Gareth Peirce & Moazzam Begg - Dispatches From The Dark Side

At the start of the year, former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazaam Begg and the organisation he founded, Cageprisoners, came under a sustained attack within the press from those who described Begg as only a 'so-called' victim of the War on Terror and someone who was "committed to systematic discrimination" - although nothing but smears and innuendo were ever offered to back up these claims.

I'm therefore delighted that Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) has a opportunity to show a little solidarity with Moazaam, by inviting him to discuss British collusion in torture and rendition with another ally, the brilliant human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce. On 12 November, Newham Bookshop and NMP are hosting an event at Stratford Circus to publicise Gareth' s new book, Dispatches From the Dark Side: On Torture and the Death of Justice.

In a series of devastating essays, Gareth argues that, just as pressure from the US anti-war movement has forced the release of (albeit carefully-selected) evidence in the United States concerning the widespread use of torture, the time has come for the British government to be held accountable for its own activities. Exploring a number of cases, including those of Guantánamo detainees Shafiq Rasul and Binyam Mohamed, she argues they provide evidence of a deeply entrenched culture of impunity toward the new suspect community in the UK - British Muslim nationals and residents.

The book shows how the New Labour government colluded in a whole range of extrajudicial activities – rendition, internment without trial, torture – and has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its actions: its devices for maintaining secrecy are probably more deep-rooted than those of any other comparable democracy. Gareth argues that if the British government continues along this path, it will destroy much of the moral and legal fabric it claims to be protecting.

Gareth Peirce and Moazzam Begg:
Dispatches From the Dark Side

Friday 12 November
7 pm at Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, Stratford E15 1BX | Map
Tickets are £6 from Stratford Circus - telephone 0844 357 2625
or visit www.stratford-circus.co.uk

Dispatches from the Dark Side is out in hardback this month and published by Verso