18 Oct Annals of US torture

The British High Court has ruled that, pending appeal, it will finally publish seven paragraphs detailing the torture CIA agents inflicted on Binyam Mohamed. The court had earlier redacted the passage from a decision about Mohamed at the request of  British officials, who said it would jeopardize US-UK cooperation on security matters.

The Telegraph, a British newspaper, quotes an anonymous official describing the explosive contents of the passage:

The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed’s genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, “is very far down the list of things they did,” the official said.

If true, these allegations will be hard for major US media outlets to dismiss, as they have waterboarding.

Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones ruled there could be no conceivable security basis for withholding the information:

The suppression of reports of wrongdoing by officials in circumstances which cannot in any way affect national security is inimical to the rule of law. Championing the rule of law, not subordinating it, is the cornerstone of democracy.