Greek newspaper Proto Thema has named the MI6 chief at the British embassy in Athens, after he was accused of organising British and Greek intelligence agents to kidnap, beat and torture up to 28 non-British Pakistani immigrants in Athens, in the aftermath of the July 7th bombings.
The men were seized by British and Greek agents on coordinated raids on their homes. Their crimes were that they had relatives in England. That was enough to condemn them to being held illegally in safe houses (private prisons) for up to a week, blindfolded and subjected to torture.
After holding the Pakistanis for as long as they thought necessary, the MI6 chief and his British and Greek operatives dumped the men in Athens city centre, blindfolded, in the middle of the night. Proto Thema also gave the names of the 15 Greek agents involved, driving the Greek Interior Ministry into a fury and claiming that the lives of its agents and allied agents had been put in danger, and two Greek agents had to be withdrawn from active service in Kosovo.
The British government previously described allegations of ill-treatment of migrants in Greece following the London bombings as ‘utter nonsense’ and ‘far-fetched’, with the Foreign Secretary, Straw, adding ‘all of the claims are nonsensical’.
The Greek newspaper gave details of some of the tortures that were used against the completely innocent Pakistani nationals. It said: ‘One detainee has alleged that he had a gun placed in his mouth; one said he was beaten; and another claimed he saw a third detainee being beaten up.’
Others alleged that they had been hit very hard around the body and the head and all 28 said that they had hoods placed over their heads and were held like this for up to seven days.
In fact, MI6 and the British state are no strangers to torture and murder. Relatively recently, and for a number of years, MI6 and the British army were supplying lists of Republicans to be murdered to their agents in leading positions in the different Loyalist terror groups in the north of Ireland.
More recently, MI6 agents have been to the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, to interrogate British citizens who were being held illegally there, and who have said that they were subjected to torture by the US authorities.
That the British state and torture have a close relationship can be seen from the fact that Britain has signed agreements with Jordan and the Lebanon that will allow Britain to send wanted Lebanese and Jordanians back to their countries of origin, and Lebanon and Jordan to send British passport holders back to Britain for interrogation, with both sides pledging that they will not torture those who have been placed in their custody.
Also, the big multi-billion pound Saudi arms contracts, that Britain is due to sign, are believed to have an understanding attached to them that, after the signing has been completed, Britain will send back to Saudi Arabia pro-democracy campaigners whom the Saudi monarchy blames for shaking the security of its realm and desperately wants to get its hands on.
There is only one way to deal with this issue in Britain. Foreign Secretary Straw must be made to resign after his statement that the allegations about MI6 actions in Athens were ‘nonsensical’.
The Labour government must be brought down for the police state measures that it has brought in at home and the agreements that it has made with regimes of torture abroad.
Only a workers’ government carrying out socialist policies to smash the capitalist state and all of its secret agencies can put an end to the regimes of torture.
