August, 22 2016, 09:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Reprieve's London office can be contacted on: communications [at] reprieve.org.uk / +44 (0) 207 553 8140.,Reprieve US,, based in New York City, can be contacted on Katherine [dot] oshea [at] reprieve.org
Government Secrecy in Renditions Prosecution Challenged
The UK government's refusal to answer questions about political interference in a decision not to bring charges over British complicity in renditions has been challenged by international human rights group Reprieve.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in June 2016 that it would not bring any charges in Operation Lydd, a police investigation into the UK Government's role in the 2004 kidnap and rendition to torture of two families, including a pregnant woman and children aged 6 to 12.
The UK government's refusal to answer questions about political interference in a decision not to bring charges over British complicity in renditions has been challenged by international human rights group Reprieve.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in June 2016 that it would not bring any charges in Operation Lydd, a police investigation into the UK Government's role in the 2004 kidnap and rendition to torture of two families, including a pregnant woman and children aged 6 to 12.
This was despite finding that a senior British intelligence official was involved in the operation and had - to a limited extent - sought political approval for it. The CPS took two years to consider the original police investigation which produced a 28,000 page file.
Now Britain's Information Commissioner will review the government's refusal of a freedom of information request about possible political interference in the CPS investigation. Reprieve asked if the Cabinet Office contacted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) about Operation Lydd. The Cabinet Office, which coordinates intelligence, refused to confirm or deny if it had discussed Operation Lydd with the CPS.
By contrast, the Foreign Office was able to deny having had any meetings with the CPS. The Cabinet Office's defensive answer raised suspicions of possible political interference. Therefore, Reprieve wrote to the Information Commissioner asking her to review the Cabinet Office's response.
The al-Saadi and Belhaj families were kidnapped, forced onto planes and flown to Colonel Gaddafi's Libya in a joint MI6-CIA operation in March 2004. Sami al Saadi and Abdul-Hakim Belhaj were both prominent Gaddafi opponents who had been living with their families in exile, and suffered years of torture after their forcible return.
Mr Belhaj's wife, Fatima Boudchar, has told of how, despite being pregnant at the time of the rendition, she was chained to a wall in a secret CIA prison - or 'black site' - in Bangkok, before being bodily taped to a stretcher for the entire flight to Libya. One of Mr al Saadi's children, Khadija, who was 12 years old at the time, has described how she was so terrified during the kidnap that she passed out.
Evidence of the UK's central role in the operation emerged after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011, when documents discovered by Human Rights Watch in the office of his spy chief, Moussa Koussa, were found to include correspondence from MI6 in which senior officer Sir Mark Allen took credit for the intelligence behind the operation. In a fax to Mr Koussa, Sir Mark wrote "I congratulate you on the safe arrival of...the air cargo [Mr Belhaj and Ms Boudchar]."
The UK Government has never denied its role in the operation, but has also refused to either acknowledge it or apologize to the families who were kidnapped. Both Tony Blair and then-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who was responsible for MI6 at the time, have denied knowledge of the operation. Mr Straw told MPs in 2005 that claims of UK involvement in CIA renditions - which saw detainees flown to countries where they would face torture - were 'conspiracy theories.' However, it has emerged in 2016 that the head of MI5 at the time of the renditions, Baroness Manningham-Buller, wrote to Mr Blair to protest MI6's involvement in CIA rendition and torture, and the Sunday Times has reported claims from intelligence sources that Mr Straw approved the rendition.
Cori Crider, an attorney at Reprieve who represents the families said:
"The CPS sat on a 28,000 page police file for almost two years before they said there was 'insufficient evidence' to charge anyone at MI6 over the kidnap and torture of the Belhaj and al-Saadi families.
Now, the Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and oversees intelligence, is refusing to say whether it met with the CPS about the case. The trouble is, the FCO denied meeting prosecutors. When one government agency says no, Neither Confirming Nor Denying looks like a 'yes'.
What was the nature of this potential contact between the Cabinet Office and the CPS? Was there subtle political pressure not to bring charges? This response undermines confidence in the whole process."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
LATEST NEWS
Ohio GOP Senator Says 'Civil War' Needed If Trump Loses
"Inciting violence over an election that hasn't even occurred yet is irresponsible and undemocratic," said the Ohio Senate Democrats.
Jul 22, 2024
Just over a week after an assassination attempt against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump resulted in the killing of one bystander and left two people critically injured, a GOP state senator from Ohio was condemned for saying a Democratic victory in November would result in a "civil war."
"I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County's JD Vance are the last chance to save our country, politically," state SEn. George Lang (R-4) said at a rally for Vance, the first-term U.S. senator from Ohio whom Trump selected as his running mate last week. "I'm afraid if we lose this one, it's going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved."
