Alaa’ Nassif Jassim al-Bazzouni wins case against guidance issued by UK government An Iraqi citizen has won a legal victory in London over the “barbaric” practice of hooding terror suspects. Alaa’ Nassif Jassim al-Bazzouni argued that government guidance unlawfully condoned hooding prisoners for security reasons. Lawyers for the Iraqi citizen challenged the guidance on the grounds that it explicitly and unlawfully condones the “barbaric practice” of hooding prisoners for “transit and security purposes”. Bazzouni – a father of three who lives in Basra – says he was abused and hooded by British troops in 2006, in the wake of the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Bazzouni challenged new guidance issued by the UK government on the interrogation of suspects held by foreign states. The high court heard that British troops or intelligence officers are now banned from hooding prisoners themselves. The guidance still allows them to co-operate with countries that might continue to hood for “security reasons”. On Monday, two judges ruled the guidance should be changed so that hooding was not permitted at all because of the risk it posed to physical and mental health. Phil Shiner, the solicitor representing Bazzouni, said: “This judgment represents the final nail in the coffin of the Ministry of Defence’s desperate and morally corrupt efforts to keep hooding alive as a permissible interrogation technique. “Sir William Gage’s first recommendation in the Baha Mousa inquiry report is that there must be an absolute prohibition on hooding. The MoD’s position has been that it is still legally permissible for security reasons. “This judgment slams the door shut for ever on hooding involving UK personnel anywhere in the world.” Military Iraq Middle East Human rights Torture guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Everyone’s favorite con comedy has been sprung for a brand new season, according to the Hollywood Reporter . Arrested Development is coming back to TV as “mini-series” leading to an Arrested Development film five years after the program was ended. “It’s true,” twittered star Jason Batemen yesterday. “We will do 10…
Continue reading …Despite former President George W. Bush calling Iran part of the “axis of evil” and a 1995 ban on doing business there, hard-right supporters the Koch brothers kept selling millions of dollars of petrochemicals to the nation until at least 2007, using complex legal maneuvers and plenty of subsidiaries to…
Continue reading …Evangelicals might appear be everywhere in American politics, but the number of believers is falling, according to several studies. Agnostics and atheists are among the fastest-growing segment in the US, reports the Guardian . The number of secular Americans has likely doubled in the last three decades, and has grown especially…
Continue reading …Man must serve 24 years for murder of woman found in suitcase at Heathrow
October 3, 2011 No Comment
Youseff Wahid fled to Lebanon after Fatima Kama’s body was found in 1999, but was tracked down by Scotland Yard A man has been jailed for at least 24 years for murdering a woman whose body was dumped in a suitcase at Heathrow airport. Youseff Wahid, 42, a former flight attendant, was found guilty in August and remanded to allow the judge to determine the minimum term of a life sentence. Wahid fled Britain for his native Lebanon the day after the body of Fatima Kama was discovered in July 1999, the Old Bailey heard. Pursued by Scotland Yard detectives, Wahid fled again before he could be tried there but was sentenced to death in his absence. He was eventually extradited from Bahrain last year – the first time anyone has been sent back to the UK from there. Judge Paul Worsley told Wahid: “You are an intelligent but devious and manipulative man. “There is indication of significant physical suffering before her death. “You callously concealed her body in a suitcase.” Kama, 28, lived her life “like Holly Golightly”, the fun-loving Audrey Hepburn character in the 1961 film Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the court heard. She was on a week-long visit to London from Canada when she was attacked as she stayed in Wahid’s brother’s flat in Marble Arch, central London. She was repeatedly stabbed in the back and her throat was slashed before she was taken to an airport car park on the Heathrow Express from Paddington station. She was found soon after the suitcase was spotted on a trolley. But before the aspiring cabaret singer and dancer could be traced back to the flat, Wahid had flown out from the same airport. Adrian Darbishire, prosecuting, said Wahid had been seen on CCTV carrying the “very heavy” suitcase on the train. The next morning, he had shaved off his moustache and left the UK for Beirut where extradition was not possible. But Darbishire said he could not escape “the long arm of Scotland Yard” as detectives tracked him to Bahrain. DNA from the body linked him to Kama, whose blood was found on carpets and skirting boards. Kama had been due to fly home on Sunday and her family alerted police when she failed to turn up at Montreal airport. Darbishire said: “She was a vivacious and attractive young woman who had a number of rich admirers. “There was something of the Holly Golightly about her and her friends. “Often she would be out at nightclubs and casinos until the early hours of the morning with male and female friends.” But Wahid, on the other hand, was “neither rich or attractive to Fatima Kama”. Wahid refused to take part in the trial and turned down legal representation in the “mistaken belief” that he could abort the trial, the judge said. Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …An extra 39 cents on a pack of butter. Twelve cents on a bag of chips. Denmark has become the latest country levy a “fat tax” ( Hungary has a similar one ), adding about $1.3 in cost per pound of saturated fat in any food that contains more…
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Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said the militant outfit didn’t kill Burhanuddin Rabbani, killed by a suicide bomber last month The commander of Afghanistan’s most notorious militant outfit, the Haqqani network, has denied playing a part in the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s main peace envoy two weeks ago. “We haven’t killed Burhanuddin Rabbani,” Sirajuddin Haqqani said in an audiotape message delivered to the BBC Pashto service, referring to the peace envoy killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul on 20 September. It was the first public pronouncement by the Haqqanis on an issue that has triggered a fresh war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed off near-term hopes of starting peace talks to end the conflict. On Monday Islamabad lashed out at Afghan accusations that its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy service engineered the assassination to control the barely-nascent Taliban peace process. “Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement . Afghan investigators allege that Rabbani’s assassin was a Pakistani whose mission had been controlled from the western Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban “Quetta shura” is allegedly based. If true, that would discount the role of the Haqqani network, which operates further east along the lawless border. Nonetheless, the Haqqanis remain a major point of contention between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US. Two weeks ago the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, caused consternation with allegations that the Haqqanis were a “veritable arm” of the ISI. He hinted that the ISI had directed a daring guerrilla assault on the US embassy in Kabul on 13 September, as well as a giant truck bomb three days earlier that wounded 77 US soldiers at a base south of Kabul. But in recent days the White House and State Department have rowed back on Mullen’s comments, saying that while the ISI has allowed the Haqqanis to operate from Pakistani soil there is no evidence that Pakistani spies directed the embassy assault. The furore has left Pakistan more estranged than ever from its Afghan neighbours and its putative American allies. A senior Pakistani intelligence official insisted to the Guardian that the Haqqanis operate from Afghan soil, echoing comments Sirajuddin Haqqani recently made in an interview from Reuters. But he said he admitted that Haqqani’s father, the elderly Jalaluddin who founded the militant network in the 1980s, is resident in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Jalaluddin is seriously ill and living in the town with relatives, the Pakistani official said. He did not offer any proof to back up his assertion. A senior western official in the region confirmed that Haqqani senior was “bedridden”. But, he added, “I don’t know where that bed is.” Afghanistan Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Taliban Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said the militant outfit didn’t kill Burhanuddin Rabbani, killed by a suicide bomber last month The commander of Afghanistan’s most notorious militant outfit, the Haqqani network, has denied playing a part in the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s main peace envoy two weeks ago. “We haven’t killed Burhanuddin Rabbani,” Sirajuddin Haqqani said in an audiotape message delivered to the BBC Pashto service, referring to the peace envoy killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul on 20 September. It was the first public pronouncement by the Haqqanis on an issue that has triggered a fresh war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed off near-term hopes of starting peace talks to end the conflict. On Monday Islamabad lashed out at Afghan accusations that its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy service engineered the assassination to control the barely-nascent Taliban peace process. “Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement . Afghan investigators allege that Rabbani’s assassin was a Pakistani whose mission had been controlled from