatment of a number of terrorism suspects from the UK, including Rangzieb Ahmed and Salahuddin Amin, who are now serving life sentences in the UK, Zeeshan Siddiqui, whose whereabouts is unknown, and Rashid Rauf, who is said to have died in a US missile strike after escaping from custody.

HRW said senior officials in Pakistan had confirmed the "overall authenticity" of the allegations made by Ahmed, from Rochdale, who had three fingernails ripped out of his left hand after MI5 and Greater Manchester police drew up a list of questions and handed them to his Pakistani captors.

The sources said that an account given by Amin, from Luton, of the manner in which he was tortured in between meetings with MI5 officers was "essentially accurate", adding that his was a "high pressure" case in which the demand for information made by both British and American intelligence officers was "insatiable".

HRW says it was told by senior Pakistani officials that the UK and the US were "party" to Amin's detention and were "perfectly aware that we were using all means possible to extract information from him and were grateful that we were doing so".

HRW was told by senior Pakistani intelligence officers that their British counterparts were well aware that Siddiqui, from London, was being "processed in the traditional way". These sources said they worked so closely with the British officials that those officials were in effect interrogating Siddiqui even though they were not in the torture chamber.

In other cases, Pakistani agents who were dealing with their British counterparts while torturing British citizens say they were "under pressure to perform" and to extract as much information as possible.

Furthermore, HRW says a British intelligence source has told it that plans to deport one British citizen from Pakistan to the UK and prosecute him for terrorism offences had to be dropped because the individual had been so severely tortured.

The Pakistani interrogators' accounts of their close working relationship with British intelligence officers are to be detailed in a HRW report later this year.

Srebrenica Massacre: 14 years ago...

Today, fourteen years after the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica – the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of the Second World War – another 500 coffins will join the thousands buried in the memorial graveyard outside the town.

The International Commission on Missing Persons has been carrying out the grim task of identifying remains using DNA and other evidence, allowing relatives to bury their dead and gain "closure". To date, it has identified 6,186 of the massacre's victims. Every year, on the anniversary, the bodies that have been identified in the previous 12 months are laid to rest in a ceremony of painful emotion. After today's funeral, groups of mourners will lay flowers in front of the barn in the nearby village of Kravica where, in the worst single incident of the massacre, more than 1,000 men were tortured and executed in a single afternoon.

Though hemmed in by Serbs, the Muslim community of the coal mining town in eastern Bosnia believed itself to be under the protection of about 600 Dutch UN peacekeepers. But when Serbian forces poured into the town in the summer of 1995, under the command of General Ratko Mladic, the Dutch failed to protect their charges. The women and children were crammed into buses and sent away to safety, but over a period of three days the unarmed men, aged from 12 to 77, were systematically murdered.

Afterwards their bodies were dumped into rivers and mass graves. When aerial photos surfaced afterwards, the Serbian army ordered the corpses to be dispersed to secondary and even tertiary grave sites, to hide the carnage. This was done by bulldozers and resulted in bodies being broken up and widely scattered. In one case, the remains of a victim were discovered in four different mass graves, two of which were about 12 miles apart.

Srebrenica is Serb-dominated now and ethnic intolerance is a steady undercurrent in the region. The nearby town of Bratunac is said to hold the highest number of unprosecuted war criminals per capita in all of Bosnia. Many of them serve in the local police force.

"Bosnia is facing the worst political crisis since the war," political analyst Srecko Latal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Bosnia is gripped by rising political tensions, with Serbs threatening to secede and some Muslim leaders calling for the abolition of the Serbs' Republika Srpska.

"One of the rare encouraging things is that political tensions have not reflected on the relationships between ordinary people," said Latal.

But he warned that "might be changing."

Bosnia fell into a devastating civil war in 1992 that left 200,000 people dead and displaced millions.

So far some 3,200 victims have been buried at a memorial just outside the ill-fated town. Thousands are yet to be exhumed and identified in the area where some 70 mass graves have been uncovered.

