UK's Own Gitmo Hides Some Dirty Secrets

The shameful cover-up by the foreign secretary who lied to parliament over illegal secret renditions on the tiny crown island of Diego Garcia has been exposed, while the government's disgraceful dirty little secret has been systematically wiped from the official record.

Time and again the New Labour government has scoffed at suggestions the island was used as a Guantanamo (Gitmo) style black-site prison. 

Now two terror suspects who were flown by the CIA to the UK territory and later allegedly tortured have been named and evidence about their treatment has been revealed for the first time, according to the Guardian. 

Meanwhile the islanders who were ruthlessly deported to make way for the US base continue to face an uncertain future. 

As a UK territory, the islanders should have been be protected by the Crown and the island's future up to the will of parliament. Instead a  New Labour government has relentlessly persued a policy of cleansing and deporting the ethnic population, while being complicit with the US in using the island as a base for state abduction and Gitmo-style detention, rendition flights and interrogation. 

After repeated denials by ministers, fresh evidence prepared for the commons foreign affairs committee by Clive Stafford Smith, of the human rights group Reprieve, show two men, referred to by foreign secretary, David Miliband, had been rendered through the island in 2002. 

And the government had systematically destroyed flight logs for the US airbase, according to LibDems foreign affairs spokesman Edward Davy.

The government has an appalling record over the tiny island in the Indian Ocean since leasing it out to the US in the 1970s. Then locals were forced out to live in poverty more than 1,000 miles away in Mauritius, so the island could be turned into a US military base. 

One of the alleged terrorists held at Diego Garcia cited in the Reprieve evidence before he was flown on to Gitmo is the subject of a police investigation into "possible criminal wrongdoing" by the CIA and an MI5 officer.

Stafford Smith said: "It is time for the UK government to come clean about its role in the detention and to reveal who else has been held on and rendered through Diego Garcia, what happened to them there, and where they are now." 

Unlike Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, no-one can drop by Diego Garcia, even with a UK passport. Anyone entering territorial waters will be arrested. The  island, which has a huge airstrip, is full of US military and an army of cheap labour migrant workers to do the dirty work for them.

The government has a shameful record over the use of the island and the treatment of its people. In 2004, Blair exiled the whole population from the Overseas Territory when he issued an Order of Council stopping the islanders from ever going back, using the 'royal prerogative' without recourse to parliament or the crown. 

In June of last year the Orange Party highlighted the plight of the islanders which has been the subject of high court and house of lords appeals to no avail and the disreputable use of the UK/US military base.

Parliament had been repeatedly told no detainees have passed in transit through Diego Garcia or have disembarked there,  despite  long-standing suspicions the CIA operated one of its so-called 'black site' prisons on the island.

Commenting on the latest revelations, Davey, said: "These astonishing allegations fly in the face of the assurances given by the foreign secretary to parliament. The use of British territory for illegal state abduction and detention is unacceptable." 

Government ministers are happy to voice concern over Guantanamo Bay and how it's used to get round international law.  But time and time again the iron fist of government has refused to examine the truth of the allegations at Diego Garcia, while enforcing full-scale deportation of the population. 

The UK government's complicity in torture while burying its head in the sand and leaving the displaced islanders to rot, leaves behind one of the more shameful episodes of a discredited New Labour party and the sham of the  so-called 'liberal' credentials of its ministers. 

Picture: Ariel photograph of Diego Garcia

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Brown Meets Obama Posted Here Feb 6!

Downing Street has confirmed Brown will meet Obama early next month. Nothing new there. The Orange Party reported this was on the cards back on February 6.

The beleaguered prime minister is pinning his hopes on some of the Obama magic rubbing off on him. 

Brown's mountain goes to Obama's muhammad on March 3. The prime minister hopes that by dropping in at the White House he can steal a march on his rivals and a few votes back home. 

Following a tip from the Westminster Mole, the Orange Party posted earlier, a Washington meeting makes sense for Downing Street and Brown, who lives and breathes the election and how to wrong foot the Tories.

Both Downing Street and Brown are obsessed with the G20 London summit and hope an April 2 London get together of "world leaders" would cash in on some of the Obamashine ahead of the elections.  

But Obama's star is starting to fade and the administration has enough worries over the domestic economy. Obama may drop by but only out of common courtesy.

