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Security services accused over Aamer's lengthy detention - Supporters of Briton’s last Guantánamo detainee celebrate as questions remain as to why his release took so long

26 September 2015

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"The post 9/11 world was just a few days old when Shaker Aamer was first imprisoned. Captured by Afghan bounty hunters while attempting to flee from Kabul with his pregnant wife and their three children, he was sold on twice, and found himself in US hands. By the end of the year he was being held at the notorious interrogation centre that American forces and the CIA had established at the Soviet-era airfield at Bagram, north of the capital.

Whatever happened there may explain why Aamer has languished for so long at Guantánamo, remaining behind bars long after every other British national and resident had been set free. The interrogators that MI6 and MI5 had sent to Bagram were warned that they must not take part in the torture that was being inflicted on the inmates; all received written instructions that “we cannot be party to such ill treatment nor can we be seen to condone it”. In practice, this meant that they would remove themselves from the room before the abuses began."

See the full article: Security services accused over Aamer's lengthy detention - Supporters of Briton’s last Guantánamo detainee celebrate as questions remain as to why his release took so long (Guardian, link)

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