Blair knew of US torture

October 2, 2010
Issue 
Tony Blair.

Secret documents disclosed in Britain’s High Court revealed former British prime minister Tony Blair was warned in the weeks after US forces began rounding up terrorism suspects that British nationals held by the US in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay were being tortured, the Guardian said on September 30.

A January 22, 2002 note from Blair in which he expressed concern about the treatment of British citizens being held by the US appeared, among heavily censored MI5 and foreign office documents, in court hearings in which British citizens are suing the government, MI5 and MI6.

The Guardian said: “Evidence has since emerged that the British government knew the US was mistreating and torturing British nationals and residents after January 2002 and for years afterwards, but did not seriously protest about it.

“Evidence, notably in the case of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident, shows that MI5 co-operated with the CIA, which was indulging in mistreatment and torture.”

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