the western Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban “Quetta shura” is allegedly based. If true, that would discount the role of the Haqqani network, which operates further east along the lawless border. Nonetheless, the Haqqanis remain a major point of contention between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US. Two weeks ago the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, caused consternation with allegations that the Haqqanis were a “veritable arm” of the ISI. He hinted that the ISI had directed a daring guerrilla assault on the US embassy in Kabul on 13 September, as well as a giant truck bomb three days earlier that wounded 77 US soldiers at a base south of Kabul. But in recent days the White House and State Department have rowed back on Mullen’s comments, saying that while the ISI has allowed the Haqqanis to operate from Pakistani soil there is no evidence that Pakistani spies directed the embassy assault. The furore has left Pakistan more estranged than ever from its Afghan neighbours and its putative American allies. A senior Pakistani intelligence official insisted to the Guardian that the Haqqanis operate from Afghan soil, echoing comments Sirajuddin Haqqani recently made in an interview from Reuters. But he said he admitted that Haqqani’s father, the elderly Jalaluddin who founded the militant network in the 1980s, is resident in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Jalaluddin is seriously ill and living in the town with relatives, the Pakistani official said. He did not offer any proof to back up his assertion. A senior western official in the region confirmed that Haqqani senior was “bedridden”. But, he added, “I don’t know where that bed is.” Afghanistan Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Taliban Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Firefighters tackle raging fire after explosion at unit in Newchapel, East Grinstead At least eight people have been injured following an explosion and major fire at an industrial estate in Surrey, emergency services said. The first alerts came in shortly before 11.30am about an explosion at Hobbs industrial estate, off Eastbourne Road, Newchapel, near East Grinstead, Surrey police said in a statement. It added: “Surrey police, Surrey fire and rescue service, South East Coast ambulance service and Surrey air ambulance are all in attendance at the scene.” The ambulance service said eight people were being treated for injuries, although she had no information yet as to how serious these were. Two helicopter ambulances and six ambulances were sent to the scene. The ambulance service had no information about widely circulated rumours that several people were missing. The fire service said 10 fire engines attended the blaze at the industrial estate unit. The operation was made more complex by the likely presence of gas cylinders, she said. An engineer working on the roof of the nearby London England Temple, a Mormon church, said he heard an initial explosion. “There was a massive, massive bang, a large bang, with a little after-bang but that was it,” he told the Press Association, asking not to be named. “And then just a few minutes after, that’s when smoke started to appear.” Footage shot by the local ITV news showed large plumes of smoke rising from the site. The location is south of London, near the M23 and M25. Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Firefighters tackle raging fire after explosion at unit in Newchapel, East Grinstead At least eight people have been injured following an explosion and major fire at an industrial estate in Surrey, emergency services said. The first alerts came in shortly before 11.30am about an explosion at Hobbs industrial estate, off Eastbourne Road, Newchapel, near East Grinstead, Surrey police said in a statement. It added: “Surrey police, Surrey fire and rescue service, South East Coast ambulance service and Surrey air ambulance are all in attendance at the scene.” The ambulance service said eight people were being treated for injuries, although she had no information yet as to how serious these were. Two helicopter ambulances and six ambulances were sent to the scene. The ambulance service had no information about widely circulated rumours that several people were missing. The fire service said 10 fire engines attended the blaze at the industrial estate unit. The operation was made more complex by the likely presence of gas cylinders, she said. An engineer working on the roof of the nearby London England Temple, a Mormon church, said he heard an initial explosion. “There was a massive, massive bang, a large bang, with a little after-bang but that was it,” he told the Press Association, asking not to be named. “And then just a few minutes after, that’s when smoke started to appear.” Footage shot by the local ITV news showed large plumes of smoke rising from the site. The location is south of London, near the M23 and M25. Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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