As British resident (and Ethiopian-born) Binyam Mohamed stepped off a plane at RAF Northolt on Monday February 23, six years and ten months since he was first abducted by the Pakistani authorities at Karachi airport, it was impossible not to sympathize with the words written in a statement made by the tall, thin, slightly-stooped 30-year old, and delivered by his lawyers at a press conference.
“I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain,” the statement read. “Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days to come, when I am on the road to recovery.”
For the last three and half years, since Binyam Mohamed’s lawyers (at Reprieve, the legal action charity) first released his harrowing account of his torture in Morocco at the hands of the CIA’s proxy torturers, the British resident’s story has, understandably, had few bright episodes. As Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s director, explained in his book Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side (known in the UK as Bad Men), during the three days in Guantánamo that Binyam related the story of his horrendous ordeal — for 18 months in Morocco, and then for another five months at the CIA’s own “Dark Prison” near Kabul, until he finally made false confessions that he was involved with al-Qaeda and had planned to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in New York — he explained, “I’m sorry I have no emotion when talking about the past, ’cause I have closed. You have to figure out the emotion part — I’m kind of dead in the head.”
And yet, as Binyam embarks on his long “road to recovery” — attended by his lawyers, and, mercifully, by his sister Zuhra, who flew from her home in the United States to meet him, and to fill what would otherwise have been an aching void, as Binyam has no family in the UK — it is unlikely that the media will, in general, manage to report much of the man behind the myth that has grown up around him.
To that end, I thought it appropriate to relate a few anecdotes that bring Binyam the human being, rather than Binyam the prisoner, to life. The first comes from Stafford Smith’s book, where he describes his first meeting with Binyam as follows:
Binyam was twenty-seven. He was tall and gangling, dark-skinned, originally from Ethiopia. He smiled and immediately told me how glad he was to see me. He spoke quietly, with a particular dignity. Some prisoners would take many hours of convincing that I was not from the CIA, but Binyam immediately opened up.
Of particular interest is an extraordinary chapter, “Con-mission,” which relates the farcical story of Binyam’s first hearing for his proposed trial by Military Commission at Guantánamo, in 2006, just before the Commissions were declared illegal by the US Supreme Court. It’s worth buying the book for this chapter alone, as it explains in extraordinary detail quite how farcical Guantánamo’s rigged trial system was, and how it was exploited mercilessly by Binyam, who arranged for Stafford Smith to get him “a proper type of Islamic dress,” dyed orange (he wanted a Dutch football shirt, but Reprieve couldn’t find one), to make a clear visual statement in court that he was no ordinary defendant and this was no ordinary trial. He also asked for a marker pen and a piece of card, and, during the hearing, after he had thrown the judge, Marine Col. Ralph Kolhmann, off his stride by launching into a rambling monologue about justice that Kohlmann found himself unable to interrupt, he took the marker pen, scrawled “CON-MISSION” on it, showed it to the gathered journalists, and declared, “this is not a commission, this is a con-mission, is a mission to con the world, and that’s what it is, you understand.”
Warming to his theme, as Col. Kohlmann “was staring into the headlights of Binyam’s speech and could see no way to cut him off,” he continued:
When are you going to stop this? This is not the way to deal with this issue. That is why I don’t want to call this place a courtroom, because I don’t think it is a courtroom.
I am sure you wouldn’t agree with it, because if you was arrested somewhere in Arabia and Bin Laden says, “You know what, you are my enemy but I am going to force you to have a lawyer and I give you some bearded turban person,” I don’t think you will agree with that. Forget the rules, regulations and crap … you wouldn’t deal with that. That is where we are. This is a bad place. You are in charge of it.
Stafford Smith then proceeded to explain:
It was an extraordinary lecture. Binyam finally came to a firm conclusion. “I am done. You can stop looking at the watch,” he said. He then turned away from Kohlmann, as if to ignore any response. He was holding up his sign, “CON-MISSION,” and waving it to the journalists behind him, just in case they had missed it the first time.
