Did-torture-stop-UK-terror-attack-Al-Qaeda-terrorist-captured-London-CIA-spies-interrogated-Guantanamo-Bay-detainee.html

Information provided by Moazzam Begg helped identify Dhiren Barot
British terrorist was plotting 'dirty bomb' terror attack on London
He was considered Al-Qaeda's top terrorist in the UK, lying low in London
Barot, also known as 'Issa al-Britani' or 'al-Hindi', was tracked down in 2004

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

Published: 12:14 GMT, 12 December 2014 | Updated: 17:14 GMT, 12 December 2014

The CIA said enhanced interrogations helped capture Dhiren Barot in 2004

Al Qaeda's top British terrorist was captured after CIA spies tortured former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, it was claimed today.

Crucial information provided by Mr Begg while he was being held helped identify 'dirty bomber' Dhiren Barot who was plotting terror attacks on London, according to the long-awaited publication of a report into CIA torture programmes in the wake of 9/11.

The report claims that drawings by Mr Begg – who claims to have been beaten and deprived of sleep in Guantanamo Bay – helped lead British security services to Barot, who had gone to ground in London.

Barot – also known as 'Issa al-Britani' or 'al-Hindi' – was tracked down in 2004 before being found guilty two years later of planning to detonate a dirty bomb and launch an attack on the Tube.

The revelation will prove highly controversial as it appears to contradict the findings of the Senate's intelligence committee report which found that the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation techniques' did not yield information crucial in stopping terror attacks.

It even stated specifically that torture techniques – including waterboarding, rectal feeding and sleep deprivation – at Guantanamo were not central to Barot's arrest, or any other significant breakthrough.

The report criticises the CIA for making 'inaccurate' representations that 'enhanced interrogation' was effective and necessary in producing 'otherwise unavailable intelligence'.

It said Barot's arrest 'resulted from the investigative activities of UK government authorities.'

Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee Moazzam Begg rejected claims he provided information which helped track down a terrorist

Taliban and al-Qaida detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area during in-processing to the temporary detention facility in 2002

UK DID ASK FOR INFORMATION TO BE KEPT OUT OF TORTURE REPORT

The Government asked for information to be kept out of the US Senate report detailing the scale of torture in CIA prisons, it emerged last night.

After initially insisting that no representations were made to keep secret evidence about British complicity in CIA interrogation programmes, Downing Street yesterday changed its story.

Asked on Wednesday about requested redactions, David Cameron’s official spokesman said there had been ‘none whatsoever, to my knowledge’.

But yesterday his deputy said: ‘My understanding is that no redactions were sought to remove any suggestion that there was UK involvement in any alleged torture or rendition.

'But I think there was a conversation with the agencies and their US counterparts on the executive summary.

‘Any redactions sought there would have been on national security grounds in the way we might have done with any other report.’

But the report also described how Mr Begg not only suggested where Barot – an old acquaintance – might be found in London, but provided a sketch good enough to identify him, according to report footnotes revealed in the Independent today.

One reference in the report states: 'While still in Pakistani custody, Begg provided reporting on UK-based extremists in the context of terrorist training camps, including information on an individual who would play a key role in 'Issa's' identification and capture.'

In October 2003, CIA officers wrote: 'Our latest information, based on [foreign partner reporting] and a detainee's assessment [Moazzam Begg in US military custody], is that Issa is believed to currently be located in Wembley, a suburb of London.'

According to the CIA document, Begg's 'description and resulting sketch of UK contact Issa al-Hindi' – whose true identity was then unknown – 'was compared to a still shot of an unidentified man taken from a surveillance video of UK extremists.'

The comparison 'revealed that the man in the video probably [was] the elusive Issa al-Hindi.' Just months later, in August 2004, Barot was arrested.

Mr Begg has also reacted furiously to the claim. In a letter to The Independent last night, lawyers for Mr Begg rejected any suggestion that he 'volunteered or co-operated in the provision of information to any intelligence service'.

They added: 'Insofar as he was tortured and under extreme and unlawful continuing duress for three-and-a-half years in Bagram and Guantanamo he, as every other individual subject to such treatment, cannot be regarded in any proper sense of the words to have 'given or provided information' voluntarily.'

Mr Begg was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, and was held at Bagram, Afghanistan, before being sent to Guantanamo Bay.

He was among former detainees who received an out-of-court payment over claims British officials were complicit in his torture.

Mr Begg was arrested again this year – accused of attending a terrorism training camp in Syria. But the charges were dropped in October after it emerged MI5 knew of his activities.

PARLIAMENTARY PROBE INTO UK COMPLICITY KICKED INTO LONG GRASS

A parliamentary probe into the complicity of British spies in US torture programmes will not get fully under way for at least six months, it was claimed today.

The revelation will pile further pressure on David Cameron to launch a full-judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of how much MI6 and the Foreign Office knew about CIA ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’.

The Prime Minister earlier this year asked the Commons intelligence and security committee to complete a probe started by former judge Sir Peter Gibson into whether UK spies and ministers turned a blind eye to the torture of detainees by the CIA.

That inquiry, set up in 2010, stalled because of police investigations into the rendition of two suspects to Libya, before any MI5 or MI6 officers were questioned.

But a member of the committee told the Times it was unlikely to start examining witnesses before the general election – raising concerns that the probe has been kicked into the long grass.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has said he is open to a full public inquiry into Britain’s involvement in torture.

Mr Cameron has not ruled this out if the current investigation by the Intelligence and Security Committee does not settle the issue.

Clegg: Catching bin Laden did not justify use of torture