Britain's foreign secretary said Thursday that releasing confidential US intelligence documents about a former British resident held at Guantanamo Bay would hurt national security. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told lawmakers that a British court was right to block the release of documents about detainee Binyam Mohamed.
He said making the information public against US wishes would ``cause real and significant damage to the national security and international relations of this country.' The High Court ruled Wednesday the papers should stay secret, in part because there was a threat that the United States could break intelligence co-operation if the material was made public.
The ruling was in response to a legal challenge brought by The Associated Press, Guardian News and Media Ltd, British Broadcasting Corp, Times Newspapers Limited, Independent News and Media Ltd, The Press Association and The New York Times. The judges said Miliband claimed last year the US could threaten to withhold intelligence if the documents were released.
Miliband said there had been no direct threat by the United States. But he said Wednesday that intelligence co-operation depended on confidentiality and the US had ``made it clear ... that there would inevitably be serious and lasting harm if that fundamental principle was breached.'
The two Hugh Court judges criticised the US for refusing to make the material public, and encouraged new President Barack Obama to reconsider. Obama has said Guantanamo Bay will be closed. Mohamed, 31, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and claims he was tortured there and elsewhere. Charges against him have now been dropped, and British officials expect him to be released from Guantanamo soon.