The other story was related by another British resident held at Guantánamo, Bisher al-Rawi, who was released in March 2007, and his words capture how Binyam’s concern for justice permeated his entire approach to his imprisonment, and, in Bisher’s opinion, also reflected a very British approach that he had learned during the seven years he had lived in the UK before his capture:
He is so British — I mean so British! The way he stands, the way he talks, his painstaking use of logic. He’s such a gentleman. And he is knowledgeable and he stands up for his rights in a really British way. Like with S.O.P. This is something the guards have. It is called Standard Operating Procedure — S.O.P. And the funny thing about this Standard Operating Procedure is that it changes every day. Every day you have new Standard Operating Procedure. And Binyam, he draws attention to this and insists on his entitlement to be treated the same way as the Standard Operating Procedure dictated the day before. And they hate him for this. But he’s just being British.
Perhaps the media snipers who are asking why Binyam should be allowed back into the UK would like to dwell on this as they ignore both the seven years that he lived in Britain, when, as MI5 confirmed, he was “a nobody,” and was not wanted in connection with any crime, and the seven years that he spent in the custody of the United States — or its proxy torturers — when, as David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has conceded, he had “established an arguable case” that “he was subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by or on behalf of the United States,” and was also “subject to torture during such detention by or on behalf of the United States.”
In addition, as the British government struggles with claims that it has regularly fed intelligence information about British “terror suspects” seized in Pakistan to Pakistani agents, knowing full well that the Pakistanis regularly use torture, those same critics might want to recall the words of the judges who reviewed Binyam’s case in the High Court last summer. The judges explained that the British government’s involvement in Binyam’s case, and its relationship to the US — which involved sending agents to interview him in Pakistan, even though he was being held illegally, and providing and receiving intelligence about him while he was being tortured in Morocco — “went far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.”
There are more revelations to come about torture policies that involve — or involved — the US, the UK, Morocco, Pakistan and a host of other countries, but for now I’m content to let one of its victims try to rebuild his life in peace. As Binyam also explained in his statement after his release,
I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, “torture” was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways — all orchestrated by the United States government.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed.
For a sequence of articles relating to Binyam Mohamed, see the following: Urgent appeal for British resident Binyam Mohamed, “close to suicide” in Guantánamo (December 2007), Guantánamo: Torture victim Binyam Mohamed sues British government for evidence (May 2008), Binyam Mohamed’s letter from Guantánamo to Gordon Brown (May 2008), Guantánamo trials: critical judge sacked, British torture victim charged (June 2008), Binyam Mohamed: UK court grants judicial review over torture allegations, as US files official charges (June 2008), Binyam Mohamed’s judicial review: judges grill British agent and question fairness of Guantánamo trials (August 2008), High Court rules against UK and US in case of Guantánamo torture victim Binyam Mohamed (August 2008), In a plea from Guantánamo, Binyam Mohamed talks of “betrayal” by the UK (September 2008), US Justice Department drops “dirty bomb plot” allegation against Binyam Mohamed (October 2008), Meltdown at the Guantánamo Trials (October 2008), Guilt By Torture: Binyam Mohamed’s Transatlantic Quest for Justice (November 2008), A History of Music Torture in the “War on Terror” (December 2008), Is Robert Gates Guilty of Perjury in Guantánamo Torture Case? (December 2008), British torture victim Binyam Mohamed to be released from Guantánamo (January 2009), Don’t Forget Guantánamo (February 2009), The Betrayal of British Torture Victim Binyam Mohamed (February 2009), Hiding Torture And Freeing Binyam Mohamed From Guantánamo (February 2009), Binyam Mohamed’s Coming Home From Guantánamo, As Torture Allegations Mount (February 2009).
19 thoughts on “Who Is Binyam Mohamed?”
I can’t sit here and say that I agree with the CIA’s or MI5’s tactics.
However, one thing is certain. You do not, under any circumstances, go to Afghanistan to wean yourself off drugs.
That’s tantamount to a gambling addict going to Vegas to “sort his head out”
Binyam, your friends and family should have given you advice, which you should have heeded.
Sympathy for your plight, yes I have some but really, there were some extremely bad decisions on your part.
The news wires were full of the return of Binyam Mohamed to Britain yesterday. He alleges he was subject to ‘medieval torture’ by the US authorities and the UK authorities were in collusion with them. I don’t want to discuss the political stooshie surrounding MI5 and the Foreign Office’s involvement, but I’d like some answers to some simple questions.
Ethiopian born Binyam Mohamed arrived in Britain in 1994 aged 16 seeking asylum which was refused, but he was given the right to remain until 2004. According to the Telegraph, he worked as a caretaker in a north London mosque while studying electronics and it appears he was housed by a London council as, when he left here in 2001, he sub-let his home and that is against council housing rules.
