[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Afghanistan]
Two soldiers killed on foot patrol, taking Afghan death toll to 206
• One of the casualties was sent as a reinforcement
• Bodies of four others returned to the UK
Jo Adetunji and Sam Jones
The Guardian, Saturday 22 August 2009 Article history
Two British soldiers were killed in an explosion in north Helmand, Afghanistan, on Thursday morning as people voted in the country's presidential election, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.
Last night it was revealed one of them, Sergeant Paul McAleese, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was the son of SAS soldier John McAleese who was involved in the raid that ended the siege on the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. The other was named as Private Jonathon Young, 18, of 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.
Pte Young had only been in Afghanistan for three weeks, after being sent among 125 reinforcements after a wave of casualties in July. They were on a routine foot patrol when they were caught in a suspected blast from an improvised explosive device. Their deaths bring to 206 the number of British troops killed in the country since the invasion.
Sgt McAleese leaves a widow and a son, Charley, born a week before his deployment to Afghanistan. Jo McAleese said: "Mac, my husband, my best friend, my hero. You were an amazing Daddy to Charley and the best husband I could have ever asked for. We will love you and miss you for ever. We will always be so proud of what you achieved in your life and I am so, so proud to be your wife."
Lieutenant Colonel Rob Thomson, commanding officer 2 Rifles Battle Group, said: "He had a huge rucksack full of talents – everyone looked up to him and wanted to be in his team. Militarily, there was nothing that he wasn't good at." Sgt McAleese died in a second explosion while trying to help a soldier wounded in the blast in which Pte Young was killed.
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Vallings, commanding officer of Pte Young's battalion said: "He [Young] had already set his mark as a robust and determined soldier who always put his friends first. He had a strength of character that forced him to be at the very centre of events and it was no surprise that he volunteered to deploy at Afghanistan at short notice."
The bodies of four other British soldiers killed in Afghanistan over the weekend arrived back in the UK yesterday. Sergeant Simon Valentine, 29, died on foot patrol near Sangin six days ago. His coffin was flown to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire along with those of Fusilier Simon Annis, 22, Fusilier Louis Carter, 18, and Lance-Corporal James Fullarton, 24. Annis and Carter died in a blast on Sunday while trying to rescue Fullarton, their commander.
Valentine, from Bedworth, Warwickshire, was the 201st soldier to be killed in the conflict. He was sent to Kosovo in 1999, took part in anti-terrorist operations in Belfast, and served two tours in Iraq. He leaves a wife, Gemma, and two daughters.
Annis, from Salford, married in February, weeks before he was deployed to Afghanistan. His wife, Caroline, said: "Simon was the perfect husband, son and brother. He will be sorely missed by all of us. He was a true hero."
Fullarton, from Coventry, got engaged while home on leave from Afghanistan in June. Carter, from Nuneaton, joined up in 2007 and was deployed in Afghanistan straight after completing his training.
Richard Hunt, 21, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, died in hospital in Birmingham after suffering injuries on patrol near Musa Qala on 12 August.
Protest: Turning point claim
The organisers of a national demonstration against the war say a turning point has been reached in public support for the conflict, with the recent heavy troop casualties forcing many people to question Britain's involvement. The Stop the War Coalition, which co-ordinated the huge protest against the invasion of Iraq in February 2003, is planning a Troops Out of Afghanistan march on 24 October.
The coalition acknowledges that the Iraq march was unique but said the public was now ready to show that it no longer accepted the government's reasons for the continuing presence in Afghanistan. It estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 protesters will take part in the march in October. At least a million were at the Iraq protest.
Andrew Burgin, a spokesman for the coalition, said: "The tipping point was the increasing casualty rates in July. People began to ask more serious questions of their politicians." However, an ICM poll for the Guardian and BBC Newsnight in mid-July – when British military deaths in Afghanistan passed those in Iraq – found that 47% backed the war, against 46% who opposed it.
Sam Jones and Girish Gupta
[Torture]
Bombshell report on CIA interrogations is leaked
Findings suppressed since 2006 detail death threats against prisoners and other methods that may constitute tortutre
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 22 August 2009 13.25 BST Article history
CIA interrogators threatened a captured al-Qaida leader with a power drill and a pistol in what was described as a mock execution, according to a long-suppressed report due to be released on Monday.
Details of the report by the spy agency's inspector general have emerged in the Washington Post and Newsweek. The full findings on the CIA's interrogation programme are to be made public after a federal judge upheld an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union for their release.
The report is understood to describe mock executions where interrogators tried to get detainees to talk by firing a gun in an adjoining room to pretend another prisoner had been killed.
According to leaked information from the report, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a drill and gun during his detention at one of the CIA's so-called black site prisons after his capture in 2002. He was subjected to the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as were two other al-Qaida leaders.
Nashiri, who remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, has been accused of masterminding the 1999 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.