Third of Dutch Muslims contemplate emigration

Thirty-six per cent of Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands are thinking about emigrating due to the increasing popularity of the controversial Freedom Party PVV, a study conducted by polling agency Moviction showed Monday. Dutch current affairs television programme NCRV Netwerk which commissioned the poll, is to air the study's results Monday night.

More than half of Dutch Muslims think about emigrating from the Netherlands "every once in a while," the study said.

At the same time, however, 76 per cent of Dutch Muslims say they feel at home in the Netherlands.

However, 57 per cent indicate this feeling has decreased since the rise of Geert Wilders, the controversial Freedom Party leader who is highly critical of Islam.

Two in five Dutch Muslims claim they have experienced discrimination more frequently since the rise of the Freedom Party.

Almost one quarter - 24 per cent - of Dutch Muslims say they are "regularly" being discriminated against in the Netherlands. Seventy- five per cent feel native Dutch nationals have become more negative in their views towards Muslims since Wilders' popularity increase.

Remarkably, almost one fifth of Dutch Muslims - 18 per cent - partially agrees with Wilders' political ideas, while 30 per cent say they "understand" why so many Dutch nationals vote for the PVV leader.

Public television programme NCRV Netwerk commissioned the study following the Freedom Party's victory in the elections for the European parliament on June 4.

The PVV, participating in the elections for the first time, won 4 seats, becoming the second biggest Dutch party in the European Parliament.

On June 7, a national survey conducted by polling agency peil.nl said that if general elections for the parliament were to be held in the Netherlands that day, the Freedom Party would emerge as the biggest party.

The poll said the PVV would win 31 seats, beating establishment parties Christian Democrats and Labour, at an estimated 29 and 21 seats, respectively.

The Christian Democrats and Labour, which now hold 41 and 33 seats respectively, currently make up the coalition government together with the smaller Christian Union (6 seats).

Life with a control order

Mahmoud Abu Rideh has spent four years behind bars and another four years on a control order. A father of six, he is in a wheelchair and has never seen the evidence against him. Today he goes to the High Court, backed by Amnesty International, in a plea to leave Britain. Here Dina Al Jnidi, his wife, describes the family's descent into a nightmare

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It is still fresh in my mind the day the police came to arrest my husband – it was the 19 December 2001. They broke down the door and forced their way into our home while I was still in my night dress. They were pointing their guns in my face and in the children's faces. There were about 30 armed officers. They forced my husband to the floor and handcuffed him, pressing down on his back and neck with their knees as he screamed in pain. They yelled: "Shut up you f***ing terrorist!" I implored the police to stop because my husband suffers from back pain. All this was in view of my children who were terrified; they were crying, shaking, many had wet themselves .

The police took my husband away – to where, I do not know. They took me and my children to a hostel; they wanted to search our home.

After two days we were allowed to return home. The local newspaper had taken pictures of our house. The headlines read something like: "Terrorist raid". After this article I had my face veil forcibly removed three times. We also had rubbish thrown at our front door.

Forty days passed and I still did not know where my husband was. I called the police, immigration – no one told me where he was.

Eventually I swapped my home because our neighbours had resorted to spitting at me. Prior to the arrest of my husband and the raid on our home, we had never had any trouble with our neighbours. The police have caused this problem which led to our victimisation.

I finally found out my husband was in Belmarsh prison and I went to visit him there. I discovered he was on a hunger strike. The visit was a closed visit, which means that neither I nor my children could touch him. The children were unable to hug or hold their father. Even shaking his hand was not allowed. On many occasions after travelling long distances in difficult circumstances we were sent away without being allowed to see him. My husband does not speak English well, but he was not allowed to speak Arabic (eventually this was allowed for one visit out of four).

My husband used to call and often he would be crying due to the torture and the discrimination he was facing. My children, too, would cry. The effect of all this torture, discrimination, and detention without charge or trial drove my husband insane, angry and psychologically mad. Never before was he like this, he was a normal person – a normal husband and a normal father. Due to his mental state he was transferred to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, a place for dangerous high-risk people.

