The Strange, Disturbing Case Of Binyam Mohamed

Why did British foreign secretary David Miliband get caught in a fib in the Commons? What could the suppressed defense of Binyam Mohamed tell us about the Bush-Cheney torture program? My attempt to make sense of the case that is straining US-UK relations is in the Sunday Times today. Do not miss the ST's in-depth report on the case. David Rose has a piece in the Mail on Sunday as well. Meanwhile, the Observer reports the following from a veteran military lawyer, Lieutenant-Colonel Yvonne Bradley:

"Binyam has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist, they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not witnessed this before. Guant
amo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening.

"It is so bad that there are not enough chairs to strap them down and force-feed them for a two- or three-hour period to digest food through a feeding tube. Because there are not enough chairs the guards are having to force-feed them in shifts. After Binyam saw a nearby inmate being beaten it scared him and he decided he was not going to resist. He thought, 'I don't want to be beat, injured or killed.' Given his health situation, one good blow could be fatal," said Bradley.

Remember: Gitmo was much much better than the black sites he had been brutalized in before. Tomorrow in a federal court hearing in San Francisco, we'll find out if the Obama administration intends to keep the evidence as secret as the Bush administration did.