He left here and travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, after converting to Islam, to ‘conquer his drug problems and to see Muslim countries with his own eyes’ according to friends but he admitted he had received paramilitary training at the al Farouq training camp (reference Wikipedia). He was arrested, by Pakistani authorities, at Karachi airport in 2002 attempting to fly back to Britain using a false passport.
Is a caretaker of a mosque paid enough to fund a drug habit as well as cover his living costs? Did Mr Mohamed receive any benefits to help with living costs? Where did he get the money to go on an extended ‘holiday’ to Pakistan and Afghanistan? The flight alone isn’t cheap. Why would anyone with a drug habit go to a Muslim country for ‘assistance’ with it? It’s well documented Muslim countries are much less tolerant of such addictions than the west. Mr Mohamed has no family in Britain but his sister is a US citizen and he has a brother Benhur who lives outside Britain.
It’s difficult to find the total cost of this case to the British taxpayer so far, but it can be assumed it’s into the million bracket and this is only the beginning. Mr Mohamed has done his homework regarding his human rights and it sounds as if he intends to seek compensation from the UK government for their involvement in his alleged mistreatment. The human rights lawyers must be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of all the lovely money rolling in from this case, our money of course because it will all be funded by legal aid. Think of how many pensioners’ lives could have been saved this winter with this amount of money, it could have helped them keep warm instead of dying from hypothermia.
His lawyers are insisting Britain owes Mr Mohamed and should provide a comfortable life for him. I disagree. We have already brought 10 UK residents back from Guantamo and 2 men who have refugee status (Times).
One MP, Tory backbencher Philip Davies, spoke out yesterday and perhaps spoke for many more than himself,when he said, “Why on earth we should be taking in this chap? If he was a UK citizen, fair enough. But he’s not and only happened to be living here for a few years.
‘We also don’t know if this chap is a risk. If he is a danger then is he putting people’s lives at risk, let alone the huge cost of the police and security services monitoring him?”
No ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ period. Any decent person should be standing by the seemimgly innocent young man and even more so for those who claim to be from the country of his origine.
Many Americans and other informed people knew that GITMO process was a sham rom the get go. It wasn’t about justice, human rights and fairness but rather politics as usual and quick fixes.
I see people questioning about his travel here and there.
I wonder why it shoud the case at all. Every one has right to move anywhere in the world in any given time. To think otherwise sounds Orwellian notion at best.
I heard many people from Ethiopia, D’jibouti, Somalia, etc who used to Pakistan for higher educattion such as medicne, engineering. May be he was among such prospectus. I heard that many completed sucessfuly without involving of the alleged radical groups.
Who is going to tell them that his charachter is typical Ethiopian not British?
I agree with Harry and Rosa’s comment. There is quite a lot of fishy substance about this guy. What in the heck was he doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001? Why did he take military training a radical religious group. If he was a drug addict that means he had no financial resources to pay for the flight to Pakistan. When he got caught by US military back then, he should have been a person of interest to the intelligence people. If he would not talk, then a little bit of coercing would help. That is what he calling it a torture? Let him ask Mengistu, Mobutu, Mubarak, Idi Amin and the Saudi police what torture means and looks like. He was pampered in US confinement (for his own security) for several years and he should be very thankful for that. Now he can trim down his baboon looking bearded face and go back to what he was doing best – back to his snorting routine. Son of a thousand fathers!!!!!
Fry him! This stupid terrorist wanna be animal planning to kill innocent civilians. I say don’t let him back to Britain, send him back to his undemocratic regime in Ethiopia.
Harry, I wonder if you’d said the same thing if the victim in this case was a white Anglo-Saxon who was on a spiritual journey to Jerusalem in order to cleanse himself off his meth habit and was captured by a radical Moslem government like Hamas and was tortured just like Mr Mohammed. Would you have said, ‘well John, your family should have told you not to travel to a place like Jerusalem, so you brought on yourself, buddy’. I just wonder.
It is just amaaaaaaaaazing how some people, especially white folks for the most part, are quick to put a price tag on everything, I mean everything. Here we have a man who was detained illegally, with no evidence mind you, renditioned all over the map for the purpose of torture, imprisoned without any form of representation, mentally and physically tortured beyond belief, and the burning issue Rosa has is how much money it will cost the British tax payers!!!! Never mind the inhumane treatment that was visited upon Mr Mohammed and hundreds like him.