While at Broadmoor, he was frequently attacked by staff, nurses and other prisoners. I could not visit him there. I tried, but whenever I went I was told he was in isolation, in solitary confinement.

Broadmoor was far from our home, it was difficult travelling with five children only to be sent home.

It was around this time that my husband began to self-harm. He drank detergents, he used pens to dig deep into his arms.

He was finally released in 2005. We were given only two hours' notice before his return. We were pleased to have him back home, but did not know the full extent of the conditions that would be placed on him. I did not know what a control order was. He had to wear an electronic tag around his ankle. He had to report in several times a day (including the middle of the night) using special equipment that had been placed in our home. We were not allowed to have a digital camera in the home, nor other basic items such as USB sticks, memory cards or MP3 players. Our children were not allowed to use the internet or have a computer. We were not allowed visitors unless they had been cleared by the Home Office after a rigorous vetting procedure. Many would not even call for fear of being harassed by the police or worse.

My husband was a wreck, a shattered man. He could not sleep, he would sweat and shake, he would have nightmares and flashbacks. It was almost impossible to deal with him. He was ill and had complex psychological needs – I am not a trained nurse and he required specialist help. One week later he attempted suicide by taking an overdose of his depression and anti-psychotic medications. I found him on the floor unconscious, in a pool of vomit foam coming from his mouth. He was taken to the hospital and remained unconscious for three days.

My life is ruined. I cannot sleep. I cry so much. It is having an effect on my children. I blame Tony Blair, the House of Lords, the Queen, the politicians, Parliament. They all have a have a hand in this. I am British. So are my children. Why, then, is it acceptable for us to be treated in this manner? The police came many times to search my house, violating the sanctity that is a home. What do they expect to find among my clothes and my children's clothes? They confiscated money, a Nintendo Wii, a Playstation, a PSP. The Nintendo Wii was a gift from my husband's solicitor to our children. Despite numerous requests, none of these items have been returned to us. Why? Are my children not allowed the things everyone else's children are?

Even irrelevant documents have been confiscated – birth certificates, school reports, a car log book and MOT certificates. Of what significance or benefit are these?

I was at breaking point. I could take no more. I was pregnant with my sixth child. During my pregnancy the Home Office made things difficult – I could not get help as people required clearance before being allowed to visit me. How could I care for a sick husband and five children while pregnant?

I want to know how the majority of Christians in Britain prepare and share joy at the christening of their newborn children. Am I exempt from sharing my happiness with friends and family? Should I too not be allowed to show off my precious gift to others? Am I subhuman? I want to ask the politicians, the Queen – would this not affect you?

I tried to remain hopeful many times. But there is no hope. My husband has been charged with no crime, he has not been interviewed or interrogated. He has been presumed guilty because he is Muslim – for what other reason could it be? Please explain to me and my family – why have we had to endure this treatment? Pets are treated better than we have been. Is this the humanity you profess, is this the justice you want to spread?

Judge Ousley ordered and ruled that the Home Office should release the secret evidence that is held against my husband. But the Home Office appealed this decision and it has been a long time and nothing has been heard or seen.

On or around the 19 February this year, the European Courts of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights declared that the secret evidence being used against my husband be released to him and his solicitors. They said the control order should be lifted and that my husband should receive compensation for his unfair treatment. What is the point of these courts if Britain makes a mockery of them and refuses to submit to their judgment?

There is no justice. We have lost all hope of justice.

My family, especially our children, are scared of the police. The have suffered at the hands of the police. Their education has suffered. They have not been able to complete homework, they are at a disadvantage compared to other children as they are not allowed to access the internet. I have three girls in secondary school and three boys in primary school. I was attending college to study childcare. We all require a computer.

My husband was re-arrested for alleged breaches of his control order on at least four different occasions. Once he was arrested for having the Nintendo Wii which was the gift to our children. Once it was for having "mobile phones" in the home – they were actually toys purchased from the pound shop.

