Al-Sweady Inquiry
| Date | 2009 - December 2014 |
|---|---|
| Participants | Thayne Forbes, Jonathan Acton Davis, Jeremy Johnson |
| Description | Inquiry that cleared the British Army of accusations of torture of prisoners of war in Iraq. Heavy deep state presence. |
The Al-Sweady Inquiry was ordered in 2009. It was a British investigation of accusations of mistreatment of prisoners by the British Army following a 2004 skirmish between British soldiers and about 100 Iraqi militia fighters of the Mahdi Army. In a highly politicised decision, the inquiry concluded in 2014 that the subsequent war crimes allegations were based on "deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility."[1]
Contents
Background
The families of the dead, and the captured fighters, and staff at the local hospital, claimed the Iraqis were killed and abused by the Joint Forward Intelligence Team, based at Shaibah Logistics Base, not shot or wounded during the battle.[2][3]
People
The inquiry was chaired by former naval officer, judge Sir Thayne Forbes.[4]
Jeremy Johnson acted for the Ministry of Defence during the Al-Sweady inquiry. Johnson was appointed by the attorney general to be a "special advocate" in around 2007, specially vetted barristers who act for the purpose of hearing secret evidence in a closed court. By 2024, he was one of the two High Court judges ruling on Julian Assange's bid to stop his extradition to the US.[5]
Official narrative
The accusations were "deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility"[6]. The conclusion provided ammunition for the MoD's argument that the armed forces should not be subjected in future to the obligations of Human Rights Act.[7][8]
Problems with official narrative
Army intelligence officer Captain James Rands, an intelligence officer with the 1st Battalion Princess of Wales's Regiment based at Camp Abu Naji, a British base in southern Iraq, where it is alleged murders took place during interrogations in May 2004, threw two laptop computers which had been used to store military intelligence pictures of 20 dead Iraqis were into the sea from an English Channel ferry in 2006 an 2007. He said he had acted because he should not have had Army documents on his personal computer. In a 2009 trial, the Ministry of Defence resisted any further inquiry, saying 'all 20 died on the battlefield'.[9][10]
The UK's Ministry of Defense has admitted that electronic records of its soldiers' day-to-day activities in Afghanistan are routinely wiped from computers.[11]
What was looked at in the Al-Sweady inquiry represents less than 1% of all the allegations against the British Army, yet it completely dominated the narrative and corporate media focus.[12]
Persecution of lawyers by deep state
Subsequently Leigh Day, one of the law firms involved, were referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal[13] to answer complaints about its handling of action brought by Iraqi detainees against the Ministry of Defence. Leigh Day were cleared of all charges by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, and this decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in October 2018.[14]
Another, Public Interest Lawyers led by Phil Shiner, was after a secret tribunal begun in 2016, struck off in February 2017 by the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority for "dishonesty" and the company closed down[15][16]
The conclusion also seriously weakened the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), set up by the government in 2010, to dispatch the idea that military misconduct was widespread. By February 2017, the investigation had become the centre of a national scandal over its methods and scope, and the government announced it would shut IHAT down. A parliamentary inquiry concluded Ihat had "directly harmed the defence of our nation" by making soldiers on the battlefield anxious about later legal repercussions.[17]
Known Participants
2 of the 3 of the participants already have pages here:
| Participant | Description |
|---|---|
| Thayne Forbes | British judge and former officer who concluded that there was no truth behind allegations that UK soldiers had murdered, tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees in Iraq in 2004 |
| Jeremy Johnson | British High Court Judge who earlier was a "specially vetted" barrister" who represented MI6 and the Ministry of Defence. |
References
- ↑ https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/21/kill-o21.html
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/17/what-is-al-sweady-iraq-inquiry-key-points
- ↑ https://www.thecanary.co/global/2017/12/15/court-rules-british-troops-guilty-cruelty-despite-government-attempts-cover/
- ↑ http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/al-sweady-inquiry-re-opens-5829236
- ↑ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/19/assange-judge-worked-for-mi6-defence-ministry/
- ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9601111/Military-cross-awarded-soldier-wrongly-accused-war-crimes-sells-55-000.html
- ↑ https://dokumen.pub/the-state-of-secrecy-spies-and-the-media-in-britain-178831218x-9781788312189.html
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/al-sweady-inquiry-report
- ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1175107/Army-captain-threw-laptops-containing-pictures-20-dead-Iraqis-English-Channel.html
- ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/uk-afghanistan-records-wiped/
- ↑ https://www.rt.com/news/uk-afghanistan-records-wiped/
- ↑ https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/11346/pdf/
- ↑ Law firm referred to disciplinary tribunal over Al-Sweady inquiry
- ↑ https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/leigh-day-in-the-clear-as-high-court-throws-out-sra-appeal/5068006.article
- ↑ Law firm at centre of Al-Sweady inquiry to close down, say reports
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2017/02/02/phil-shiner-should-face-criminal-investigation-dishonesty-smearing/
- ↑ https://vk.ru/@new_forwardls_ru-why-we-may-never-know-if-british-troops-committed-war-crimes
