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In 2009, after UK home Secretary Alan Johnson said there was no evidence that the UK had been involved in rendition, I wrote to him and offered to meet him to offer a few facts. He never replied.
Instead he gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph a week or so later in which he said Scotland Yard investigations then being conducted into MI6’s involvement in rendition could damage national security. Brave. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5853134/Investigation-into-MI5-torture-allegations-could-jeopardise-national-security.html
In June 2018, after turning a wilful blind eye for almost 16 years, the UK parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee reported that M5 and MI6 had funded three rendition operations and extracted information from detainees they knew or suspected were being tortured 658 times
But the Committee warned that that was not the full picture: some of the key documentation seemed to have disappeared …
Perhaps the lesson is that the UK system of accountability does work. But only up to a point? Only after decades of damaging denial? And only in spite of UK politicians who pose as honest brokers?
Worth remembering that Alan Johnson was at that time the UK government minister responsible for, erm, policing. What impact would that Telegraph interview have had on the DCs and DSs involved in the police investigation? Hardly good for morale?
So was his own department keeping him in the dark? Or was Alan Johnson misleading the British public about very serious human rights abuses? You decide.
