WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


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The World


British intelligence officers may have had


by Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi


london — British Prime Min- ister David Cameron on Tuesday announced an inquiry into alle- gations that British intelligence officers colluded with other secu-


rity services, including the CIA, in the torture of terrorism sus- pects. Cameron said the govern- ment may compensate detainees who were rendered to other na- tions and were victims of mis- treatment. Former senior judge Peter Gib- son will lead the probe, which is expected to start up by the end of the year and report back within 12 months. Cameron said the in- quiry would investigate whether British intelligence officers were involved in the “improper treat-


ment of detainees held by other countries in counterterrorism op- erations overseas, or were aware of improper treatment of detain- ees in operations in which the U.K. was involved.” The prime minister had prom- ised the inquiry during this year’s election campaign, saying it was needed to end the uncertainty around the country’s role in the alleged torture of British nation- als since the Sept. 11, 2001, at- tacks. Several former detainees at the


U.S. military prison at Guanta- namo Bay, Cuba, are suing the British government for damages over its alleged involvement in their treatment and detention. Other detainees have said they were rendered to prisons in places such as Pakistan and Mo- rocco and were subsequently tor- tured. “The longer these ques- tions remain unanswered, the bigger the stain on our reputa- tion as a country that believes in freedom, fairness and human rights grows,” Cameron said in a


speech to Parliament. The decision to hold parts of the inquiry in secret angered hu- man rights groups. “This inquiry is welcome but the devil is in the detail: The idea that this inquiry must be heard in private is mis- guided and wrong,” said Clive Stafford Smith, human rights lawyer for the group Reprieve. But Cameron said that full


transparency was not possible and that intelligence officers would be allowed to testify be- hind closed doors.


A7


Cameron launches probe into alleged torture of terror suspects Inquiry to focus on role


The British prime minister was


careful not to say anything Tues- day that might damage his gov- ernment’s relations with Wash- ington. He said the report would ad- dress the “concerns of our allies,” and he stressed the importance of “the vast two-way benefit this U.S.-U.K. relationship has brought in disrupting terrorist plots and saving lives.”


Omonira-Oyekanmi is a special correspondent.


Sarkozy’s donations come under scrutiny


France’s richest woman allegedly gave to presidential campaign


by Edward Cody


paris — President Nicolas Sar- kozy, who promised French vot- ers a “republic beyond reproach,” came under mounting pressure Tuesday from allies as well as op- ponents over allegations that he and his campaign organization took illegal cash donations from France’s richest woman. The accusations, made to po- lice and posted on a Web site by the heiress’s former accountant, are the latest in a string of scan- dals involving Sarkozy’s govern- ment and 87-year-old Liliane Bet- tencourt, who owns the L’Oreal cosmetics firm and, with a for- tune estimated at $20 billion, can say with confidence, “I’m worth it.”


TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Kenyans protest the proposed constitution, which goes for a vote next month. Ten percent of the country is Muslim.


Constitutional vote on kadhis courts pits Muslims against Christians


kenya from A1


Islamic radicalism. Many Ken- yans are concerned that the ten- sions, if not contained, could deepen political fissures and spawn the sort of communal up- heaval that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2008 after elec- tions. In this predominantly Chris-


tian nation, Christians are wor- ried about a Muslim community that is growing in numbers and influence, and they have been vo- cally backed by U.S.-based Chris- tian groups. Muslims are wary of the rising power of fundamen- talist Christian organizations backed by American Christians. The 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania frayed relations between Chris- tians and Muslims. Those links have further eroded in the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as concerns about Islamic radical- ization and terrorism grew in this East African country. Many Kenyans today fear that the civil war in neighboring So- malia, where the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militia is seeking to overthrow the U.S.-backed gov- ernment, could spread into Ken- ya. A massive influx of Somali refugees, almost all Muslim, has spawned xenophobia and extend- ed misconceptions of Islam. “The kadhis courts issue is a red herring,” said Rashid Abdi, a Nairobi-based analyst with the International Crisis Group. “They feed into historical prejudices on both sides and misperceptions which has increased in the last 10 years.”


