Now order a judicial inquiry into torture
WHAT a deeply depressing day for those who, like this paper, believe Britain should be a country utterly and unapologetically opposed to torture.
And what a shameful day for those security chiefs and Labour ministers who for years parroted denials about our complicity in US mistreatment of prisoners during the War on Terror, or maintained a guilty silence.
After a three-year investigation, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has exploded the myth of the ‘isolated incident’ and confirmed our worst fears: our spies were up to their necks in it.
British agents helped the US round up extremists despite knowing they could be tortured and were involved in the kidnap of dozens.
Most alarming of all, agencies paid for flights which carried kidnapped terror suspects despite advice it was illegal.
No, Britain’s security services did not use torture themselves, but this was cynical and systematic involvement in the CIA’s torture programme and, as the committee rightly concludes, utterly inexcusable.
But today’s report, though very welcome, cannot be the end of the matter, when, by the authors’ own admission, government restrictions make it neither credible nor authoritative.
The ISC ended its inquiry prematurely after ministers refused to allow interviews with individual agents. The committee was blocked from questioning two – unnamed – intelligence chiefs and neither former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw nor ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett gave evidence. Nor for that matter did Tony Blair, who must bear ultimate responsibility for what amounts to a policy of turning a blind eye.
The case against Mr Straw is particularly strong. In 2005, he said: ‘Unless we believe conspiracy theories and that behind this there is some secret state in league with dark forces... there simply is no truth in the claims that the UK has been involved in rendition, full-stop’.
Yet now we learn he personally signed off payments for rendition operations.
Only with the drip, drip of revelations did pressure grow for full disclosure. Sued by victims, ministers used millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to fight civil claims then made vast compensation payments to preserve secrecy.
This entire episode reeks of an establishment stitch-up designed to reveal as little as possible. Openness and justice demand this report cannot be the final word.
Theresa May must now order a judge-led inquiry which the Mail has long campaigned for. Without one, the great stench of cover-up will only grow stronger.