UK spies ‘were reluctant to challenge allies over torture’

The aborted inquiry into rendition and torture by Sir Peter Gibson has thrown up 27 areas of concern that will now be investigated by parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC).

One question is whether the government could and should have done more to secure the earlier release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The Gibson inquiry was axed earlier this year after new criminal investigations were launched into allegations involving alleged Libyan victims. Campaigners and human rights lawyers had already pulled out, claiming the probe lacked credibility.

Sir Peter today published an interim report, redacted for “national security reasons”, setting out the case for his investigation to resume.

A theme that runs through… is whether treatment issues – such as sleep deprivation, hooding, and media reports of waterboarding – were raised appropriately. Gibson inquiry

The report says: “A theme that runs through a number of the lead cases considered by the inquiry is whether treatment issues – such as sleep deprivation, hooding, and media reports of waterboarding – were raised appropriately with the relevant liaison partners responsible for the detention and treatment in question.

“Documents provided to the inquiry show that in some instances there was a reluctance to raise treatment issues for fear of damaging liaison relationships or that when these issues were raised, only limited details were provided.

“The documents show that there are some instances where UK officers continued to engage with detainees held by liaison partners in various locations after ill-treatment had either been witnessed or alleged and then reported to head office.

“In some instances it is not clear from the documents provided to the inquiry that anything was done following a concern raised by officers.”

The news that the ISC will look into matters raised in the interim report was welcomed by Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the Libyan dissident who says he was captured by the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi after being rendered by the CIA with the help of MI6.

Mr Belhaj told Channel 4 News: “I look at the inquiry as a step to achieve justice and apply the law which we all believe should be applied.

“What happened to me and to lots of the people who were kidnapped and handed to others and have been hurt and tortured, is something that is both regrettable and painful.

“We hope today to hear the voice of justice and for the right thing to be done.”

He added: “I expect and hope that the British government and its civil servants adhere to a democracy that seeks to protect people’s rights.

“So I hope there will be a positive answer to my valid demand for an apology.

“And if the issue goes through the courts I trust and hope that the British justice system will deliver a sentence that fits the evidence and proof.”

Best way forward

Ken Clarke told MPs the initial findings would be passed to the intelligence and security committee (ISC) with a view to a report coming back at the end of next year. The decision to hand the inquiry to the ISC marks a reversal of policy by the government.

On 6 July 2010, David Cameron told the House of Commons that a judge-led inquiry was the best way forward:

“in answer to why there is an inquiry rather than the intelligence and security committee doing the job, the inquiry will be led by a judge and will be fully independent of parliament, party and government. That is what we need to get to the bottom of the case.”

However, speaking on Channel 4 News, Ken Clarke said that although much of the investigation would be held in private, the ISC had recently been given stronger powers to demand information from the security services, rather than “having to rely on what the security services choose to give them.”

‘Sincere regret’ over failures

Earlier Mr Clarke told parliament “a line has begun to be drawn under a difficult period of the past” but added: “It remains important that we deal properly with the 27 issues which Sir Peter’s report raises.

“It would be wrong to leave these issues, many of which relate to matters of policy, unexamined for the unknown amount of time it will take for the police to complete their related investigations.”

Mr Clarke said Sir Peter’s report paints a picture of agencies struggling to adapt to the new realities faced in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US, and said it was a matter of “sincere regret” if “mistakes and failures were made”.

He added: “The period of time was one in which we and our international partners were suddenly adapting to a completely new scale and type of threat from fundamentalist, religious extremists.

“Many UK intelligence officers had to operate in extraordinarily challenging environments subject to real personal danger. But everyone in the government and everyone in the agencies accept this bravery has to be combined with clear rules of proportionality, accountability, to ensure we uphold the values we are working hard to defend.

“While we accept intelligence operations must be conducted in the strictest secrecy, we also expect there to be strict oversight of those operations to ensure at all times they respect the human rights that are a cornerstone of this country’s values.

“It is now clear that our agencies and their staff were in some respects not prepared for the extreme demands suddenly placed upon them. 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. Most of these problems related to a relatively short period of time in the early 2000s but there is some damage to our reputation, which prides itself as a beacon of justice, human rights and the rule of law.

“I believe I speak for the whole House, on all sides, when I say if failures and mistakes were made in this period that is a matter of sincere regret.”