‘Whitewash’ over torture claims

Before his inquiry was scrapped last year, judge Sir Peter Gibson found evidence that Britain could have become “inappropriately involved” in the rendition of suspected terrorists to prisons abroad where they may have been mistreated in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the USA in 2001.

A report detailing the findings of his aborted inquiry said British intelligence agencies witnessed mistreatment of detainees but were reluctant to do anything which would jeopardise relations with allies such as the United States.

And it raised 27 areas requiring further investigation, ranging from interrogation techniques to so-called “rendition flights”, the training of agents and Ministerial oversight of the agencies.

Cabinet Minister Kenneth Clarke told MPs that the questions raised by the Gibson Inquiry would now be addressed by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), with a report due at the end of next year.

In a statement to the Commons, Mr Clarke said the inquiry’s report paints a picture of Government and agencies struggling to adapt to the new realities faced in the wake of 9/11 and said it was a matter of “sincere regret” if 
“mistakes and failures were made”.

“It is now clear that our agencies and their staff were in some respects not prepared for the extreme demands suddenly placed upon them,” Mr Clarke said.

“The guidance regulating how intelligence officers should act was inadequate.

“The practices of some of our international partners should have been understood much sooner.

“Oversight was not robust enough and there was no mechanism in the civil courts for allegations against the security and intelligence services to be examined properly.”

Announcing the Gibson Inquiry in 2010 in the wake of a series of allegations relating to the extra-judicial movement of suspects between countries in so-called “rendition” flights and the abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other jails around the world, Prime Minister David Cameron declared that he was determined to “clear things up” in order to “restore Britain’s moral leadership in the world”.

But the inquiry was halted after the launch of police investigations relating to detainees allegedly transported illegally to Libya, and Mr Clarke said it would be “wrong” to now ask a judge to take forward an inquiry which could compromise an ongoing criminal probe.

Senior MP Andrew Tyrie denounced the decision and the chief executive of Freedom From Torture, Keith Best, said: “Unless Mr Cameron delivers the judge-led inquiry he promised, he will lose the moral high ground he sought to assert when he first came to power and announced his intention to draw a line under this appalling episode.

“Instead he will face accusations that he has slowly but surely become part of the whitewash.”

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flatly denied that he knowingly facilitated the torture of British citizens by US authorities, although he confirmed he had authorised their transfer to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Mr Straw told the Commons: “As Foreign Secretary I acted at all times in a manner which was fully consistent with my legal duties with national and international law. And I was never in any way complicit with the unlawful rendition or detention of individuals by the United States or any other state.”