UK intelligence agencies involved in torture and rendition after September 11 attacks: report
Parliamentary report says overseas agency MI6 and the domestic service MI5 were involved in hundreds of torture cases and scores of rendition cases
British intelligence agencies were involved in the torture and kidnap of terrorism suspects after September 11, according to two reports by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee.
The reports published on Thursday amount to one of the most damning indictments of UK intelligence, revealing links to torture and rendition were much more widespread than previously reported.
While there was no evidence of officers directly carrying out physical mistreatment of detainees, the reports say the overseas agency MI6 and the domestic service MI5 were involved in hundreds of torture cases and scores of rendition cases.
The committee says the agencies were aware “at an early point” of the mistreatment of detainees by the US and others. There were two cases in which UK personnel were “party to mistreatment administered by others”. One has been investigated by the Metropolitan police but the other is still to be fully investigated.
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary from 2001-2006, will face questions over how much he knew and, given that accusations of torture and rendition were widespread at the time in the press, why he did not ask for a briefing.
That the US, and others, were mistreating detainees is beyond doubt, as is the fact that the agencies ... were aware of this
A key passage in the report says MI6 “sought and obtained authorisation from the foreign secretary” for the costs of funding a plane involved in an individual rendition case.