The use of torture

[Derek McMillan]

According to Democracy now (www.democracynow.org) the US radio and TV show:

"New details are emerging in the case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi -- the detainee whose faulty claims on links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The New York Times is reporting government officials have acknowledged al-Libi fabricated his claims to avoid harsh punishment while in Egyptian custody. Al-Libi was handed over to Egypt by US agents in January 2002. The Times notes the disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of detainees."

Torturing suspects may not give you the truth, but it will give you the answers you want to hear.

Now a simple question. In the 1960s when I joined the Labour Party I did not believe I was signing up to support for torture or imprisonment without trial. I did not believe I was joining a party which would throw an old man out of its conference for daring to object to being called a Nazi for opposing the war in Iraq. What possible moral justification can keep anybody in a party which pursues such authoritarian policies?

Labour is the Party of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the party of the Fallujah massacre with the blood of 100000 Iraqis on its hands. It is no longer a party a civilised person can support.

[Derek McMillan]

Well I seem to be replying to myself - I was expecting Labour loyalists to rush to defend Guantanamo

Today, Friday 13th, Dr David Nicholl informs me that lawyers for some of the Guantanamo detainees (Allen & Overy) are asking the San Diego Superior Court to compel the Medical Board of California to initiate

an investigation that Dr. John Edmondson (the doctor in charge of Guantanamo) is engaged in unprofessional conduct.

He says "I believe this case is extremely important and essentially boils down to whether the US medical establishment will be prepared to investigate serious torture allegations or are US military doctors beyond the rule of law in Guantanamo, just like the detainees?"

And New Labour support all of this. How can any civilised person want anything to do with them?