Latest News

US State Department Releases Documents to the APPG in Response to FOI requests

Following several years of ongoing litigation over Freedom of Information requests made by the APPG on Extraordinary Rendition, the State Department has cleared for release a number of documents relating to its extraordinary rendition programme and consequences.  The documents are now available on the APPG's website here.

US court officials failed to record secret hearing in terror case

Officials failed to record arguments in a terrorist case heard in a US federal court last week.  The arguments concerned whether attorneys representing the terrorism suspect should be allowed to view confidential surveillance documents.  The clerk of the federal appeals court admitted that his office 'screwed up' in not turning on the recording equipment as it was supposed to.  More can be read here.

Terrorism case to be heard in first secret trial

Two unnamed individuals who face allegations of terrorist acts will be tried in secret for the first time in modern history, in a departure from the principles of open justice and transparency.  Their identity and alleged crimes have not been disclosed for national security reasons.  More can be read here and here.  Neither Just Nor Secure, authored by Anthony Peto QC and Andrew Tyrie MP and published by the Centre for Policy Studies in January 2013, discusses the dangers of secret courts and the proposals put in place by the Justice and Security Act.  It can be read here.

CIA Must Provide Timeline for Declassification by 20 June

In response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information lawsuit, the CIA must provide an update by 20 June 2014 of its declassification review of the Senate report on torture.  More can be read here.  The ACLU's filings can be found here.

Intelligence and Security Committee 'on trial', says former security chief

Sir David Omand, former head of GCHQ, says that the ISC may need to be reformed if its new powers under the Justice and Security Act are not sufficient to enable it to do its job.  More can be read here.

MI5 accused of complicity in torture of man detained in Egyptian prison

Ahmed Diini, grandson of former Somalian dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, claims he was tortured by Egyptian security services in a Cairo prison and recruited by a MI5 agent to work for the security service.  More can be read here.

Home Affairs Select Committee Report Discusses Need for Strengthened Oversight of Intelligence and Security Agencies

The Home Affairs Committee's report on Counter-Terrorism recommends that Commons membership of the Intelligence and Security Committee be elected like other select committees and that the chairman ought to be subject to election of the whole House and should always be a member of the largest opposition party (paragraph 158).  The report can be read here. 

Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA rendition programme may be released in the summer

The CIA is currently is currently conducting a declassification review of the document.

 

More can be read here.