Report questions UK rendition role

BRITAIN "may have become inappropriately" involved in some cases of rendition of suspected terrorists, a report by the aborted inquiry into British complicity in torture has found.

Sir Peter Gibson's investigation has found 27 areas that need further investigation in relation to interrogation, rendition and the way officers were trained.

The report said British intelligence agencies witnessed mistreatment of detainees, but were reluctant to raise their concerns because they feared jeopardising relations with their international counterparts.

It also questions whether the government could and should have done more to secure the earlier release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

The inquiry was axed earlier this year after fresh criminal investigations were launched into allegations involving Libyan victims, but its validity had already been called into question when campaigners and human rights lawyers pulled out, claiming it lacked credibility.

Sir Peter published an interim report on Thursday, which contained some redactions for "national security reasons", setting out the case for the investigation to be resumed.

"The inquiry would have wished to examine when the government came to understand the scope of the US policy and whether the government and its agencies responded adequately once they became aware of renditions, or proposed renditions, of British nationals and UK residents," it said.

"There is an issue as to whether the government and the agencies may have become inappropriately involved in some cases of rendition, and whether an adequate policy was formulated and guidance issued to personnel, addressing the extent to which it was proper for the UK to support or assist renditions carried out by other countries."

Rendition is the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners.

The inquiry also found that while no formal request was put to the UK, records showed the government was aware that US officials were considering the use of Diego Garcia, an island in the British Indian Ocean Territory, for holding or transiting detainees between November 2001 and January 2002.

Documents obtained by the investigating team found evidence of a "reluctance" to raise issues about treatment for fear of damaging work with other intelligence services.

"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," the report states.

"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."

It said it wasn't clear from the documents provided to the inquiry that anything was done following a concern raised by officers.

On January 16, 2002, the then prime minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons anybody who was captured should be treated humanely in accordance with the Geneva Convention and proper international norms.

By January 18 Mr Blair appeared to have begun to have doubts about the treatment of the detainees and annotated a note calling for it to be made clear to the US that torture would be "unacceptable".

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