Centuries of tradition The kadhis courts have existed


in Kenya for centuries. Under Kenya’s constitution, their juris- diction is limited to matters con- cerning personal law, such as marriages, divorces and inheri- tances for Muslims, who form 10 percent of Kenya’s population. The courts do not hear criminal matters and have far less power than Kenya’s higher courts. For decades, the courts operat- ed without controversy, under the radar of most Kenyans. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, church leaders grew concerned that the courts could breed ex- tremism. In 2004, a group of churches filed a court case to re- move the kadhis courts from the current constitution, but it lan-


The courts issue feeds “into historical prejudices on


both sides.” — Rashid Abdi, International Crisis Group analyst


a nation.” As evidence, the Christian lead- ers point to an incident in April when a group of Muslim clerics in the northeastern town of Man- dera, near the Somalia border, im- posed a ban on public broadcasts of films and soccer ahead of the World Cup. Muslim leaders say the kadhis


SIMON MAINA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


A June 13 demonstration against the referendum led to deadly explosions that killed five and injured dozens.


guished for years in the judicial system. Some Christian leaders worry that the courts could be used to justify an expansion of sharia law in Kenya. The proposed constitution is


part an effort to create a more fair balance of power among Kenya’s ethnic groups. It was that per- ceived imbalance that led to much of the 2008 violence. While reli- gion did not play a significant role in the violence, it is now dominat- ing the debate on the upcoming vote. The U.S. ambassador to Kenya has publicly urged Kenyans to vote in favor of the proposed con- stitution, including the kadhis courts, arguing that passage is key to keeping Kenya stable. But on Web sites and in opinion pieces, conservative U.S. Christian groups have denounced the pro- posed constitution. They are op- posed to the kadhis courts provi- sion, and they see other aspects of the constitution as being pro- abortion. Some have organized petition drives against the courts. The American Center for Law


and Justice, founded by evan- gelical Pat Robertson, opened an office in Nairobi this year to op- pose the new constitution. On its Web site, the group says that the “high number of Muslims in the slums and a significant increase in the number of Somalis” have brought the kadhis courts issue


into “sharp focus.” “There are those who believe there is an overall Islamic agenda geared towards the Islamisation of the country,” the group says. Last month, Kenya’s high court ruled that the kadhis courts provi- sion should be removed from the draft constitution. That decision is being appealed. Some senior politicians have railed against re- moving the courts from the draft constitution, partly because Mus- lims have become a powerful vot- ing bloc.


‘We want unity’


On June 13, explosions ripped through a park in Nairobi during a demonstration against the con- stitution, killing five people and injuring dozens. No one asserted responsibility, but the assault deepened the suspicion among Christian groups. “We want unity in Kenya, but not a unity that will compromise us,” said Bishop Joseph Methu, a senior evangelical Christian leader. Christian leaders say they fear


that if the courts are enshrined in the constitution, “sooner or later, you will find an enclave where they will say we are predomi- nantly Muslim and Islamic laws rule here,” said Oliver Kisaka, deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya. “You have created space for the creation of a nation within


courts protect their community’s rights and cultural values. “A good constitution is gauged by the extent to which it protects minorities,” said Abdalla Mur- shid, a Muslim lawyer and com- munity leader. Other Muslim leaders said the


courts would stem Islamic radi- calism in Kenya. Judges, not mosque imams, would regulate the uses of sharia law. Muslims would feel a deeper sense of na- tional identity. Kadhis courts are an entity that binds “Muslims to the Kenyan state,” said Hassan Ole Naado, head of the Kenyan Muslim Youth Alliance. “It is for the best inter- ests of Kenya to have such courts.” A recent public debate about the courts at a hotel in Nairobi quickly degenerated into a Muslim-vs.-Christian fight. A Muslim woman named Fati- ma said that removing the courts from the constitution would make it too easy for Christian members of parliament to get rid of them altogether. “That’s what we want,” mut- tered a man in the audience. Then a Christian said: “Who are the Muslims? Are they Kenyan or non-Kenyan? If they are Ken- yan, they should be satisfied with only one court.” “The Christian clergy have a problem with Islam,” said Hus- sein Mahad, a sheik from the northeastern town of Garissa. “But we are here to stay. We are not going anywhere.” Afterward, he declared: “This is


a Christian agenda to keep Islam contained. They think we are all terrorists.”


