By IRNA
London : British special forces are and have been used to detain suspects in Afghanistan and Iraq for extraordinary rendition to torture camps, a former member of the UK’s elite SAS revealed Monday.
Ben Griffin, who resigned from the SAS last year on moral grounds, accused the UK government of being “deeply involved” in the process, in which US forces have transported terror suspects around the world for interrogation, since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Last week Foreign Secretary David Miliband told MPs that two US rendition flights transporting terrorist suspects had landed on UK soil in Diego Garcia to refuel.
“The use of British Territory and airspace pales into
insignificance in light of the fact that it has been British soldiers detaining the victims of Extraordinary Rendition in the first place,” said Griffin.
He told a London press conference that after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US/UK task force, of which he was a member, appeared with “its primary mission was to kill or capture high value targets.” “Individuals detained by this Task Force often included non- combatants caught up in the search for high value targets,” said the former SAS soldier.
He said that the use of secret detention centers within Iraq has “negated the need to use Guantanamo Bay whilst allowing similar practice to go unnoticed.”
“Throughout my time in Iraq I was in no doubt that individuals detained by UKSF (special forces) and handed over to our American colleagues would be tortured,” Griffin said.
He also revealed that during his time as member of the US/UK Task Force, three soldiers recounted to me an incident in which they had witnessed the brutal interrogation of two detainees.
“Partial drowning and an electric cattle prod were used during this interrogation and this amounted to torture. It was the widely held assumption that this would be the fate of any individuals handed over to our America colleagues,” the former member said.
He said even his commanding officer at the time expressed his concern to the whole squadron that we were becoming “the secret police of Baghdad.”
Human rights groups have long called for an independent inquiry into the role of the UK Government in the process of rendition, but this has been rejected by the government.
Griffin revealed that that as UK soldiers within this Task Force, the policy continually enforced was to detain individuals but not arrest them.
“Since it was commonly assumed by my colleagues that anyone we detained would subsequently be tortured this policy of detention and not arrest was regarded as a clumsy legal tool used to distance British soldiers from the whole process,” he said.
The former soldier said that many operations were conducted to apprehend high value targets numerous non-combatants were detained and interrogated, which were in “direct contravention of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of civilians.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that non-combatants I personally detained were handed over to the Americans and subsequently tortured,” he confessed.