Posted on 08/09/2009 7:12:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) – The head of Britain's foreign intelligence service said Monday his agents were not involved in torture, amid allegations of British links to mistreatment of terror suspects held overseas.
The head of MI6, John Scarlett, said his officers were committed to human rights and democracy as they protected Britain against terrorism threats.
"Our officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else," Sir John told BBC's Radio 4 in comments posted on its website Monday.
"They also have the responsibility of protecting the country against terrorism and these issues need to be debated and understood in that context," he added.
He said there has been "no torture and there is no complicity with torture".
His comments come as British intelligence agencies face allegations of involvement in the questioning of terror suspects in countries such as Pakistan, including supplying questions for other interrogators.
Two senior British ministers said Sunday they could not rule out that vital anti-terror information had been obtained through the torture of suspects abroad.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson strongly denied allegations of British collusion in the abuse of terror suspects overseas.
However, it was impossible to eradicate all risk, they wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, as a panel of lawmakers warned the government that using information gained through torture could be legally construed as complicity.
Calls have been growing for an independent inquiry into British knowledge of the use of torture on suspects held overseas.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed claims he was tortured during six and a half years in US custody or countries in its so-called rendition programme of suspected extremists.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The MI6 building at Vauxhall Cross in central London, seen in March. The head of the foreign intelligence service said Monday his agents were not involved in torture, amid allegations of British links to the mistreatment of terror suspects held overseas. (AFP/File/Shaun Curry)
This is insane.
Yup.
U.S. battling CIA rendition case in 3 courts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2312288/posts
Exactly. Are they saying that if a third party extracts information from a suspect that could save lives, that for that reason they should not use it? That is madness!
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