raghavans@washpost.com


The opposition So- cialist Party’s general secretary, Martine Au- bry, called on Sarkozy to explain himself and said France was “confront- ing a major crisis of con- fidence.” Jean-François Copé, who leads Sarkozy’s ruling coalition in Parliament, said the president should “speak to the French people” to bring the crisis under control and allow the country to focus on its economic problems. But Sarkozy declined to ad- dress the allegations directly. In an appearance at a health facility, he instead decried those who he said were diverting attention from essential issues such as health care to wallow in “horror and calumny that has only one goal, to soil others without any kind of reality.” “What an era,” he lamented. Two of Sarkozy’s junior min- isters, Christian Blanc and Alain Joyandet, resigned under pres- sure Sunday evening after un- connected but embarrassing rev- elations contributed to the politi- cal storm: Blanc charged his ministry $15,000 for fancy Cuban cigars over the past 10 months, and Joyandet used political con- nections to obtain a zoning vari- ance for expansion of his Medi- terranean villa overlooking the upscale St. Tropez resort. Sarkozy’s Socialist opponents interpreted the resignations as a bid to divert attention from La- bor Minister Eric Woerth, who is under increasing fire for staying


on as chief fundraiser for Sarko- zy’s political party, the Union for a Popular Movement, during his previous job as budget minister in charge of tax collection. Suspicions of influence-ped- dling were heightened when it became known, through conver- sations recorded by a disgruntled butler, that Woerth’s wife worked as a financial adviser to Bet- tencourt at a time when the heir- ess maintained secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying French taxes — even as Woerth was cam- paigning against tax dodgers. Florence Woerth denied know- ing of the Swiss accounts but re- signed several days after the re- cordings were revealed. Eric Woerth also denied that favorit- ism had been a factor despite a subsequent revelation that he had pinned the Legion of Honor on Bettencourt’s chief financial manager, Patrice de Maistre, not long before Florence was hired. The new allegations


Nicolas Sarkozy


by Bettencourt’s former accountant, Claire Thi- bout, were first made Monday to police inves- tigating the secret tape recordings as part of a court battle over the family fortune between the heiress and her


daughter, Thibout’s attorney told reporters. They were repeated to the investigative Web site Media- part, which published them early Tuesday. Thibout told Mediapart that de


Maistre had told her in 2007 to withdraw about $185,000 from one of Bettencourt’s bank ac- counts to be handed over to Woerth to help finance Sarkozy’s presidential campaign. She also said Sarkozy had received reg- ular cash donations from Bet- tencourt’s office when he was mayor of Neuilly, the cosseted Paris suburb where the heiress lives.


Both allegations were explo- sive, because French law bars do- nations of more than $9,500 for a political party and $5,700 for a single candidate, and because Thibout’s story marked the first time Sarkozy had been named in the matter. Sarkozy’s office said he had re- ceived no money from Betten- court when he was mayor. Woerth also denied receiving under-the-table donations when he was Sarkozy’s campaign fund- raiser, adding that he is fed up with what he called baseless charges against him, his party and his wife.


codyej@washpost.com Afghanistan war deaths


Total number of U.S. military deaths since 2001 and names of the U.S. troops killed recently in the Afghanistan war, as announced by the Pentagon:


1,141 Fatalities


In


hostile actions:


In


non-hostile actions:


852 289


Tallies may be incomplete because of lags in reporting.


K Sgt. 1st Class Kristopher D. Cha- pleau, 33, of La Grange, Ky.; 1st Bat- talion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Died June 30 at Forward Operating Base Blessing, Konar prov- ince, of noncombat injuries.


K Pfc. Ryan J. Grady, 25, of Bristow, Okla.; Special Troops Battalion, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Ver- mont Army National Guard, based at Bradford. Killed July 1 near Bagram air base.


K Pfc. David Jefferson, 23, of Philadel- phia; 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Killed July 2 in Kandahar.


K Capt. David A. Wisniewski, 31, of SOURCE: Defense Department’s www


Moville, Iowa; 66th Rescue Squadron, based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Died July 2 at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda of wounds suffered June 9 in a helicopter crash near For- ward Operating Base Jackson, Hel- mand province.


K Spec. Clayton D. McGarrah, 20, of Harrison, Ark.; 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Bri- gade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Di- vision, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. Killed July 4 in Arghandab.


All troops were killed in action in Afghanistan unless otherwise indicated.


Total fatalities include two civilian employees of the Defense Department. They also include service members killed in other locations involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Pakistan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; Uzbekistan; and Yemen.


A full list of casualties is available online at www.washingtonpost.com/ nation.


.defenselink.mil/news THE WASHINGTON POST


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