With Brown now in the death throes of the "fag-end of a government in collapse", the Washington Obama meeting could be the last throw of the dice. That begs the question how hard did Downing Street push for the meeting and what's the trade-off deal?

A White House statement said the US and UK had a "special partnership" and the president wanted to work closely with Brown on "common global challenges". The leaders are expected to discuss the global financial crisis and strategy in Afghanistan, among other issues, according to the BBC.

With that kind of overarching statement, there's a danger the actual purpose of the meeting gets lost in translation. 

Brown has staked his shredded reputation on saving the world, pressing Obama to sign up to an anti-protectionism global trade deal ahead of G20. 

Also at stake is that 'special relationship', after revelations of an apparent CIA threat  to suspend intelligence-sharing between the two allies, amid allegations of torture at Gitmo, with the complicity of UK intelligence. Foreign secretary Miliband is being urged to come clean about the whole sordid affair. 

The vexed issue of Gitmo detainees has to be resolved, particularly the continued rendition flights and secret US use of the Crown island of Diego Garcia. 

But more importantly Obama has already committed 17,000 new US troops to the hopeless and unwinnable war in Afghanistan. He'll be urging his new poodle Brown to follow suit. 

These pressing issues can only be discussed face-to-face.

With the credibility of the prime minister in ruins both at home and abroad, best to get in quick for the photo-op for the BBC and Downing Street album. In politics, April 2 is a very long way off.   

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Will Brown's Mountain Go To Obama's Muhammad?

Brown could still be hoping some of the Obama magic will rub off on him with speculation he may drop by the White House to meet the Great One and steal a march on his rivals and a few votes back home. 

Both Downing Street and Brown have been pinning their pre-election hopes on an April 2 London get together of "world leaders", to cash in on some of the Obamashine. 

Now the Westminster Mole reports there's speculation Downing Street may decide on a Washington trip ahead of the G20 summit. 

Yesterday was a bad Brown day when Blair stole a march on his old foe, sneaking in a quick prayer meeting with the other Messiah. Billed as the "first world leader to meet with Barack Obama", the sight of the best buddies must have got up Brown's nose. 

Today is no better with Downing Street not a happy bunny after French president Sarkozy publicly savaged Brown and blasted his "economic mistakes".

A Washington meeting makes sense for Downing Street and Brown, who lives and breathes the election and how to wrong foot the Tories.

With the race now on to be the first or second world leader to meet the Chosen One, there are fears France's Sarkozy or Germany's Merkel could get in first. 

Time and again Downing Street and Brown have been talking up the hopes of Obama's London visit. "He's working hard on that G20 summit" is how it's spun but as the Orange Party pointed out yesterday, who wants to be photographed shaking hands with a loser? 

A world conference on the world financial crisis without the US President may seem unthinkable but the Obama administration works to its own agenda and such a conference may be better served with US finance chiefs rather than a personal appearance by the commander in chief. 

World leaders certainly seem obsessed with trying to be seen standing shoulder to shoulder with the US President and Brown, with his plan to save the world with a painful fiscal stimulus, is no exception, to try to make Cameron look small fry. 

Brown is pressing Obama to sign up to an anti-protectionist global trade deal. Also at stake is the 'special relationship'. Obama needs Brown's support to fight his war in Afghanistan and there's the vexed issue of Gitmo after revelations of an apparent CIA threat  to suspend intelligence-sharing between the two allies, amid allegations of torture, with the complicity of UK intelligence.

Those issues could only be thrashed out at a face-to-face meeting. 

With the credibility of beleaguered Brown in ruins both at home and abroad, best to get in quick. 

A week is a long time in politics. Between now and April 2 is a lifetime.

Picture: Happier Days! Brown and Obama at Downing Street, when everything in the garden was lovely. 

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Obama's 'Mad', Mad World

The world is holding its breath for what the Messiah will do next in his first 100 days. So much false hope, so many dreams to shatter. And so little time to walk the walk, talk the talk and fool some of the people, some of the time. It's tough being a snake-oil salesman from the Windy City.

Obama's BBC fan club is kindly posting an on-line daily diary of the Great Man's every move. Everything's there except for the comfort breaks but maybe the Chosen One doesn't choose to go.

Channel 4 News, "blessed is the Blessed One", managed to slip in a quick Obama info-commercial during a recent news bulletin, with stock footage from National Geographic showing 'The One' on Air Force One - ordering dinner from a menu. Even the Messiah has to eat sometimes.

Thank goodness for the mad world of Mad Magazine.

Obama reached out to the Muslim world, choosing a Saudi-owned satellite TV network for his first formal television interview. He asked the Arab World for forgiveness and told audiences that some of his relatives are Muslim. Strange that throughout the campaign that was the one issue Obama kept well under wraps. That and the fags.

Meanwhile there are reports that Iran is almost ready to declare itself a nuclear power, with enough enriched uranium to blow Israel off the face of the earth.

In Obama's war, the 'enemy' is being softened up on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border with an increase in drone attacks ready for a massive US troop surge as part of the hopeless and unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

Gitmo is to close within a year we are told, yet the actual executive order gives the president plenty of wriggle-room over what to do about the detainees and when to do it.

And there's that $825 billion bail-out coming up soon which "will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years". Where have we heard all that before? Obama's favourite community group ACORN, under investigation for voter registration fraud, will be eligible for billions.

But don’t despair, President Barack Hussein Obama, is there to fix all the problems, the leaking roof and restore confidence in America.

Well isn’t this all wonderful! He may have captured the hearts and minds of the media liberal luvvies but in this mad world, he sure as hell scares the pants off the Orange Party.

Top picture: Mad Magazine

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A Day In Obama La-La Land

The hypocrisy of two state news broadcasters, BBC and Channel 4, waving around their liberal credentials, ramming Obama's hugely expensive inauguration down our throats, while both countries suffer deep recession, reeks of double standards. All that matters is can and will he deliver on his promises.

It seems both broadcasters have lost a questioning edge, preferring instead to massage their pseudo-liberal egos in Obama's well-spun Promised Land. Calm down dears, it's only a presidential inauguration, not the Second Coming.

With the US in the middle of the deepest recession since the depression, filthy rich donors and taxpayers through the government  have reportedly splashed out more than $170 million on today's love-in from the mutual admiration society. 

The UK broadcasters are fawning over their Chosen One and his messages of hope and change, as if folk over here gave a fig about the ceremony. 

Highfalutin' hype is fine for a national newspaper, you pays your money. But being forced to sit through a hugely expensive Obama-fest dressed up as an inauguration is hard to swallow. 

The sheer arrogance is beyond belief. Switch off or over for sure, but this is licence-payers and taxpayers cash they are playing around with. 

Sure it's tremendously significant. Barack Hussein Obama is being sworn in as the president of the free world, the most powerful person on the planet. But that doesn't mean going overboard and buying into all the hype.

Both the BBC and Channel 4 are clinging onto the first "black" president line (sometimes changed to African-American) to justify OTT coverage. He's not, he's mixed race but as if the colour of his skin or exotic background will make any difference. 

Hope is already there for true African-Americans in people like Condoleeza Rice, the first black woman to serve as secretary of state. And there's not even a nod to the question: why isn't there a woman in the White House? 

Already the line has been spun that "America is celebrating" but ask ordinary folk in the US if they are "celebrating" and what they think is important. The answer will come back loud and clear. On both sides of the Atlantic, people are worried sick about jobs, how they are going to make ends meet and how they are going to survive the freezing winter. 

The US elections forced the Orange Party to issue a painful warning - God Help America Now - after voters were taken in by the most powerful and expensive marketing machine in US history.  The Orange Party never bought into the hyped-up hope but wants desperately to be proved wrong for the sake of the American people. 

But America faces a disturbing and unsettled future. Obama talked the talk. The media helped him sell a soap powder dream. With false hope comes shattered dreams, just another Tony Blair. There's a fine line to be drawn between audacity and arrogance.

The long drawn out campaign trail is now a faded memory. It’s easy to forget more than 200 hyped-up promises made by the slick snake-oil salesman, as he delivered the same sound-bites time and again, dressed up as a message of hope and US voters bought into the dream. 

NationalJournal.com is tracking progress made by the Obama administration in keeping its word to the people of America and it's worth dropping by from time to time to see how thing are going or not. 

The favourite promise of the moment is Obama's big fuss about closing down the shameful Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Closure was on the cards during the Bush administration. Now all Obama will say is that he hopes to see GITMO closed down "before the end of his four year term of office". The 'hope' is he will move fast on this one but only time will tell if the 'people's president' lives up to his promises in his Promised Land. 