We, as a family, are dead. We are sick of the police and the Government's torture of our family that has gone on for eight years. Our family has been held hostage in Britain. My husband and I escaped torture at the hand of the Israelis to find worse torture in the UK. I now find myself in another country – J ordan – where I have sought asylum from the torture that Britain has placed me and my family under.

Psychiatrists from the Home Office advised me to divorce my husband, saying it would be better for me and my children. Scotland Yard on many occasions also told me this. What kind of twisted advice is this? Would this really be better for me and my children? Or are they looking for more reasons to drive my husband to suicide?

I have too many things to get off my chest. My heart is filled with anger. I am crying as I write this – it is all too much for me to remember. I have left my home to be in Jordan. My husband was not even allowed to accompany us to the airport. He is forbidden under the restrictions of his control order. Is it really likely that he can escape; he has no passport, no travel documents – where would he go?

As we left our home I knew, and he knew, that it was probably the last time we would see each other, the last time he would see, hold, hug and kiss his children. I had to watch my children crying at the thought of never seeing their father again. But I have no choice, I have been forced to leave.

Perhaps now I can try to repair the damage to my children; the emotional scars they will bear for how long I do not know. I can finally try to rid myself of the effects of the "Terrorist Act", the police, the searches and the torture I have had to witness my husband go through.

I still fear for my husband who is alone. He has made four suicide attempts – each time he has been serious. But Allah has not willed that he be successful.

The British public and Government complain about the effects of immigration and asylum seekers in the UK, about people coming to the country and claiming benefits. Why then do you force my husband to remain here? He has not been charged or convicted of a crime, yet you treat him this way .

I would like to tell the British Government and the rest of the world, I would like to tell anyone who has a heart, anyone who has an ounce of humanity – please allow my husband to leave the United Kingdom.

Please provide him with the necessary documents to go to any country, where there may be at least some hope of seeing him again – before I lose him for good and our children lose their father.
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Please sign a petition for Mahmoud Abu Rideh here.

Hadith: Spread Greetings of Peace

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “O (my) people, spread greetings (of peace), feed people (in need), keep ties of kinship, and pray during the night while the others sleep, and you will enter paradise in peace."

Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 2, Number 21

Game show to find God

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room?

Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new gameshow begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Contestants will ponder whether to believe or not to believe when they pit their godless convictions against the possibilities of a new relationship with the almighty on Penitents Compete (Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor in Turkish), to be broadcast by the Kanal T station. Four spiritual guides from the different religions will seek to convert at least one of the 10 atheists in each programme to their faith.

Those persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen creed – Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists.

The programme's makers say they want to promote religious belief while educating Turkey's overwhelmingly Muslim population about other faiths.

"The project aims to turn disbelievers on to God," the station's deputy director, Ahmet Ozdemir, told the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

That mission is attested to in the programme's advertising slogans, which include "We give you the biggest prize ever: we represent the belief in God" and "You will find serenity in this competition".

Only true non-believers need apply. An eight-strong commission of theologians will assess the atheist credentials of would-be contestants before deciding who should take part.

Converts will be monitored to ensure their religious transformation is genuine and not simply a ruse to gain a free foreign trip. "They can't see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience," Ozdemir said.

The programme, which is scheduled to air in September, has been criticised by commentators and religious figures for trivialising God and faith.

Mustafa Cagrici, provincial head of the state-run religious affairs directorate for Istanbul, said: "I don't find it right to discuss religion in such environments."

Others may see the show as fuelling a widespread intolerance of atheism in Turkey, where a large majority profess a deep religious belief despite the state's officially secular character.

TV Da`wah for Romania Muslims

Reaping the fruits of telecommunication revolution, Romanian Muslims are using television to introduce the message of Islam to the southeastern European country.

"Television is the fastest way to reach out to different sectors of the society," Abu El-Alaa El-Gheithy, director of the Taiba Foundation, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, July 4.

"Through it, you can have an easy access to every home."