Sources familiar with the report told the Washington Post that Nashiri was threatened with death or grave injury during his questioning. A CIA officer showed Nashiri a gun and suggested he would be shot, and a power drill was held near Nashiri's body and repeatedly turned on and off. US law on torture prohibits a US national from threatening anyone in his custody with imminent death.
The disclosures come as the CIA faces intense scrutiny. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has been examining the legality of the CIA's interrogation methods.
The inspector general examined CIA techniques over a period of two years – from 2002 until 2004 – to see whether justice department guidelines for so-called "enhanced interrogations" had been followed. Those guidelines were finally released by the Obama administration despite the objections of the CIA and former senior officials under George Bush.
The report is understood to be the most detailed review of the agency's interrogation programme and is believed to be highly critical of the techniques used, suggesting that a number of them broke international laws and norms. The document has become deeply controversial within the CIA itself, not least because the agency was advised two months before Nashiri's capture in a memo from Jay Bybee, the head of the justice department's office of legal counsel, that threats of "imminent death" were legal if they did not cause permanent mental harm.
The report – originally commissioned by then CIA director George Tenet – has become a cause celebre. It was seen by justice department and congressional intelligence committee leaders shortly after it was written, but not shown to all members of the intelligence committees until September 2006.
Top Bush CIA officials, including Tenet's successors as CIA director, Porter Goss and General Michael Hayden, lobbied for the report to be kept secret, claiming its release would damage America's reputation around the world and damage CIA morale.
Its public release comes after revelations last week that the CIA hired the private military contractor Blackwater – now known as Xe Services – to assassinate al-Qaida leaders. The programme never got off the ground and was kept secret from Congress.
Previous scandals that damaged the reputation of the CIA and the US internationally during the Bush years include the disclosure of the US secret rendition programme for terrorist suspects, the existence of the black site prisons and the use of waterboarding.
Barack Obama has said that waterboarding constitutes torture and is therefore forbidden under US law.
In Europe, the Swiss senator who has led an inquiry across the continent into secret CIA-run detention centres has urged European nations to come clean about their involvement "in this shameful episode".
Dick Marty said Europe's credibility was being damaged by leaks about CIA interrogation facilities in countries such as Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Marty said that instead of having the truth trickle out gradually, all participants in the illegal program should publicly admit their involvement.
In a 2007 probe conducted on behalf of the Council of Europe, Marty accused 14 European governments of permitting the CIA to run detention centres or conduct rendition flights through their countries between 2002 and 2005.
[Afghanistan]
Two soldiers killed on foot patrol, taking Afghan death toll to 206
• One of the casualties was sent as a reinforcement
• Bodies of four others returned to the UK
Jo Adetunji and Sam Jones
The Guardian, Saturday 22 August 2009 Article history
Two British soldiers were killed in an explosion in north Helmand, Afghanistan, on Thursday morning as people voted in the country's presidential election, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.
Last night it was revealed one of them, Sergeant Paul McAleese, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was the son of SAS soldier John McAleese who was involved in the raid that ended the siege on the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. The other was named as Private Jonathon Young, 18, of 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.
Pte Young had only been in Afghanistan for three weeks, after being sent among 125 reinforcements after a wave of casualties in July. They were on a routine foot patrol when they were caught in a suspected blast from an improvised explosive device. Their deaths bring to 206 the number of British troops killed in the country since the invasion.
Sgt McAleese leaves a widow and a son, Charley, born a week before his deployment to Afghanistan. Jo McAleese said: "Mac, my husband, my best friend, my hero. You were an amazing Daddy to Charley and the best husband I could have ever asked for. We will love you and miss you for ever. We will always be so proud of what you achieved in your life and I am so, so proud to be your wife."
Lieutenant Colonel Rob Thomson, commanding officer 2 Rifles Battle Group, said: "He had a huge rucksack full of talents – everyone looked up to him and wanted to be in his team. Militarily, there was nothing that he wasn't good at." Sgt McAleese died in a second explosion while trying to help a soldier wounded in the blast in which Pte Young was killed.
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Vallings, commanding officer of Pte Young's battalion said: "He [Young] had already set his mark as a robust and determined soldier who always put his friends first. He had a strength of character that forced him to be at the very centre of events and it was no surprise that he volunteered to deploy at Afghanistan at short notice."
The bodies of four other British soldiers killed in Afghanistan over the weekend arrived back in the UK yesterday. Sergeant Simon Valentine, 29, died on foot patrol near Sangin six days ago. His coffin was flown to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire along with those of Fusilier Simon Annis, 22, Fusilier Louis Carter, 18, and Lance-Corporal James Fullarton, 24. Annis and Carter died in a blast on Sunday while trying to rescue Fullarton, their commander.
Valentine, from Bedworth, Warwickshire, was the 201st soldier to be killed in the conflict. He was sent to Kosovo in 1999, took part in anti-terrorist operations in Belfast, and served two tours in Iraq. He leaves a wife, Gemma, and two daughters.
