Let’s talk: ex-MI6 man plans terror summit

(First published in the Sunday Times, Dec 12, 2004).

by Stephen Grey

A FORMER senior MI6 officer whose career brought him face to face with extremists from Ireland to Afghanistan is to convene talks with militant Islamic groups in an initiative aimed at changing the course of the war on terror.

Alistair Crooke, 55, who spent nearly 30 years with MI6, says he hopes to
persuade leading policymakers from Europe and America to participate.

He wants them to break a taboo on “talking to terrorists” by meeting
representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian group, and Hezbollah, based in
Lebanon. Political organisations such as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and
Jamiat-i-Islami, from Pakistan, could also be involved.
Crooke’s initiative will be run through a new organisation, the Conflicts
Forum, which he describes as an “action tank, not a think tank”. It is
backed by former government, military and intelligence officials in Europe
and the United States who reject many of the methods of the “war on terror”.
It is funded from private donations but has the tacit support of some Arab
governments. However, Crooke’s plans are controversial as both Hamas and
Hezbollah are classed as banned terrorist groups by America. Some of their
members have directed suicide bombings. (more…)

Britons sounded alert on Abu Ghraib

first published in the Sunday Times, Dec 05, 2004.

by Stephen Grey

BRITISH officials in Iraq warned the Foreign Office and American authorities of serious concerns about the treatment of prisoners six months before the torture and sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib was revealed.

Several civil servants seconded to reconstruction jobs in Iraq have described in interviews how they witnessed ill-qualified American guards ignoring basic human rights as they turned Abu Ghraib into a military interrogation facility — rather than the civilian installation they wanted.

Gareth Davies, governor of Pentonville prison in London, discovered in December 2003 that Americans were using leg irons and belly chains to hold prisoners — a violation not only of new Iraqi laws adopted by coalition forces but also, he believed, of international conventions and of Britain’s 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act.

Davies, awarded an OBE yesterday for his six months’ work in Iraqi prisons, protested to American and British officials. He also withdrew British prison staff from Baghdad to avoid complicity in any wrongdoing. The scandal erupted in May this year with publication of photographs showing US guards humiliating their charges. (more…)