You know Rosa, whatever amount of money is, it will be infinitesimal compared to what Binyam Mohammed paid all these years in Gitmo. Believe it or not, there are some things that you can not put a price tag on. It will also be a small price to pay in money terms by the British and US tax payers for electing savage Fascists like Tony Blain and George Bush who are responsible for . So, my guess is, if money is your measuring stick, you got off easy. The real cost that you and I should worry about is how many people Bush and Blair radicalized and converted into terrorists with their savage ‘war on terror’ policy which was a cover for looting and pillaging sovereign countries.
This is the kind of attitude that the rest of the world, the more civilized world that is, resents and despises about right wing Americans and the West, putting a dollar sign on everything, no matter the injustice. Come to think of it, that’s the type of me first selfish gluttonous attitude that got the West in the economic hell that it finds itself in these days.
Rosa and likes,
The issue is about human rights violation. Is it acceptable what your government has done against humanity? Binyam and those who are caught under suspicions do not deserve the torture and sufferings what we are reading and hearing. Rosa unless you have the torturers hurt money can not buy what Binyam has gone through even the case he is caught reflected the facts without any slightest doubt. Those who believe in torturing are simply sick without if or may be.
Cheers
A real ethiopian hero in our century. After 7 years of prison in Guantanamo, he doesn’t yet loose any of his moral. RESPECT!!!
Before 9/11 afganistan was a country like any other country. Travelling to such country was also normal. whether he was in trianing or not, is not yet clear.
Those who try to justfy the action taken on this man are worest than those who torture him. He is now even released, since the torturer lastly bleave that he is innocent. But those who put a question mark behind it, are realy the devils.
This may only have a religon background. Converting to islam is the best thing that can happen to those men.
Not withstanding the criminal CIA and MI5 Horendouse “interrogation” tactics, it is the same old “Jihad” issue that is driving young people like Mr. Mohamed into situations hard to defend!
Harry, I wonder if you’d said the same thing if the victim in this case was a white Anglo-Saxon who was on a spiritual journey to Jerusalem in order to cleanse himself off his meth habit and was captured by a radical Moslem government like Hamas and was tortured just like Mr Mohammed. Would you have said, ‘well John, your family should have told you not to travel to a place like Jerusalem, so you brought on yourself, buddy’. I just wonder.
It is just amaaaaaaaaazing how some people, especially white folks for the most part, are quick to put a price tag on everything, I mean everything. Here we have a man who was detained illegally, with no evidence mind you, renditioned all over the map for the purpose of torture, imprisoned without any form of representation, mentally and physically tortured beyond belief, and the burning issue Rosa has is how much money it will cost the British tax payers!!!! Never mind the inhumane treatment that was visited upon Mr Mohammed and hundreds like him.
You know Rosa, whatever amount of money is, it will be infinitesimal compared to what Binyam Mohammed paid all these years in Gitmo. Believe it or not, there are some things that you can not put a price tag on. It will also be a small price to pay in money terms by the British and US tax payers for electing savage Fascists like Tony Blain and George Bush who are responsible for . So, my guess is, if money is your measuring stick, you got off easy. The real cost that you and I should worry about is how many people Bush and Blair radicalized and converted into terrorists with their savage ‘war on terror’ policy which was a cover for looting and pillaging sovereign countries.
This is the kind of attitude that the rest of the world, the more civilized world that is, resents and despises about right wing Americans and the West, putting a dollar sign on everything, no matter the injustice. Come to think of it, that’s the type of me first selfish gluttonous attitude that got the West in the economic hell that it finds itself in these days.
I agree with Harry and Rosa’s comment. There is quite a lot of fishy substance about this guy. What in the heck was he doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001? Why did he take military training a radical religious group. If he was a drug addict that means he had no financial resources to pay for the flight to Pakistan. When he got caught by US military back then, he should have been a person of interest to the intelligence people. If he would not talk, then a little bit of coercing would help. That is what he calling it a torture? Let him ask Mengistu, Mobutu, Mubarak, Idi Amin and the Saudi police what torture means and looks like. He was pampered in US confinement (for his own security) for several years and he should be very thankful for that. Now he can trim down his baboon looking bearded face and go back to what he was doing best – back to his snorting routine.
