MI6 Athens station chief Nicholas Langman has been identified as a "war on terror" criminal, actively involved in the torture of a group of innocent Pakistanis arrested in Greece earlier this year. By his actions, Langman has betrayed the British people, shaming our name and putting us all at greater risk of terrorism.
Nicholas John Andrew Langman is reportedly back on British soil. Langman is alleged by the Greek magazine Proto Thema to have participated in the torture of a group of Pakistani migrant workers who were arrested in Greece soon after the July 7th bombings. Under Langman's watchful eye, the group were beaten, threatened and asked detailed questions about UK-based relatives. They were eventually released without charge.
The torture of innocent Muslims in Iraq was one of the motivations for the London bombings. Every act of MI6 torture puts us at greater risk of terrorism, and the likes of Nicholas Langman, of course, know this. But the point, for him, is not to stop terror but to provoke it. The more terror he can provoke against people like you and me, the more justifications his government can find for engaging in yet more Middle Eastern wars, and awarding itself ever-more authoritarian powers.
Nicholas John Andrew Langman has been making his own small, brutal contribution to Tony Blair's endless-war, and in the process he has been pushing us all into the firing line. It is not he, or his plush public-school MI6 and Foreign Office chums who will be running the gauntlet on the buses and tubes over the next few years - it is ordinary people who can't afford to take taxis everywhere.
Of course Langman is just one among many torturers, and it may take some time before the chief architects of British torture policy - Jack Straw and Elizabeth Manning-Buller, are cornered, caged, and brought before a court.
But the Nicholas Langmans of this world are the people who actually go about the dirty business of bonecrunching and skin-searing in our name, and if we are to exorcise the screams of the tortured from our collective conscience, we must ensure that he is hunted down and brought to justice for his crimes.
Torture is a crime against humanity, and above all it is Langman's primary victims, the impoverished Pakistani migrant workers who he tortured mercilessly before concluding that they had nothing useful to tell him and letting them go, who deserve justice.
But in committing the crime of torture against these innocent men, Langman was also commiting a crime against us. By knowingly and wilfully putting us at greater danger of terrorism in pursuit of the sleazy and corrupt commercial goals of the Bush-Blair "war", Langman was committing an act of treason against the British people. Let's make sure we never forget his name.
The torture of innocent Muslims in Iraq was one of the motivations for the London bombings. Every act of MI6 torture puts us at greater risk of terrorism, and the likes of Nicholas Langman, of course, know this. But the point, for him, is not to stop terror but to provoke it. The more terror he can provoke against people like you and me, the more justifications his government can find for engaging in yet more Middle Eastern wars, and awarding itself ever-more authoritarian powers.
Nicholas John Andrew Langman has been making his own small, brutal contribution to Tony Blair's endless-war, and in the process he has been pushing us all into the firing line. It is not he, or his plush public-school MI6 and Foreign Office chums who will be running the gauntlet on the buses and tubes over the next few years - it is ordinary people who can't afford to take taxis everywhere.
Of course Langman is just one among many torturers, and it may take some time before the chief architects of British torture policy - Jack Straw and Elizabeth Manning-Buller, are cornered, caged, and brought before a court.
But the Nicholas Langmans of this world are the people who actually go about the dirty business of bonecrunching and skin-searing in our name, and if we are to exorcise the screams of the tortured from our collective conscience, we must ensure that he is hunted down and brought to justice for his crimes.
Torture is a crime against humanity, and above all it is Langman's primary victims, the impoverished Pakistani migrant workers who he tortured mercilessly before concluding that they had nothing useful to tell him and letting them go, who deserve justice.
But in committing the crime of torture against these innocent men, Langman was also commiting a crime against us. By knowingly and wilfully putting us at greater danger of terrorism in pursuit of the sleazy and corrupt commercial goals of the Bush-Blair "war", Langman was committing an act of treason against the British people. Let's make sure we never forget his name.
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