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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 11th,
2009 - MI6 Boss Admits Difference in Values with US over Torture |
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MI6 Boss Admits Difference
in Values with US over Torture Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has admitted to a difference in
values with America in the fight against terrorism and their use of
controversial interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. By Duncan Gardham Daily Telegraph August 11, 2009 In the first interview with
a current head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Sir John revealed a split
with Britain's closest ally in the War on Terror over the behaviour of the
CIA, the American equivalent of MI6. His comments come after the
Obama administration published controversial guidelines issued to CIA
interrogators under George Bush that revealed they had authorised
waterboarding and a range of other "harsh" techniques that included
sleep deprivation, stress positions, slapping and slamming detainees against
walls. Sir John said the US, which
has a close intelligence relationship with the UK, was aware that Britain did
not share America's values in this area, and stressed MI6's commitment to
human rights. Asked if he agreed that some
of the things the Americans had done were "unacceptable", he told
the BBC: "Our American allies know that we are our own service, that we
are here to work for the British interests and the United Kingdom. "We're an independent
service working to our own laws - nobody else's - and to our own
values." Asked if that precluded
torture, he added: "No torture and there is no complicity with
torture." Sir John said his officers
were "as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal
democracy as anybody else." But he added: "They
also have the responsibility of protecting the country against terrorism and
these issues need to be debated and understood in that context." His comments came after
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary,
wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph in which they said there was no
policy "to collude in, solicit, or directly participate in abuses of
prisoners" but admitted "it is not possible to eradicate all risk
[of mistreatment]. Judgments need to be made." MI5, the domestic security
service, is facing a criminal inquiry into allegations that it colluded in
the torture of Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee, and a number
of other prisoners from the camp have also brought legal cases against the
government. Sir John, who as director
general of Britain's foreign intelligence service is known as "C",
said the James Bond image of spies with a "licence to kill" was a
long way from the reality. "You need to have a
very clear sense, because you need to be thinking all the time what is right,
what is wrong," he said, adding that there were "limits" but
he did not want to go into the "specifics about the particular
techniques." But Sir John did add:
"This, the 'license to kill' issue. No, we do not. We do not have
license to kill. "Obviously a new
recruit is always going to ask the question 'Do we blackmail people, do we
seek to compromise them, do we seek to put pressure on them?' "No is the
answer." David Miliband said the
reality was of "incredibly hard working, incredibly serious and
incredibly dedicated people". But Sir Colin McColl, head
of MI6 in the early 1990s, said the James Bond image was "absolute
gold" and added: "Everybody watches Bond, so why shouldn't a little
bit of Bond rub off on our reputation." Sir John Scarlett was
previously head of the Joint Intelligence Committee that advised the
government on the intelligence case for the war in Iraq in 2003. He admitted that had been a
difficult time for the service but said he had "no regrets" about
what happened. Quoting from the Butler
Report into the intelligence that took Britain to war, he said it "drew
attention to the fact that a number of the reports and reporting lines proved
to be unreliable and had to be withdrawn." But he added: "I don't
have regrets in the way that you're implying, but here I am talking about the
work of SIS and the way in which SIS, first of all, performed in that
particular situation and then responded to it afterwards." External link: http://tinyurl.com/lpfaly |