Al-Sweady Inquiry

John40 · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:21

http://news.sky.com/story/1393405/british-soldier-torture-claims-lies-inquiry

Allegations of torture and murder, made against British soldiers by former Iraqi prisoners, are "wholly without foundation" a major investigation has concluded.

The Al-Sweady Inquiry, which has cost the taxpayer £25m and taken five years, found accusations of war crimes were "entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility".

The BBC and The Guardian will not be happy with this whatsoever, not what they wanted at all.
I imagine Polly Toynbee and Norman Smith will be scrabbling round for a little bit of the report that they can find to criticise our troops so they will be able to feel pleased with themselves.

Public Interest Lawyers and the odious Phil Shiner who moved heaven and earth to get Iraqis to put in untrue claims are absolutely discredited but will they care having made millions out of it.

Kronos · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:31

And it cost £25,000,000 which is a phenomenal sum.

John40 · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:32

Kronos said:
And it cost £25,000,000 which is a phenomenal sum.

Nearly all gone to lawyers.

gettothechopper · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:32

good old Public Interest Lawyers and Phil Shiner

making themselves rich at our expense again

like the time they sued the MOD to not hand over Afghan detainees to the Afghanistan government (because one afghan prison was mistreating them)
and then sued the MOD again for not handing over Afghan detainees quickly enough while we tried to get the Afghan government to stop mistreating their prisoners - double tax payers moneys for Phil and his mates yay!

Kronos · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:50

John40 said:
Nearly all gone to lawyers.

I don't doubt that for a minute.

Von Smallhausen · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:54

But it's about justice to the lawyers .........

Terminal_Boy · 17 Dec 2014 at 11:56

I think we might need to get rid of the lawyers before we see true justice.

John40 · 17 Dec 2014 at 12:56

gettothechopper said:
good old Public Interest Lawyers and Phil Shiner

making themselves rich at our expense again

like the time they sued the MOD to not hand over Afghan detainees to the Afghanistan government (because one afghan prison was mistreating them)
and then sued the MOD again for not handing over Afghan detainees quickly enough while we tried to get the Afghan government to stop mistreating their prisoners - double tax payers moneys for Phil and his mates yay!

Phil Shiner is a committed hard left socialist who has never hidden his disdain for our armed services and will never take a case on defending them.
He's a parasitic leech who has made millions from bringing dubious cases against the armed services.
Incidentally all those Iraq witnesses bought over here for this inquiry have got British legal aid, I wonder what other countries would do that, none I would imagine.

Glaucus · 17 Dec 2014 at 12:57

They need to sort costs of reports out. How about we learn that from this one.
Insane amount of money.

John40 · 17 Dec 2014 at 14:20

Glaucus said:
They need to sort costs of reports out. How about we learn that from this one.
Insane amount of money.

The defence secretary has called on Phil Shiner to apologise for the cynical waste of taxpayers money - we'll see.
He also said the conduct of some of the lawyers acting for the detainees would be investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

gjrc · 17 Dec 2014 at 15:06

John40 said:
The defence secretary has called on Phil Shiner to apologise for the cynical waste of taxpayers money - we'll see.
He also said the conduct of some of the lawyers acting for the detainees would be investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

we probably need another public inquiry

Gogl · 17 Dec 2014 at 15:10

An inquiry into a matter as serious as this will have no validity unless it headed up by the implacable Russell Brand.

doofer · 17 Dec 2014 at 15:52

I think there should be a multi-£Million Tax payer funded Governmental Inquiry into the massive costs of Tax payer funded Governmental Inquiries! :mad:

Where's that ****ing Russell Brand when you need him! :mad:

John40 · 17 Dec 2014 at 15:59

Kay Burley on Sky has just ripped to bits one of Shiners mob who flatly refused to apologise to the soldiers saying his firm had done nothing wrong.

He admitted that some documents were shredded that would have cleared the soldiers much earlier and that was " regrettable"

Despicable but entirely predictable from that firm.

Tunney · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:06

I'd like to point out that a lot of lawyers worked very long hours on this for free. If the MoD had presented anything like a competent defence then the cost wouldn't have been anywhere near as high as £25mil.

And the report isn't as clear cut as the government/right-wing media's spin would have you believe. The MoD was cleared on many points but not all.

Gogl · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:11

Tunney said:
I'd like to point out that a lot of lawyers worked very long hours on this for free. If the MoD had presented anything like a competent defence then the cost wouldn't have been anywhere near as high as £25mil.

And the report isn't as clear cut as the government/right-wing media's spin would have you believe. The MoD was cleared on many points but not all.

Do you know if there is a breakdown, even roughly, on how the free man hours were split between prosecuting this and the defence?

scorza · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:20

Tunney said:
I'd like to point out that a lot of lawyers worked very long hours on this for free. If the MoD had presented anything like a competent defence then the cost wouldn't have been anywhere near as high as £25mil.

And the report isn't as clear cut as the government/right-wing media's spin would have you believe. The MoD was cleared on many points but not all.

Is that just interns trying to get on the human rights gravy train though? Public Interest Lawyers, Phil Shiner's firm, was paid £3m in legal aid to act for these Iraqis. It beggars belief that the UK taxpayer funds frivolous cases like this on behalf of foreign nationals.

wordy · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:21

Tunney said:
I'd like to point out that a lot of lawyers worked very long hours on this for free. If the MoD had presented anything like a competent defence then the cost wouldn't have been anywhere near as high as £25mil.

And the report isn't as clear cut as the government/right-wing media's spin would have you believe. The MoD was cleared on many points but not all.

Aww those poor little angels.

John40 · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:35

Tunney said:
I'd like to point out that a lot of lawyers worked very long hours on this for free. If the MoD had presented anything like a competent defence then the cost wouldn't have been anywhere near as high as £25mil.

And the report isn't as clear cut as the government/right-wing media's spin would have you believe. The MoD was cleared on many points but not all.

Don't try and pretend that this report was anything but a complete destruction of the parasitic lawyers case the few minor criticisms were simply that - minor.

If this report would have gone the other way the BBC would have had Diane Abbott and Polly Toynbee on speed dial.I imagine there were a lot of glum faces at the BBC and Guardian when it didn't go their way.

Tunney · 18 Dec 2014 at 08:51

scorza said:
Is that just interns trying to get on the human rights gravy train though? Public Interest Lawyers, Phil Shiner's firm, was paid £3m in legal aid to act for these Iraqis. It beggars belief that the UK taxpayer funds frivolous cases like this on behalf of foreign nationals.

It wasn't just junior solicitors trying to gain experience, it was senior barristers giving months of free work because they believed in the cause. They had to listen to some pretty horrific evidence and it was a really tough inquiry. The whole idea of a 'gravy train' is nonsense. It shows people's complete ignorance of the justice system in this country.

I don't know about you but I don't want to be part of a state that tortures people. Allegations of torture have to be investigated. There was credible evidence that people had been tortured in this case.