A former US interrogator has accused Moazzam Begg of lying about his treatment in captivity. And Chris Mackey, part of a special US military intelligence task force, said the freed Brummie terror suspect had been 'caught red-handed in the most sinister situation'. Mackey supervised military questioning at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan where Begg was held before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The interrogator told Heather Mac-Donald, from Manhattan Institute - a right-wing think-tank - that Begg was not mistreated. "Chris Mackey calls the claims of prisoner-celebrities such as Moazzam Begg astonishing in their mendacity," said Ms MacDonald. "'Begg is complaining about handling under my watch,' Mackey told me. 'Begg was treated as a guest, even though he was caught red-handed in the most sinister situation. Yet the press treats him with utter credulity'." While being held at Guantanamo, Begg wrote an account of his imprisonment without charge. The letter included allegations of abuse, mainly concerning his year-long captivity at Bagram. The letter read: "During several interviews, particularly though unexclusively in Afghanistan, I was subjected to pernicious threats of torture and death threats amongst other coercive interrogation techniques. "Neither was the presence of legal counsel ever produced or made available. "The said interviews were conducted in an environment of generated fear, resonant with terrifying screams of fellow detainees facing similar methods. "This atmosphere of severe antipathy toward detainees was compounded by the use of racially and religiouslyprejudiced taunts. "This culminated, in my opinion, with the deaths of two fellow detainees at the hands of US military personnel, to which I myself was partially witness. "I am a law-abiding citizen of the UK and attest vehemently to my innocence, before God and the law, of any crime though none has ever been alleged. "I have neither ever met Osama bin Laden, nor been a member of al-Qaida or any synonymous paramilitary organisation, party or group. "Neither have I engaged in hostile acts against the USA, nor assisted such groups in the same though the opportunity has availed itself many a time and motive." But in his book The Interrogator's War, Mackey - not his real name - sets out the regime. "Our experience in Afghanistan showed that the harsher the methods used, though they never contravened the Geneva Conventions let alone crossed into torture, the better the information we got and the sooner we got it," he said. According to official US papers, Begg was an enemy combatant and member of al-Qaida. The father-of-four from Sparkhill, Birmingham, was captured in Pakistan, where he fled from Afghanistan when the Taliban fell. He had been living in Kabul since August 2001. Begg has been questioned by British police in the past about alleged extremist activities but has never been charged. Since being released, he has been reunited with his wife at a secret location and is said to be trying to sell his story for £100,000. fionnuala_bourke@mrn.co.uk | 
