Britain tolerated poor U.S. actions after 9/11

LONDON — British intelligence officers did not do enough to stop the “inexcusable” treatment of detainees by the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a damning parliamentary report released Thursday.

The long-awaited report into Britain’s role in torture and rendition said that while there was “no smoking gun” that indicated intelligence agencies had deliberately overlooked reports of mistreatment as a matter of “institutional policy,” they must have known.

The report said it was “beyond doubt” that the British agencies were aware that the United States was mistreating detainees and “more could have been done” by the government, then led by Tony Blair, to try to influence U.S. behavior.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said that Britain continued to supply intelligence to its allies in 232 cases where they “knew or suspected mistreatment.” In 198 cases, they received intelligence from allies obtained from detainees they knew were mistreated, or where they should have suspected mistreatment, the report added.

“In our view the U.K. tolerated actions, and took others, that we regard as inexcusable,” the report said.

The committee, which spent three years gathering evidence, also rejected the argument by the intelligence agencies that the cases were “isolated incidents.”

The committee said that they didn’t find evidence of British officers “directly” carrying out the physical mistreatment of detainees, but said there were 13 incidents where they personally witnessed a detainee being mistreated.

Citing the current U.S. administration, the committee also recommended that the British government make clear its policy on rendition within three months.

“Given the clear shift in focus signaled by the present United States administration, the current reliance on retrospective assurance and the voluntary provision of passenger information is unsatisfactory,” Dominic Grieve, the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, said at a news conference.

The committee said there was no evidence of U.S. rendition flights through Britain, but added that two detainees transited through Diego Garcia, a British Indian Ocean Territory.

The committee found three individual cases where British intelligence agencies made, or offered to make, a financial contribution to others to conduct a rendition operation.

In addition, the report found 28 cases where intelligence agencies “suggested, planned or agreed to” rendition operations proposed by others; 22 cases where they provided intelligence to enable a rendition operation to take place; and 23 cases where they failed to take action to prevent a rendition.