Psyche, Science, and Society

CIA officers could face trial in Britain over torture allegations

Attorney General to investigate abuse claims

By Robert Verkaik

Senior CIA officers could be put on trial in Britain after it emerged last night that the Attorney General is to investigate allegations that a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay was brutally tortured, after being arrested and questioned by American forces following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Baroness Scotland to consider bringing criminal proceedings against Americans allegedly responsible for the rendition and abuse of Binyam Mohamed, when he was held in prisons in Morocco and Afghanistan.

The development follows criticism of US prosecutors by British judges who have seen secret evidence of torture committed against Mr Mohamed, including allegations his torturers used a razor blade to repeatedly cut his penis. The Attorney’s investigation is expected to include allegations that MI5 colluded in Mr Mohamed’s rendition. Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian national and British resident, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, when he was questioned by an MI5 officer.

On Tuesday, Government lawyers wrote to the judges hearing Mr Mohamed’s case against the UK government in the High Court. In the letter they said “the question of possible criminal wrongdoing to which these proceedings has given rise has been referred by the Home Secretary to the Attorney general for consideration as an independent minister of justice”. Baroness Scotland has been sent secret witness statements given to the court and public interest immunity certificates for the proceedings.

Mr Mohamed, 30, accuses MI5 agents of lying about what they knew of CIA plans to transfer him to a prison in north Africa, where he claims he was subjected to horrendous torture. Mr Mohamed, who won asylum in the UK in 1994, has been charged with terrorism-related offences. He awaits a decision on whether he is to face trial at the US naval base. He is officially the last Briton at Guantanamo. Last night his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said: “This is a welcome recognition that the CIA cannot just go rendering British residents to secret torture chambers without consequences, and British agents cannot take part in US crimes without facing the music. Reprieve will be making submissions to the Attorney General to ensure those involved, from the US, Pakistan, Morocco, Britain, are held responsible.”

Richard Stein, of Leigh Day, representing Mr Mohamed in the High Court proceedings, said: “Ultimately the British Government had little choice once they conceded that a case had been made that Binyam Mohamed was tortured. The Convention Against Torture imposes an obligation on signatory states to investigate torture.”

In August two judges ruled allegations of torture were at least arguable and that MI5 had information relating to Mr Mohamed that was “not only necessary but essential for his defence”.

The judges have read statements and interviews with Mr Mohamed between 28 and 31 July, 2004 when he says he was forced to confess to terrorism. The judges said: “This was after a period of over two-and-a-half years of incommunicado detention during which Binyam Mohamed alleges he was tortured.”

He was first held in Pakistan in 2002, where a British agent interrogated him; he was then sent to Morocco by the CIA and allegedly tortured for 18 months. He was rendered to the secret “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan, where his torture is alleged to have continued. Since September 2004, he has been in Guantanamo Bay.

A Psychologist Helps Repackage Democrats’ Message

By Shaila Dewan & Robbie Brown

ATLANTA — Democrats up and down the ballot have been trying to reverse the Republican rhetorical dominance that made “liberal” an unsavory label, and many have found help in a slender document percolating through their party’s hierarchy.

It is called the “Message Handbook for Progressives From Left to Center,” and, along with a companion piece on health care, it was created by Drew Westen, a psychology professor at Emory University here who was virtually unknown in political circles before this election cycle. Several Democratic consultants say it is the first systematic, data-driven effort to mold the language of the left to fit the sensibilities of the center.

Dr. Westen’s advice can be heard when Alisha Thomas Morgan, running for re-election to the Georgia House in a conservative suburb of Atlanta, uses the word “leadership” in place of “government” and speaks about the middle class instead of the poor.

Or when Andrew Gillum, a city commissioner in Tallahassee, Fla., who is fighting a ballot initiative against same-sex marriage, tells members of his predominantly black church of the human desire for dignity and respect instead of lecturing them on the evils of discrimination.

Democrats of higher office who have heard Dr. Westen have also shifted their rhetoric, as when Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, fending off a Republican challenger, not only says that “health care is a right for every citizen” but pointedly adds, “Particularly citizens who are working hard every day.”