Lang apologized on social media soon after he made his comments at the rally in Middletown, Ohio, saying they were "divisive" and calling for all politicians to "be mindful" of what they say at political events ahead of the election.
But Lang's comments came after numerous polls have shown sizable portions of Americans, particularly Republican voters, sympathizing with the state lawmaker's message.
In May, the Marist National Poll found that 47% of Americans believed a civil war in the U.S. would occur in their lifetime, including 53% of Republican voters.
In April, 28% of Republican voters said in a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist survey that violence may be needed to "get the country back on track."
Lang's call for "civil war" came as endorsements poured in for Vice President Kamala Harris to run as the Democratic nominee, a day after President Joe Biden announced he was stepping aside in the presidential race following weeks of pressure and concerns about his age and health.
Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Harris for President campaign, said Lang's comments were no accident and called on Trump and Vance to denounce the call for violence.
"Donald Trump and JD Vance are running a campaign openly sowing hatred and promising revenge against their political opponents. It's a feature, not a bug, of their campaign and message to the American people," said Moussa. "Trump and Vance pay lip service to unity, but their actions are more focused on dividing Americans than bringing us together. It's the polar opposite of everything Vice President Harris stands for."
The Ohio state Senate Democrats denounced Lang's comments as "irresponsible and undemocratic," and noted that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned political violence.
But despite widespread agreement that violence is not the way to solve divisions in the U.S. over immigration, abortion rights, and other issues, Lang's remarks echoed Trump's repeated warning of a "blood bath for the country" if he loses the election, as well as West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's statement last week at the Republican National Convention that "we become totally unhinged if Donald Trump is not elected in November."
Earlier this month, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said the country is already in the midst of a "second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."
Trump's electoral loss in 2020 resulted in the then-president urging his supporters to riot at the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.
Despite Lang's apology on Monday, said Sean Carberry, managing editor of National Defense, his call at the rally was "not some isolated/offhand comment."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Rights Group Demands End to Detention and Mistreatment of Palestinian Children
"These children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence," an expert said of Israeli detention centers.
Jul 22, 2024
Save the Children on Monday said that Palestinian children in Israeli detention increasingly face starvation, disease, and abuse including sexual violence, and called for a moratorium on the arrest of children and the release of all those "arbitrarily" detained.
The nonprofit's statement, which includes testimony from two 17-year-olds who were in detainment late last year, comes following a number of reports since October 7 of abuse in Israeli detention centers, including of minors. About 650 Palestinian children from the West Bank have been detained by Israel in the last nine months, as well as hundreds from Gaza; roughly 250 in total are reportedly still detained.
"We've been working alongside our partner on the ground and speaking to hundreds of former child detainees in the past years, and we have never seen such devastation and hopelessness," Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children's regional director for the Middle East, said in the statement.
"These children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence," he added. "The children we spoke to have endured horrors an adult should never witness, let alone a child."
Over 650 children from the West Bank & an unknown number from #Gaza have been detained since Oct by Israel.
They're facing increasing starvation, infectious diseases & abuse.
The arbitrary detention & ill-treatment of Palestinian kids must end.
Read👇 https://t.co/tUXpmoigOg
— Save the Children International (@save_children) July 22, 2024
Save the Children, which has worked in Palestine since 1953, has previously called for a moratorium on child detention and the release of child detainees in Israel, which is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts. Israeli forces detained roughly 500 to 700 Palestinian children every year even before the war, with "stone throwing" being the most common charge—an offense that can carry a 20-year sentence.
In 2022, Save the Children documented the negative impact of family separation on child detainees, who are often denied their right to contact loved ones. In July 2023, the group released a report showing that 86% of Palestinian children detained in Israeli centers were beaten and 69% were strip-searched. Some experienced sexual violence or were transferred between locations in small cages, the report said.
Reports have grown more dire since the war began. In February, Save the Children and partner organizations warned that conditions for children in Israeli detention centers were growing more violent and crowded, with a higher level of abuse and inhumane treatment. In May, whistleblowers who worked at the centers revealed "barbaric" conditions and mistreatment, including of women and children, in line with the findings of human rights organizations.
Last week, Amnesty International said that Israel was engaging in "rampant torture"—all 27 former detainees who were interviewed, including a 14-year-old boy, said they were tortured—and institutionalizing "enforced disappearance," due to lack of family contact and transparency regarding the legal process.
Save the Children on Monday said that the legal basis for Israel's detention of Palestinian minors was further eroded by last week's advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' top court, which said that Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is unlawful and must end "as rapidly as possible."
