Campaigners have called for a judicial inquiry on recent row mounts over abuse of detainee abroad, The Daily Telegraph reports on 9 August.
The Home Secretary Alan Johnson and the Foreign Secretary Daily Miliband said it was “not possible to eradicate all risk” that foreign allies had mistreated terrorism suspects.
They pointed out in a jointly written article published on Sunday that intelligence officers faced “hard choices” and that their overriding aim was to “defend both our citizens’ rights and their security”.
They wrote: “Our position is clear, and the UK firmly opposes torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
“When detainees are held by our police or Armed Forces we can be sure how they are treated. By definition, we cannot have that same level of assurance when they are held by foreign governments, whose obligations may differ from our own.”
Their article came following several detailed allegations of British complicity in torture.
According to today’s Guardian newspaper, Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, denied his officers were complicit in torture.
Scarlett told BBC Radio 4’s A Century in the Shadows programme there was “no torture and no complicity in torture” by the British secret service.
He said: “Our officers are as committed to the value and the human values of liberal democracy as anybody else.”
However, he then added: “They also have the responsibility of protecting the country against terrorism, and these issues need to be debated and understood in that context.”
Sir John Scarlett addressed the parallel concerns of what the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary have previously underlined that our Armed Forces need to “defend both our citizens’ rights and their security”.
Scotland Yard is currently investigating an MI5 officer over the questioning of the UK resident Binyam Mohamed while he was being held incommunicado in Pakistan.
Two high court judges recently revealed MI5 knew more about the circumstances surrounding Mohamed than it had originally admitted.
However, The Guardian reports that David Miliband is continuing to refuse to allow a seven-page summary of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about the case to be disclosed.
The CIA material is widely believed to contain evidence of what the UK knew about abuse of Mohamed.
The foreign affairs committee yesterday said the government must adopt a more healthy approach to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency about the abuse of detainees, and also it was "imperative" that the government fulfilled its legal obligations to act positively to prevent torture, and investigate allegations of it.
The parliamentary joint committee on human rights, in a stinging report last week, also said an independent inquiry was the only way to restore public confidence in the intelligence and security agencies.
Showing posts with label David Miliband. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Miliband. Show all posts
Monday, 10 August 2009
Friday, 7 August 2009
David Miliband backs US-style primaries
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an interview with the left-leaning magazine that US-style primary elections would give the public a greater say in choosing candidates, The Daily Telegraph reports.
According to BBC News Online, the Foreign Minister said: “The traditional political structures of mainstream political parties are dying and our biggest concern is the gap between our membership and our potential voter base.
“We need to expand our reach by building social alliances and increasing opportunity for engagement and interaction with our party,”
The Daily Telegraph says in the Tribune magazine article, the Foreign Minister praised both the Greek socialist party and the US democrats for the way they involved the wider electorate and not just party members in decision making.
He said Labour should consider introducing a system of registered voters, as in the US, where anyone who identifies with a political party could vote not just in a general election but in primary elections to choose the party's candidates.
However, critics say this could hasten the decline in party membership as those who pay subscription fees would have far fewer rights in return.
The latest party accounts figures, submitted to the Electoral Commission, shows Labour Party membership fell from a peak of 405,000 in 1997 to the ninth consecutive year of 166, 247 in 2008, according to BBC News Online.
Neal Lawson, Chairman of left-wing campaign group Compass, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that David Miliband, as one of those at the top of the Labour Party over the last 10 years, he was among those responsible for leading it “to its death” through measures like increased privatisation.
He said: “The revival of the Labour Party and the revival of British democracy will come from political parties that believe and have a vision of the good society and compete over that in fair and open democratic elections. That’s what we want to see,” BBC News Online reports.
David Miliband also advocates donating some of the money raised by Labour’s fundraisers to charities and voluntary groups as a way of rebuilding trust, says The Daily Telegraph.
The issue of introducing more “open primaries” to Britain was raised earlier this week when GP Dr Sarah Wollaston was named as the Conservatives’ next Parliamentary candidate for Totnes in Devon after 16,497 people voted in a selection process.
The Conservative Party said the turnout exceeded its “wildest expectations” but had cost £38,000.
The party had opened up selection meeting to non-members before, but this time had done a step further and sent all 69,000 Totnes voters a postal ballot.
In a traditional selection meeting only a few hundred party members will vote, according to BBC News Online.
According to BBC News Online, the Foreign Minister said: “The traditional political structures of mainstream political parties are dying and our biggest concern is the gap between our membership and our potential voter base.
“We need to expand our reach by building social alliances and increasing opportunity for engagement and interaction with our party,”
The Daily Telegraph says in the Tribune magazine article, the Foreign Minister praised both the Greek socialist party and the US democrats for the way they involved the wider electorate and not just party members in decision making.
He said Labour should consider introducing a system of registered voters, as in the US, where anyone who identifies with a political party could vote not just in a general election but in primary elections to choose the party's candidates.
However, critics say this could hasten the decline in party membership as those who pay subscription fees would have far fewer rights in return.
The latest party accounts figures, submitted to the Electoral Commission, shows Labour Party membership fell from a peak of 405,000 in 1997 to the ninth consecutive year of 166, 247 in 2008, according to BBC News Online.
Neal Lawson, Chairman of left-wing campaign group Compass, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that David Miliband, as one of those at the top of the Labour Party over the last 10 years, he was among those responsible for leading it “to its death” through measures like increased privatisation.
He said: “The revival of the Labour Party and the revival of British democracy will come from political parties that believe and have a vision of the good society and compete over that in fair and open democratic elections. That’s what we want to see,” BBC News Online reports.
David Miliband also advocates donating some of the money raised by Labour’s fundraisers to charities and voluntary groups as a way of rebuilding trust, says The Daily Telegraph.