Meanwhile a snarling Huw Edwards and once respected Jon Snow, milk Obama's lavish inauguration for all it's worth.

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US Kangaroo Court Sham In Cuba

Reports of a 'trial', a 'jury', a 'verdict' and a 'conviction', bandied about at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp show-trial, are highly misleading and make a mockery of justice. 

A US military commission, at the camp in Cuba, has 'convicted' Osama Bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, of supporting terrorism. The verdict is the first to be delivered in a 'war crimes trial' on the island.

Bin Laden's driver may be 'guilty' who really knows - but that's not the issue here. 

The prosecution had said Hamdan played a "vital role" in the conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks. Defence lawyers said he was just a hired driver. Hamdan is due to be 'sentenced' today.

The pointless 'trial'' is being played up for all its worth by the US authorities. The White House said the trial was fair and looked forward to more tribunals, claiming it shows GITMO does actually work.

But the 'jury' was made up of US military personnel. The 'trial' was actually a kangaroo court under the guise of a military tribunal and the whole thing played out behind closed doors in a tiny corner of the island. 

The so-called 'reports' came from journalists watching carefully screened footage on CCTV, while holed up in an air-conditioned hotel round the block. 

Lawyers around the world say it's unfair. The whole case will be thrown out by the US Supreme Court on appeal, anyway. 

Guantanamo Bay is a mystery. A strange, eerie sort of place on the eastern tip of Cuba. Leased to the US back in the 1920s, it's surrounded by razor wire and surveillance cameras. 

Dozens of other inmates are due to be 'tried' there in the coming months. Some are bigger fish - men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks.

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Our 'Secret' Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay sparks outrage in the west as the US government uses a leased base in Cuba to hold and interrogate terrorist suspects. The UK's own GITMO at Diego Garcia would cause equal concern, if only more people knew or cared.

Diego Garcia isn't a Brazilian footballer. It's a tiny island in the Indian Ocean which belongs to the UK. But we've leased it out to the US since the 1970s because they never had an Empire. 

The locals were forced out, so that the island could be turned into a US military base. Now the islanders live in poverty in Mauritius, more than 1,000 miles away. 

The New Labour government is happy to voice concern over Guantanamo Bay and how it's used to get round international law. 

And it still seems strange that the US has a military base in Cuba, when it spent years trying to kill Castro and wreck the economy . 

But unlike Dieigo Garcia, you can easily get to Guantanamo Bay and look at the eerie barbed wire and fences from a distance. 

But you can't drop by Diego Garcia, even with a UK passport, which should give you a right to visit all Crown Territories. 

The UK has a token force on island, which has a huge airstrip but it's mainly full of US military and an army of migrant workers to do the dirty work for them. 

Displaced locals must have some rights under UK law. After all this is Crown Territory. 

But they've been forced out, so the US can use the island for refuelling and long range bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, amid reports of notorious rendition flights and prison ships to the island, to hold and interrogate international terrorist suspects.

In 2004, Blair issued an Order of Council stopping the islanders from ever going back. This 'royal prerogative' was Blair's device to do what he wanted, without recourse to Parliament, the Crown or anyone. 

Through this Blair and New Labour have exiled a whole population from a British Overseas Territory. 

The plight of the islanders and with it the future of the UK/US military base is the subject of High Court and House of Lords appeals. But don't hold your breath on this one.

The case of Diego Garcia show just how hypocritical New Labour can be. What a waste of a beautiful island and what a shame for its people.

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Wake Up BBC News On-Line!

BBC News on-line needs a wake-up call. Since early yesterday morning the "news" site has led on the Guantanamo "trial" of 9/11 suspected accomplices, as if no other news had happened - or mattered.

Even the wording is misleading. This isn't a GITMO trial, it's a US military tribunal, in Cuba of all places.

UK diplomats may have been held in Zimbabwe, an MEP admits fidddling expenses, a serving Army chief attacks the government over serving soldiers pay - but what had we at the top of the BBC on-line "news" all day - the same old story.

Maybe our man in Havana had too many daiquiris.

The item finally disappeared - completely - in the early hours of this morning, to be replaced by the shock new that Clinton and Obama have held 'surprise' talks. Yes, Clinton and Obama actually talking to each other.

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