Dr. Westen advises jettisoning wonkish 12-point plans in favor of direct emotional appeals that can compete with those evoked by Republicans using terms like “family values” and “the war on terror.”

“We are a centrist nation,” he said in an interview, “but people prefer center-left to center-right, even in conservative parts of the country, if they hear equally strong messages on both sides.”

Liberal candidates, especially those running in not-so-liberal territory, have latched on to his approach.

“There’s almost a rebirth, or a pride, that we can really talk about what we believe and not do so shamefully,” Mr. Gillum said, adding that Dr. Westen’s advice had given him the confidence to speak his mind even on conservative talk radio. “If we communicate it through our stories and our real-life examples, if they don’t agree with you then they can at least understand where you come from.”

Dr. Westen’s ideas began to catch on when he was writing “The Political Brain,” a scientific explanation of the central role of emotion in politics, published in 2007, that urged Democrats to stop cowering and fight back.

Among those with whom he has had audiences are Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, and Young Elected Officials, a national group of left-leaning city council members and state legislators. During the primaries, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., now Senator Barack Obama’s running mate, recommended “The Political Brain” to his campaign staff. Bill Clinton is a fan.

Even Frank Luntz, the architect of many Republican rhetorical successes, says Dr. Westen is fostering a sea change.

“It’s as though the Republicans have fallen back 15 years in their communication,” Mr. Luntz said, “at the very moment when Democrats vaulted ahead 15 years.”

Mr. Luntz said the Obama campaign often mirrored Dr. Westen’s approach. Though Dr. Westen has not worked for the campaign in an official capacity, he has offered guidance, both directly and in his Huffington Post columns.

Instead of using euphemisms like “pro-choice” and “reproductive health,” his handbook suggests, liberal candidates might insist that it is un-American for the government to tell men and women when to start a family or what religious beliefs to follow, arguments that test well in focus groups with conservatives and independents. On illegal immigration, he recommends, candidates who have said their plan would “allow” immigrants to become citizens should instead say they will “require” it.

“The idea,” Dr. Westen said, “is to start to rebrand progressives using language that’s as evocative as the language of the other side, and stop using phrases that just turn people off.”

The handbook does not offer a script so much as a menu of options, each of which was poll-tested against conservative arguments. On economics, for example, one message begins with “I want to see the words ‘Made in America’ again.” Another reads, “We need leaders who don’t just talk about family values but actually value families.”

Celinda Lake, a prominent Democratic strategist in Washington, said of the handbook: “I think people have been overjoyed to have it. I don’t think we have rooted our message in the kind of systematic understanding of values and networks of values that Drew uses.”

Dr. Westen is not the first to try to whip Democratic messaging into shape. But several political consultants said his scientific approach — based largely on recent advances in the study of how the brain reacts to political speech — and his advocacy of plain talk made him more effective.

Bill Jones, a moderate Democrat in a conservative, wealthy section of suburban Atlanta, said talking to Dr. Westen had helped him make the decision to run for Congress against the Republican incumbent, Representative Tom Price.

Among other recommendations, Dr. Westen encouraged Mr. Jones to make his background as an Air Force veteran a prominent part of his biography. “It wasn’t a contrived approach like ‘how can we create a persona?’ ” Mr. Jones recalled. “It’s ‘be the person you are.’ ”

In a candidates’ forum at a church on a recent Saturday afternoon, Bobbie Smith, 77, listened while her husband, a veteran, exchanged war stories with Mr. Jones. Ms. Smith, who identified herself as a conservative-leaning independent, said she had seen Mr. Jones’s television commercials, co-produced by Dr. Westen. “I liked the down-to-earth talk,” she said. “Common words for common people.”

Not everyone has jumped wholeheartedly onto the Westen bandwagon. Though praising Dr. Westen’s work, Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the research wing of the Democratic Leadership Council, said he worried that it focused too much on the message rather than substance.

But Paul Begala, a commentator and Democratic strategist who was an adviser to President Clinton, said that with candidates like Mr. Jones, Dr. Westen was helping to shape the future of the party.

“The fact that they’re doing this in Georgia is really, really, really important,” Mr. Begala said. “Great politicians often come out of enemy territory. Ronald Reagan came from Hollywood, and it made him tougher and smarter.”

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