U.S. And U.K. Still Trying To Hide Torture

Should a supposedly free and democratic country try to hide its involvement in the torture of prisoners? The United States and the United Kingdom both think so. The United States has refused to release pictures of its forces torturing prisoners, and the United Kingdom is now trying to hide evidence of the torture of one of its own citizens.

Binyam Mohamed (pictured) was born in Ethiopia, but at the time he was sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison he was a legal resident of the United Kingdom. He says he was tortured by the CIA during secret interrogations, and claims that MI5 provided questions to the CIA to help in the interrogations. He has now returned to the U.K., and is trying to sue both the U.S. and the U.K.

One of the pieces of evidence he needs in his court case is a seven-paragraph summary of his treatment at Guantanamo sent to the U.K. government by the U.S. government. A British judge has ruled that the summary should be released to Mohamed and his attorneys and made public.

However, the U.K. is refusing to release the summary, claiming it contains confidential information. The British judge denies that saying no secret information is contained in the summary that would cause harm to anyone. The U.K. is now appealing the judicial decision to release the information, and three of England's most senior judges will soon hear that appeal.

The U.K. government is also claiming that if the summary is released, the U.S. might stop giving them confidential information in the fear of it being released to the public by a British judge. I think that's hogwash. The U.S. would be a pretty poor ally if it did that, especially since the summary contains no names or other possibly dangerous information.

The real truth is that these two countries are ashamed of their illegal and immoral actions, and don't want to be held responsible for it. But they are responsible, and if sued, should be held responsible in a court of law. Neither country should be able to hide its culpability for illegal actions behind a smokescreen of secrecy.

Maybe a dictatorship could get away with this type of thing, but a free and democratic nation ruled by law should not. Both nations should be open and above-board about torture or any other illegal activity committed by the respective governments. Freedom is lost when a government lies or tries to hide the truth.