May in secret US visit as UK ‘tried to hush up its role’
HOME Secretary Theresa May made a secret visit to a US committee, i t emerged l ast night – amid claims the Government has been frantically ‘lobbying’ to keep Britain out of the damning r e port o n CIA torture. She was among a string of UK politicians and diplomats who held 24 meetings with the Senate intelligence committee as it investigated the barbaric techniques inflicted on terror suspects.
William Hague, then foreign secretary, and spy agencies MI5 and MI6 also held discussions with the committee about any redactions that might be needed to protect ‘national security’.
In the end, there was not a single mention of any of the UK security and intelligence services when the explosive document was published on Tuesday.
Last night, in a surprise development, Number Ten changed its story over the
‘Keep involvement under wraps’
talks with the committee. Asked on Wednesday about requested redactions, David Cameron’s official spokesman said there had been ‘none whatsoever, to my knowledge’.
But yesterday his deputy said: ‘My understanding is that no redactions were sought to remove any suggestion that there was UK involvement in any alleged torture or rendition. But I think there was a conversation with the agencies and their US counterparts on the executive summary.
‘Any redactions sought there would have been on national security grounds in the way we might have done with any other report.’
The Mail has seen a list, released by the Foreign Office under Freedom of Information laws, which details how senior ministers and diplomats met members of the committee 24 times in six years – equivalent to once every three months.
This remarkable access will raise fresh questions about the influence successive British governments tried to exert to ensure the country was not tainted by the revelations.
It has fuelled concerns that the UK pushed for key parts of the report referring to Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean leased to the US military, to be redacted.
Ministers have admitted that the island was a stopover for extraordinary rendition flights – in which terror suspects were moved to secret prisons around the world to be tortured. Yet the summary of the heavily censored report, published this week, did not contain a single mention of UK involvement.
Mrs May met the committee in July 2011, as it finalised the explosive report.
Critics suspect topics for the talks included whether British involvement in or knowledge of US actions was mentioned.
Lord West, then the Labour security minister, met senators in October 2009. And Sir Peter Westmacott, ambassador to the US, and his predecessor Sir Nigel Sheinwald curried favour with the committee on 22 occasions.
They met its chairman Dianne Feinstein six times. A cluster of meetings came as the committee took crucial decisions on how much of the report should be made public.
The UK has repeatedly denied complicity in the CIA’s torture of Islamist terror suspects.
Notably, two senators met by the UK ambassadors denounced the report on Tuesday. Jim Risch and Marco Rubio both said it will put lives in danger.
Significantly, the FOI answer admits the list of talks is ‘not exhaustive’ and does not include ‘brush-by meetings’.
Donald Campbell, of human rights group Reprieve, said: ‘The huge number of meetings . . . suggests a determined lobbying effort. We know Britain was involved in the CIA’s rendition programme, so it seems reasonable to assume these meetings focused on keeping embarrassing i nformation about the UK’s role secret.
‘The Government has serious questions to answer over whether it lobbied to keep its involvement in this shameful affair under wraps.’
The Home Office declined to comment last night.