Britain’s complicity in CIA torture is a crime that will only create more jihadis

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/11/britain-complicity-cia-torture-crime-jihadis

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Injustice that is not fully exposed cannot be properly challenged; and when injustice is not properly challenged, it is doomed to repeat itself. That is why Britain’s full complicity in the CIA’s systematic torture of prisoners must not be allowed to remain a state secret. The extent of the catastrophe of the so-called “war on terror” launched 13 years ago is becoming ever clearer: invasions that have proved disasters in terms of lives lost and treasure wasted; torture and other endemic human rights abuses; attacks on civil liberties; and jihadism more powerful and violent than ever. How can a catastrophe on such a scale have ended with a total failure to hold those responsible to account?

Those hoping for truth here so far have little grounds for optimism: not only has Britain’s role been redacted from the Senate intelligence committee report, but also the parliamentary intelligence and security committee’s proposed inquiry already looks like a whitewash in the making. A source from the committee has been quoted arguing that “our role is to hold the intelligence services to account, not politicians”. This is an alarming logic. In a democracy, the buck must surely stop with elected politicians. Do our secret services have democratic oversight or not? It would be a travesty if the likes of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Miliband were not fully and openly questioned about what exactly they knew.

We already know about the case of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, kidnapped by a joint MI6 and CIA operation and sent to be tortured by Gaddafi’s regime in Libya. Belhaj is currently fighting a legal case against the British government, which attempted to stop it on the grounds that it would sabotage the “special relationship” with the US. What a perverse irony that his abduction was justified by the threat of Islamist terrorists, given the British government has since helped to hand large swaths of Libya over to such groups, including an Islamic State affiliate.

Some commentators – such as the BBC’s Frank Gardner – have pointed out that torture fails on its own terms. Abductees say anything in order to stop the torture, giving false information and leads. But that all arguably misses the point. From a moral standpoint, these are crimes that have been committed: the debate should not be whether these crimes are effective at delivering results. The CIA and all those who helped it are not fighting against terrorism; they are themselves using terrorist tactics, and in doing so, serving as recruiting sergeants for the terrorists they are supposedly combatting. Nick Clegg and others are hinting at support for a judge-led inquiry. That is the very least we need at this point. Without full openness and scrutiny of Britain’s actions, this disaster will only repeat itself, with only more human suffering as its tangible result.