Dumping a judge-led inquiry into rendition is a cop-out by government
Version 0 of 1. On Thursday Kenneth Clarke, the former justice secretary, is due to tell the Commons that the task of investigating Britain's complicity in the rendition – ie abduction – and torture of terror suspects will be dumped into the hands of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, the body of hand-picked MPs and peers that has shown itself to be so woefully incapable or unwilling to investigate this shameful scandal in the past. Soon after the coalition government came to power, David Cameron promised a judge-led inquiry into evidence that MI5, MI6 and the ministers responsible for those agencies could no longer deny – namely, that Britain was actively involved in the secret rendition, abuse, and torture, of UK citizens and residents accused of planning terror plots. After an initial inquiry by the retired appeal court judge Sir Peter Gibson was wound up as further evidence came to light of British complicity in rendition and torture, Clarke told MPs in 2012: "The government fully intends to hold a judge-led inquiry into these issues once it is possible to do so and all related police investigations have been concluded." According to reports that have not been denied, MPs will learn on Thursday that the government has reneged on its promise. The task will not, after all, be handed to a judge, but to the ISC, whose record in calling Britain's security and intelligence agencies to account has been abysmal. The ISC's deferential members were repeatedly fobbed off by the heads of the agencies, as MPs and journalists – including this writer – were told there was no substance in the allegations of complicity. A very few MPs and journalists refused to take "no" for an answer. As the legal charity Reprieve noted on Wednesday, in 2007, three years after the rendition of Libyan dissidents Abdel Hakim Belhaj with his pregnant wife, and Sami al-Saadi with his wife and four young children, to Tripoli, which MI6 were involved in, the ISC produced a report that said there was "no evidence that the UK agencies were complicit in any [rendition] operations". The Gibson inquiry was wound up in 2012 because of a police investigation into the rendition of Belhaj and al-Saadi – evidence that emerged thanks to Nato bombs smashing the offices of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's intelligence adviser. Telltale documents showed how MI6 and Tony Blair had cuddled up to the Libyan dictator when he agreed to give up his chemical weapons programme – but not his gross abuse of human rights. When he was asked about the renditions of the Libyans, Jack Straw, then responsible for MI6, said: "No foreign secretary can know all the details of what its intelligence agencies are doing at any one time." Whitehall sources say the operations received "ministerial authorisation". In his report, which covers UK involvement in CIA-led rendition and torture operations, Gibson is understood to avoid pointing the finger at any individual. Rather, in classic Whitehall style, he will blame institutions, saying there were no proper procedures in place for MI5 and MI6 officers to express their concerns. The security and intelligence establishment, ministers past and present, must not be allowed to take comfort in this approach. The question is whether the ISC is now prepared to face up to the task of calling to account those individuals responsible for British involvement in such shameful and unlawful operations. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |