March 28, 2009
FCO Finally Admits To Receiving Intelligence From Torture
With thanks to Andrew.
This is the most important blog post I have ever made. I would be grateful if you could do everything in your power to disseminate a link to anyone you know who has the remotest interest in human rights - or should have. This blog will be silent for a few days now.
Tucked away at Page 15 of its annual Human Rights report, the FCO has finally made a public admission of its use of intelligence from torture. Despite the Orwellian doublespeak about "unreserved condemnation of torture", this is the clearest statement the government has ever made that it, as a policy, employs intelligence from torture.
"One example is the question of the use of intelligence provided to the UK by other countries. The provenance of such intelligence is often unclear – partners rarely share details of their sources. All intelligence received, whatever its source, is carefully evaluated, particularly where it is clear that it has been obtained from individuals in detention. The use of intelligence possibly derived through torture presents a very real dilemma, given our unreserved condemnation of torture and our efforts to eradicate it. Where there is intelligence that bears on threats to life, we cannot reject it out of hand. What is quite clear, however, is that information obtained as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence in any criminal or civil proceedings in the UK. It does not matter whether the evidence was obtained here or abroad."
http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/pdf15/human-rights-2008..................
Now let me return to analyse what the FCO statement means. It is a piece of mind-blowing hypocrisy.
You cannot, in the same paragraph, argue our unreserved condemnation of torture, and that it save lives so we use intelligence from it. I would add that it is also an outright lie. Not a single one of the many pieces of torture intelligence I saw in Uzbekistan had the slightest bearing on saving lives in the UK. In fact the "intelligence" was, on the whole and in detail, highly misleading. Yet
the FCO made a very definite policy decision to continue to receive it - because it came from the CIA.
The FCO has in fact under New Labour never rejected any intelligence on the grounds that it came from torture......................
http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/pdf15/human-rights-2008http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/03/fco_finally_adm.html
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