British Minister Defends Guantanamo Case Secrecy

Miliband said he expected Mohamed and one other former British resident still held at Guantanamo to return to Britain.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday defended his decision to oppose the release of evidence on the alleged torture of a former British resident at Guantanamo Bay.

A ruling by two senior British judges on Wednesday, accusing the United States of threatening to end intelligence cooperation if Britain published full details of the case, enraged opposition politicians and media.

It sparked a debate about secrecy and alleged human rights violations in the U.S. "war on terror" and raised questions about the close relationship between Britain and the United States.

Appearing before parliament to explain his decision, Miliband denied that the U.S. position constituted a threat.

"It is essential that the ability of the United States to communicate such material in confidence to the UK is protected. Without such confidence they will simply not share that material with us," he said.

The case centres on an application by British media to the court for the full release of evidence the British government held about the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British resident held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

The judges said advice from the Foreign Office was that publication of the contested seven paragraphs could lead to reduced intelligence cooperation and prejudice Britain's national security. Following Miliband's comments, Mohamed's lawyers made an application to the High Court for the judgment to be reopened.

"The claimant invites the Court to ... order the defendant (Miliband) to swear evidence setting out the complete and accurate factual position as to the making of a threat; and the maintenance of any threat by the Obama administration," Leigh Day and Co solicitors said on their website.

COVER-UP ALLEGED

Ed Davey, the opposition Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, told parliament the case was not about intelligence but about "whether or not to cover up torture and the United States' interest in avoiding political embarrassment and potential criminal investigations against their security services."

In an editorial, the Guardian newspaper said Miliband had faced "something approaching international blackmail".

Miliband said he expected Mohamed and one other former British resident still held at Guantanamo to return to Britain.

He said Britain had already accepted 13 former Guantanamo inmates who were British citizens or former residents of Britain, but said the United States had not asked Britain to take any other prisoners.

The British government is working "as fast and hard as we can" to have Mohamed, who has been on hunger strike since Jan. 5, returned to Britain, he said.

Mohamed, arrested in Pakistan in April 2002, was accused of training at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, joining a squad of al Qaeda bomb-makers in Pakistan and plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the United States.

In October, the Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo war crimes court dismissed all charges against Mohamed, who says he falsely confessed to a radioactive "dirty bomb" plot while being tortured in a Moroccan prison.