The issue of introducing more “open primaries” to Britain was raised earlier this week when GP Dr Sarah Wollaston was named as the Conservatives’ next Parliamentary candidate for Totnes in Devon after 16,497 people voted in a selection process.
The Conservative Party said the turnout exceeded its “wildest expectations” but had cost £38,000.
The party had opened up selection meeting to non-members before, but this time had done a step further and sent all 69,000 Totnes voters a postal ballot.
In a traditional selection meeting only a few hundred party members will vote, according to BBC News Online.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Britons want to withdraw troops from Afghanistan poll says
An opinion poll shows more than half of Britons think military operations in Afghanistan are futile and they want troops to be withdrawn immediately, the AFP says.
The pool result was found a day after the military had completed the first phase of a bloody offensive against the Taliban.
According to the Independent, the result displays 58 per cent see the offensive against Taliban extremists in Afghanistan as futile, whereas 31 per cent believe the conflict is winnable.
52 per cent, more than half of the 1,008 respondents said they want the troops out, while 43 per cent want them to stay.
75 per cent believe British troops lack the adequate equipment they need to perform their role in Afghanistan safely, compared to 16 per cent who think they have enough resources to fight Taliban in Afghanistan.
On the issue of weather the government should deliver more troops and resources to Afghanistan, 60 per cent of those polled do not think there is a need, according to the ConRes survey conducted over the phone earlier this month, the AFP said.
The findings, as AFP news states, were published a day after Gordon Brown had announced the end of the first phase of Operation Panther’s Claw, an offensive in the southern Helmand province launched last month.
Brown claimed success in the operation and praised the “heroic” efforts of troops in Helmand province. “The efforts of our troops in Helmand have been nothing short of heroic,” Brown said, “There has been a tragic human cost. But this has not been in vain.”
He also said troops would now focus on holding ground before bringing development to the province.
His comments came as two more soldiers were killed in the region, which has raised the death toll up to 191 that the British troops killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, and the toll was higher than in Iraq.
The surge in deaths has previously sparked a political row over the troops “lack of adequate equipment” and different UK publications reported the same issue.
The Timesonline earlier reported Sir Richard Dannatt had flown around Afghanistan in an American helicopter as the General later made it clear because there is no British helicopter available.
As the Reuters continued, Britain has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, the vast majority fighting Taliban militants in troubled Helmand.
According to the Timesoneline and the AFP, Foreign Secretary David Miliband reassures the public about British operation while urging NATO allies to carry more of the burden.
He said: “The biggest shift must now be towards the Afghan state taking more responsibility,” the Foreign Secretary said in a speech at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, aimed mainly at the British Public.
He then went on to warn Afghan leaders their next government must do more to defeat the Taliban and drive a wedge between the insurgents.
According to the AFP, there are about 90,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan helping local forces stabilise the country, with thousands deployed in the south to secure the restive area ahead of presidential polls on 20 August.
The vote, a key test of US-NATO backed efforts to install democracy in Afghanistan after decades of war and conflict, reportedly will be only the second time that Afghans elect a president.
Although President Hamid Karzai is favourite to win a second term, he has come under fire as his rivals opposed him for not doing more to improve security sine assuming office after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the AFP reports.
The pool result was found a day after the military had completed the first phase of a bloody offensive against the Taliban.
According to the Independent, the result displays 58 per cent see the offensive against Taliban extremists in Afghanistan as futile, whereas 31 per cent believe the conflict is winnable.
52 per cent, more than half of the 1,008 respondents said they want the troops out, while 43 per cent want them to stay.
75 per cent believe British troops lack the adequate equipment they need to perform their role in Afghanistan safely, compared to 16 per cent who think they have enough resources to fight Taliban in Afghanistan.
On the issue of weather the government should deliver more troops and resources to Afghanistan, 60 per cent of those polled do not think there is a need, according to the ConRes survey conducted over the phone earlier this month, the AFP said.
The findings, as AFP news states, were published a day after Gordon Brown had announced the end of the first phase of Operation Panther’s Claw, an offensive in the southern Helmand province launched last month.
Brown claimed success in the operation and praised the “heroic” efforts of troops in Helmand province. “The efforts of our troops in Helmand have been nothing short of heroic,” Brown said, “There has been a tragic human cost. But this has not been in vain.”
He also said troops would now focus on holding ground before bringing development to the province.
His comments came as two more soldiers were killed in the region, which has raised the death toll up to 191 that the British troops killed in Afghanistan since late 2001, and the toll was higher than in Iraq.
The surge in deaths has previously sparked a political row over the troops “lack of adequate equipment” and different UK publications reported the same issue.
The Timesonline earlier reported Sir Richard Dannatt had flown around Afghanistan in an American helicopter as the General later made it clear because there is no British helicopter available.
As the Reuters continued, Britain has around 9,150 troops in Afghanistan, the vast majority fighting Taliban militants in troubled Helmand.
According to the Timesoneline and the AFP, Foreign Secretary David Miliband reassures the public about British operation while urging NATO allies to carry more of the burden.
He said: “The biggest shift must now be towards the Afghan state taking more responsibility,” the Foreign Secretary said in a speech at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, aimed mainly at the British Public.
He then went on to warn Afghan leaders their next government must do more to defeat the Taliban and drive a wedge between the insurgents.
According to the AFP, there are about 90,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan helping local forces stabilise the country, with thousands deployed in the south to secure the restive area ahead of presidential polls on 20 August.
The vote, a key test of US-NATO backed efforts to install democracy in Afghanistan after decades of war and conflict, reportedly will be only the second time that Afghans elect a president.
Although President Hamid Karzai is favourite to win a second term, he has come under fire as his rivals opposed him for not doing more to improve security sine assuming office after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the AFP reports.
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