Annis, from Salford, married in February, weeks before he was deployed to Afghanistan. His wife, Caroline, said: "Simon was the perfect husband, son and brother. He will be sorely missed by all of us. He was a true hero."
Fullarton, from Coventry, got engaged while home on leave from Afghanistan in June. Carter, from Nuneaton, joined up in 2007 and was deployed in Afghanistan straight after completing his training.
Richard Hunt, 21, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, died in hospital in Birmingham after suffering injuries on patrol near Musa Qala on 12 August.
Protest: Turning point claim
The organisers of a national demonstration against the war say a turning point has been reached in public support for the conflict, with the recent heavy troop casualties forcing many people to question Britain's involvement. The Stop the War Coalition, which co-ordinated the huge protest against the invasion of Iraq in February 2003, is planning a Troops Out of Afghanistan march on 24 October.
The coalition acknowledges that the Iraq march was unique but said the public was now ready to show that it no longer accepted the government's reasons for the continuing presence in Afghanistan. It estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 protesters will take part in the march in October. At least a million were at the Iraq protest.
Andrew Burgin, a spokesman for the coalition, said: "The tipping point was the increasing casualty rates in July. People began to ask more serious questions of their politicians." However, an ICM poll for the Guardian and BBC Newsnight in mid-July – when British military deaths in Afghanistan passed those in Iraq – found that 47% backed the war, against 46% who opposed it.
Sam Jones and Girish Gupta
[Torture]
Bombshell report on CIA interrogations is leaked
Findings suppressed since 2006 detail death threats against prisoners and other methods that may constitute tortutre
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 22 August 2009 13.25 BST Article history
CIA interrogators threatened a captured al-Qaida leader with a power drill and a pistol in what was described as a mock execution, according to a long-suppressed report due to be released on Monday.
Details of the report by the spy agency's inspector general have emerged in the Washington Post and Newsweek. The full findings on the CIA's interrogation programme are to be made public after a federal judge upheld an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union for their release.
The report is understood to describe mock executions where interrogators tried to get detainees to talk by firing a gun in an adjoining room to pretend another prisoner had been killed.
According to leaked information from the report, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a drill and gun during his detention at one of the CIA's so-called black site prisons after his capture in 2002. He was subjected to the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as were two other al-Qaida leaders.
Nashiri, who remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, has been accused of masterminding the 1999 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.
Sources familiar with the report told the Washington Post that Nashiri was threatened with death or grave injury during his questioning. A CIA officer showed Nashiri a gun and suggested he would be shot, and a power drill was held near Nashiri's body and repeatedly turned on and off. US law on torture prohibits a US national from threatening anyone in his custody with imminent death.
The disclosures come as the CIA faces intense scrutiny. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has been examining the legality of the CIA's interrogation methods.
The inspector general examined CIA techniques over a period of two years – from 2002 until 2004 – to see whether justice department guidelines for so-called "enhanced interrogations" had been followed. Those guidelines were finally released by the Obama administration despite the objections of the CIA and former senior officials under George Bush.
The report is understood to be the most detailed review of the agency's interrogation programme and is believed to be highly critical of the techniques used, suggesting that a number of them broke international laws and norms. The document has become deeply controversial within the CIA itself, not least because the agency was advised two months before Nashiri's capture in a memo from Jay Bybee, the head of the justice department's office of legal counsel, that threats of "imminent death" were legal if they did not cause permanent mental harm.
The report – originally commissioned by then CIA director George Tenet – has become a cause celebre. It was seen by justice department and congressional intelligence committee leaders shortly after it was written, but not shown to all members of the intelligence committees until September 2006.
Top Bush CIA officials, including Tenet's successors as CIA director, Porter Goss and General Michael Hayden, lobbied for the report to be kept secret, claiming its release would damage America's reputation around the world and damage CIA morale.
Its public release comes after revelations last week that the CIA hired the private military contractor Blackwater – now known as Xe Services – to assassinate al-Qaida leaders. The programme never got off the ground and was kept secret from Congress.
Previous scandals that damaged the reputation of the CIA and the US internationally during the Bush years include the disclosure of the US secret rendition programme for terrorist suspects, the existence of the black site prisons and the use of waterboarding.
Barack Obama has said that waterboarding constitutes torture and is therefore forbidden under US law.
In Europe, the Swiss senator who has led an inquiry across the continent into secret CIA-run detention centres has urged European nations to come clean about their involvement "in this shameful episode".
Dick Marty said Europe's credibility was being damaged by leaks about CIA interrogation facilities in countries such as Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Marty said that instead of having the truth trickle out gradually, all participants in the illegal program should publicly admit their involvement.
In a 2007 probe conducted on behalf of the Council of Europe, Marty accused 14 European governments of permitting the CIA to run detention centres or conduct rendition flights through their countries between 2002 and 2005.
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