KRW LAW LLP (KRW) is instructed by Jim Auld and Liam Shannon, two of those  identified as The Hooded Men. These men were subject to enhanced interrogation techniques applied by British Security Forces during the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Their treatment would now constitute torture.

On their behalf they want to send a message of support to those who were subjected to similar torture whilst held at Guantánamo Bay and other detention centres and  ‘black sites’ that operated (and continue to operate) as a response to the War on Terror with the endorsement of senior politicians including the late former Secretary of State for Defence Donald Rumsfeld.

Today seven senior US officers serving on a military jury have rebuked the alleged CIA torture of a prisoner as “a stain on the moral fibre of America”. A clemency letter from most of the panel, published by the New York Times, condemns the treatment of Majid Khan. Khan admits working as an al-Qaeda courier and has been in custody since being captured in Pakistan in 2003. He testified last week about alleged abuse including beatings, waterboarding and being kept chained up in the dark.

These techniques used by the CIA mirror those use by the British Security Forces against The Hooded Men and others and continued to be used by the British Army throughout the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan despite assurances they had stopped.