The new statement details the stories of two 17 year olds from the West Bank, referred to by the pseudonyms Firas and Qusay, who were detained prior to October 7 and released at the end of 2023. Qusay reported that newer detainees were as young as 12 and 13 years old.
"The younger children were really scared and kept crying, I wanted to take care of them, but when I asked the prison guard to allow me to stay with them, I was violently beaten," he told Save the Children.
Firas, who was in a different detention center than Qusay, said that a surge of children were detained in the first five days after the October 7 attack, after which conditions rapidly deteriorated.
"The horrors we endured made me think that pre-war life in prison was heaven," Firas said.
Both teenagers faced tick infestations, with Qusay covered in bites upon his release and Firas recalling that he used a lighter to burn ticks. The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has also warned of infectious skin diseases like scabies spreading in the centers.
"One child prisoner had a severe rash, so we asked the guard to allow him to sit in the sun or clean his body," Qusay said. "The guard said, 'Call me back when he's dead.""
For detained minors, the suffering doesn't end with detention itself. Child psychologists report that released Palestinian children struggle to recover from the shock of detainment and live in fear of being re-arrested, which can prevent them from planning for the future.
"They can't make decisions," an unnamed child psychologist told Save the Children. "They say, 'Why would I think of tomorrow if they will re-arrest me.' Their families describe them as 'frozen.""
Keep ReadingShow Less
New EPA Funding Boosts Clean Energy Projects Across US
"With this huge new injection of federal funding, leading states will turn their innovative plans into bold action," said one advocate.
Jul 22, 2024
More than $4 billion in new funding for the Inflation Reduction Act's anti-pollution grants will help to "deliver a better, cleaner future for America," said one climate action coalition on Monday as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would fund 25 new renewable energy and other projects across the country.
The agency unveiled $4.3 billion in new spending, the result of nearly 300 applications that were submitted by state, local, and tribal governments for the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) included in the IRA—President Joe Biden's $396 billion infrastructure and climate bill passed in 2022.
The 25 applications that were chosen for this round of grants came from 13 states and state coalitions, 11 cities and towns, and one native tribe.
The EPA said the grants could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 971 million metric tons by 2050, roughly equivalent to the emission of 5 million homes.
The climate action group Evergreen Action noted that during negotiations over the IRA, it championed the CPRG program because it recognizes that "states, tribal nations, and local governments have a central role to play in America's clean energy transition."
"Thoughtfully implemented, these grants will help alleviate pollution and health risks for millions of overburdened and underserved people in our region."
The implementation funding announced by the EPA will turn plans for a renewable energy expansion "into a reality" for cities and states across the country, said Rachel Patterson, Evergreen Action state policy adviser.
"We appreciate the EPA team for ensuring that this program will deliver new reductions in climate pollution alongside tangible benefits for communities across the country," said Patterson. "Let's get to work."
The funding that will be distributed by the EPA in the early fall, said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, includes:
- $450 million for the New England Heat Pump Accelerator in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, speeding up the adoption of cold-climate air-source heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and ground source heat pumps in more than 500,000 residential buildings;
- $248.9 million for the Clean Corridor Coalition in New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, and Maryland, to build electric vehicle charging stations for commercial trucks on Interstate 95;
- $430.2 million to advance building and industry decarbonization, freight electrification, climate-smart agriculture, and renewable energy deployment in Illinois, which aims to achieve 100% carbon-free power by 2045;
- $396 for the Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA) program; and
- $307 million to reduce agricultural waste and improve energy efficiency in homes and buildings in Nebraska.
The Native tribe that will receive funding is the Nez Percé Tribe, which submitted an application for funds to retrofit homes.
The U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors who represent 55% of the U.S. population and 60% of the nation's economy, said it had collectively secured approximately $2.6 billion of the newly announced grants, providing "direct funding to 14 alliance states to implement ambitious measures that deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and substantial community benefits."
Casey Katims, executive director of the alliance, said the coalition's members "are home to many of the world's most impactful climate solutions."
"With this huge new injection of federal funding, leading states will turn their innovative plans into bold action," said Katims.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) applauded the funding awarded to southern states including Virginia, which is set to receive nearly $100 million to improve air quality in underserved communities by controlling methane pollution from current and former coal mines and landfills, and South Carolina, where cities will receive $8 million to deploy municipal solar power and "smart surface" projects to reduce extreme heat and flooding.
"EPA created an unprecedented opportunity for state and local leaders to take climate action in the south," said SELC climate initiative leader Alys Campaigne. "Thoughtfully implemented, these grants will help alleviate pollution and health risks for millions of overburdened and underserved people in our region."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular