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The Ninth Circuit is currently considering the case, and the U.S. government has reportedly threatened Britain not to disclose this information, and it looks like the British government will appeal, according to the BBC. It will be interesting to see how the release of the documents might affect the Obama administration's argument that the details need to be kept secret, since they no longer will be. The disclosure of torture details in the New York Review of Books was one of the rationales the administration gave for releasing the Bush administration's torture memos.
Of course, it's not a court in this country:
Mohamed is also the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan for having facilitated his rendition to Morocco, where he claims he was tortured. The Obama administration has been trying to have the case dismissed by invoking the "state secrets" doctrine -- again, a somewhat Orwellian argument for letting the government hide evidence of its own wrongdoing under the rubric of national security.The High Court has ruled that US intelligence documents containing details of the alleged torture of a former UK resident can be released.
Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 30, who spent four years in Guantanamo Bay, claims British authorities colluded in his torture while in Pakistan.
The Ninth Circuit is currently considering the case, and the U.S. government has reportedly threatened Britain not to disclose this information, and it looks like the British government will appeal, according to the BBC. It will be interesting to see how the release of the documents might affect the Obama administration's argument that the details need to be kept secret, since they no longer will be. The disclosure of torture details in the New York Review of Books was one of the rationales the administration gave for releasing the Bush administration's torture memos.
-- A. Serwer