Binyam Mohamed, the former UK resident who has been locked up in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years, has arrived in Britain. The twin-engined chartered Gulfstream jet carrying him from the US detention base in Cuba landed at the RAF Northolt airbase near London finally ending a total of seven years in custody. Mohamed walked the short distance to the airport terminal, surrounded by police officers and Foreign Office officials who had travelled with him. He is believed to be in poor health after a hunger strike that ended earlier this month. Mohamed, who for some reason has been given interim leave to remain in the UK, was detained for several hours under the Terrorism Act 2000, but was not arrested. He was later released. Mr Mohamed is an Ethiopian who initially came to Britain illegally – but as usual with our politically correct government he managed to fiddle a residents visa. No surprise there then.
Now of course we’re being regaled with stories of his alleged torture and the human rights brigade will be compiling his social benefit claims and his compensation papers as we speak. But why is it OUR problem in the UK ? Why are government ministers like David Miliband gloating over this guy’s arrival in Britain as if some sort of victory had been achieved ? And why is nobody asking this bloke WHY he was in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the first place ? He claims he went there to “kick a drug habit” – funny, but pigs flying over mosques spring to mind yet again, because cold turkey in the middle of a war zone doesn’t strike me as a particularly good idea, even if some there did hold the opinion that firing off rifles and rockets at infidels was a remedial alternative high.
I wonder how long it will be before this bloke is turning up on BBC2 bleating about his “ordeal” ? How long it will be before he’s paraded as yet another New Labour multi-cultural “celebrity” being used to coax out the inner-city Muslim vote ? How long before he’s issuing racist and sectarian bile which will go unpunished because of his “ordeal” ? Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m delighted Mr Mohamed has his freedom. I think he should now get a meaningful, rewarding and well-paid job. I think if he feels he has a case he should now sue the US for compensation, not sponge off the UK . And I think the ludicrously expensive and over-the-top private jet which was provided for him at UK taxpayer’s expense by the stupid New Labour appeasers of radical Islam should have flown him home – to Ethiopia.
Shame on you habesh, who are splitting hair about your brother. Thanks god you are not the decision maker. I know you would hang him like what your butchers are doint in Ethiopia and Erithrea.
Benyam is free and in good hands. You can hang yourself if you don’t agree with his freedom
Oh!!!!Beniyam is the first terrorist from Ethiopia. He denaid his relegion and coverted to another relegion which causes him to his mess. He is really a shame for Ethiopia
Shame to have you as Ethiopian
Fishy indeed, why do I get ticked when I hear gullible individual, Not only do they give bad name, but also to their creator.
C Jim well said.
To Rosa et al,
How on earth it is justifiable to detain and torture a person on the ground of suspicion related to terrorism? There would probably be some fishy things surrounding his travel to Afghanistan and Packistan. But is it sufficient reason to torture, abuse and detain Biniam for almost seven years with out charge and finally release him? Why human right issues work for whites only? Where is the due process of justice? The west hypocisy is messing up the whole world.
Your arrogant and ignorant leaders invaded Iraq and Afghanistan based on suspicion and ruined two soveriegn countries. Now you are trying to justify suspicion is enough reason to abuse others.
Guys, don’t try to be too politically correct. He went to Afganistan and Pakistan to learn how to kill innocent people period. All this sharade of his torture is an excuse to be free and cash on it if possible. Well I won’t be cheated on recognizing who a terorist is or not. And he is a convert too? What a looser. Look at his beard, isn’t that enough to recognise a terorist? Either you guys are neive or are sympathisers for this terorist. There is even a talk if he is an Ethiopian or an Eritrean. Nevertheless, we don’t want him in Ethiopia.
I agree with Jackson above. Everyone should ask why did he go to Pakistan and Afghanistan? And well said to Caledonian Jim. I agree with you. This sob (Binyam) is a liar. He went to Afghanistan and a shooting school to kick off a drug habit? Hello!!!!!!! He should not get a red penny from the USA if he decides to sue for damages. And he should have been sent back to his home country Ethiopia so he can become a reincarnation of Ahmed Gragn!!! I tell you he is lucky he is not coming to my neighborhood. He is the filth and scum that was thrown out of the poorest country on earth. I suggest the UK find him the 12 virgins he was expecting along with a fat check and a section of the Buckingham Palace. When is that country going to change its name to Ukistan as expected? My sympathy goes out to Caledonian Jim and his family. They may have to live under the specter Sharia law soon as it was suggested by the archbishop there.