(U) GUANTANAMO: POLOFFS MEET WITH MP'S AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L LONDON 006196

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR L, S/WCI, EUR/UBI, AND S/C-T

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/22/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM UK
SUBJECT: (U) GUANTANAMO: POLOFFS MEET WITH MP'S AND
ACTIVISTS

REF: LONDON 1623

Classified By: PolMinCouns Maura Connelly; reason 1.4 (b, d)


1. (U) Action request - please see paragraph 3.


2. (C) At the request of Labour backbench MP Desmond Turner,
Poloffs met August 22 with Turner and a group of activists to
discuss Guantanamo. Most of the activists were campaigners
on behalf of Guantanamo detainee Omar Deghayes, whose family
lives in Turner's constituency. Poloffs met with Turner and
some of the activists in March (reftel). Abu Baker Deghayes,
Omar's brother, joined the meeting in progress. Two Liberal
Democrat MPs who also have families in their constituencies
with relatives at Guantanamo, Edward Davey and Sarah Teather,
participated in a portion of the meeting. Apart from a
lengthy exchange of views on Guantanamo generally, a few
specific points emerged:

- The MPs involved, along with unnamed others who have a
similar reason to be interested in Guantanamo, intend to
submit through the Embassy a request to visit the detention
facilities and meet with the detainees whose families live in
their constituencies. (We understand that there are
presently eight detainees at Guantanamo who have residency in
the UK.) Turner allowed that if his group could not go, it
would find it acceptable if some other delegation of MPs -
such as members of the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) - were
able to visit Guantanamo. (NOTE: We did not mention the
planned FAC visit to Guantanamo next month, of which none of
our interlocutors seemed aware. Nor did the LibDem MPs
appear to know that their party leader Sir Menzies ("Ming")
Campbell has asked to visit Guantanamo, despite the fact that
he has announced it publicly. Campbell's Chief of Staff has
told us that Campbell would like Teather and Davey to go, but
would have them stay at home if that is a prerequisite for
his own visit. Meanwhile, FCO tells us FAC Chairman Mike
Gapes does not wish to make the September visit known
publicly in advance, though he and FCO realize word may leak
out as the time approaches. END NOTE.)

- A British physician expressed the intention to submit a
similar request on behalf of British doctors, with a view to
looking into the health of UK-resident detainees as well as
the overall health-care situation at the detention
facilities. Poloffs expressed willingness to pass such a
request to the appropriate authorities, but gave him no
reason to believe it would receive support.

- The doctor also asked for any public information regarding
a January 2006 DoD survey in which the health-care situation
at Guantanamo received a perfect score. He expressed
particular concern about force-feeding of detainees in
contravention to ICRC guidelines.

- Several activists asked for information on how to provide
the Annual Review Boards with information that might help
show that particular detainees should not be seen as enemy
combatants.

- One activist, Jackie Chase of the Save Omar campaign, who
also participated in the March meeting, asked for answers to
the questions posed then (and relayed via reftel) regarding
Omar Deghayes. (NOTE: Embassy has received no reply to
reftel.)


3. (U) Action requested: We would be grateful for any
response from the Department to any of the requests mentioned
above.

Visit London's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm
Johnson