TONY Blair has insisted he has “never condoned” torture after Alex Salmond challenged him to come clean on whether or not he knew of the cruel punishment meted out to Shaker Aamer, the last British resident released from Guantanamo Bay after 14 years’ imprisonment without charge or trial.
The former First Minister insisted it was a “not unreasonable allegation” to make by Mr Aamer that the ex-Prime Minister as well as Jack Straw, the Home Secretary at the time, not only knew of the 48-year-old’s illegal abduction but his torture too.
Mr Salmond said: “The real politics of this is…the allegation in January 2002 that British officials, intelligence officers, witnessed not his abduction, which we knew about, but his torture.
“Also, as a point of detail, they came into Bagram airbase on the same flight as the then PM Tony Blair. So the not unreasonable allegation that Shaker Aamer makes is that both the PM Tony Blair and the then Home Secretary Jack Straw must have known not just about his illegal abduction but also about his torture at the hands of the US authorities.”
The Gordon MP, who in 2004 unsuccessfully attempted to impeach Mr Blair over the Iraq invasion, went on: “As in so many things Messrs Blair and Straw have a great deal to answer for and they have to be asked the straight question: how could they possibly have not known about the fate that had befallen a British citizen?”
He added: “The prime responsibility of all governments is to keep their citizens safe from harm and governments are not meant to collaborate in the illegal abduction and then the torture of one of our own citizens.
“So both the then Prime Minister and Home Secretary have to face up and tell us exactly what they knew and when they knew it.”
But a spokeswoman for Mr Blair insisted the ex-premier had "never condoned" the use of torture.
"Tony Blair has always been opposed to the use of torture, has always said so publicly and privately; has never condoned its use and thinks it is totally unacceptable.”
She added: "He believes the fight against radical Islamism is a fight about values and acting contrary to those values - as in the use of torture – is, therefore, not just wrong but counter-productive."
In an interview with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire today, Mr Aamer, asked if a British intelligence was in the room when he was tortured, replies: “I would say 80, 90 per cent I have no doubt he is an Englishman because the way he spoke, the way he is very careful…and because the day before I met John, who already told me I'm with the MI5 Intelligence Service and I came to ask you a few questions. So, I have no doubt he was an Englishman…”
Asked if he believes Mr Blair knew of the torture going on at Bagram at that time, Mr Aamer adds: “Oh, definitely. Definitely. They know, all of them, they know what they were doing. Because I mean, if these guys…the head of the state, they don't know, who's supposed to know?”
During his time in captivity, Mr Aamer's lawyers said he was tortured and held in solitary confinement for 360 days. The former detainee has described the brutal treatment he received at the hands of the Forcible Cell Extraction team, of being hog-tied and of having about 200 interrogators deal with him in total.
In an earlier newspaper interview, he recalled the moment he was reunited with his wife Zinneera following his return to the UK in late October.
"That instant washed away the pain of 14 years; it washed away the tiredness, the agony, the stress. It was like it no longer existed. I hugged her, she hugged me and we just wept."
And he voiced strong opinions about extremists living in the UK, saying: "If you are that angry about this country, you can get the hell out."
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