The foundation is broadcasting a two-hour weekly show; Islam Today, on DDTV private channel to introduce Islam to Romanian society.

"Since 2006, more than 100 episodes of the program have been broadcast," Gheithy said.

Muslims are also regular guests on TV programs discussing issues of concern of the Muslim minority.

"This has made people better know us and our message," he said.

There are some 70,000 Muslims in Romanian, making up two percent of its 22 million population.

Most Romanian Muslims belong to the Tatar, Turkish or Albanian ethnic communities.

Bearing Fruit

Gheithy said that many TV programs are also seeking the help of Muslim leaders to better understand Islam.

"We have been invited by the popular private National TV channel to get advice on issues related to the Muslim minority," he told IOL.

"We were also consulted on the issues of mixed marriages and polygamy," he said, adding that the effort has borne fruit.

"We were able to correct many misconceptions."

Gheithy said Muslims have also showed up on television to discuss different issues from an Islamic perspective.

"We are expounding the Islamic ideals and the sanctity of human being, religion, offspring and money in Islam.

Gheithy said the television also gives Romanian Muslims the chance to defend Arab issues.

"We are also discussing different issues about woman, extremism, terrorism and coexistence," he added.

Romanian Muslims are also translating many Islamic books into local languages.

"Muslims have translated more than 55 books that suit the European mentality," he said.

Muslims have also took part in many book fairs with several translated Islamic books.

In addition, Muslims are organizing forums and meetings to introduce Islam to Romanian society.

"It is very important for Muslim minorities in the West to seize on media in educating their societies about Islam," he said.

In praise of ... Ezra Nawi

He is a rarity, even among that most endangered of species, the Israeli peace activist. Born in Basra to an Iraqi Jewish family, Ezra Nawi lives on the modest wages he earns as a plumber. As such, he comes from the same background which generates the hardline views in Israel. So he was speaking to his own kind when he told laughing border police who had just demolished Palestinian Bedouin shacks that all they would leave behind was hatred. Not content with the Bedouin shacks, the prosecuting authorities are now trying to demolish Mr Nawi's life by threatening him with a prolonged stay in prison. His arresting officers claim that the non-violent resister had assaulted them - although the alleged assault was not included in their original statements. The whole incident (barring the alleged assault, of course) was caught on film, but the presiding judge believed the police. The sentencing was delayed on Wednesday because so many supporters turned up in court, some bearing a petition with 15,000 signatures. Mr Nawi is asking a bigger question of his countrymen: who is perpetrating the greater violence? Is it people like him, or is it a state which bulldozes Palestinian shacks while protecting the homes of South Hebron settlers which the rest of the world considers illegal? As Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu trade in the semantics of a settlement freeze, it falls to a humble plumber to focus the world's attention on the routine brutalities of occupation.

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Uighurs, Michael Jackson and London Bombings - A strange day

Micheal Jackson funeral is taking place at the moment and all the news organisations are covering that. I can see people crying at the loss and it seems as the end of world for many people. Maybe this is a big event but there are other big events going on today.

Today is four years since the London Bombings took place. A memorial has been erected in memory of those who lost lives in this mindless act of violence. One of the women was an Israeli women who was too afraid to live in Jerusalem and was scared that she could be a target in a suicide blast. She was one of the victims. This reminds us that death can come regardless of whenever and wherever we are.

Right now there is lot of problems for the Uighurs, who are Chinese Muslims. A lot of them may not describe themselves Chinese because of the delibrate policy of discrimination, ethnic and cultral cleansing and land grabbing policies of the Chinese government. 156 people have been killed and over 1500 in custody.

The Han Chinese who have been taking over the East Turkestan province with the help of the government has now added salt to injury by smashing up Uighur stores. They burned the restaurants, mosque, etc. Curfews have been imposed but that probably means more Uighur deaths.

China wants to project itself as superpower but it should first sort its own house before thinking of itself as a super-power.

In the meantime please pray for Uighurs and lets hope Allah will help them and reduce their suffering, Inshallah.