The Long Shadow Of Torture

On the one hand the Secret Intelligence Service is privately insisting that at all times it had ministerial authorisation for its actions. This points the finger very directly because the Intelligence Service Act of 1994 makes very clear that the “authorisation of acts outside the British Isles” can only be agreed at Cabinet level.
I guess that in practice that must mean either Jack Straw or Tony Blair himself – who met Gaddafi in his tent on March 24, 2004, just six days after the letter congratulating the Libyans on the “safe arrival” of Belhadj.
But both Mr Straw and Mr Blair have both made it publicly very plain that they have no knowledge of British complicity in torture. Their denials leave only two possibilities, both deeply shocking. The first is that the Secret Intelligence Service has gone rogue and has been operating a private policy of passing on terrorist suspects to be tortured at the hands of a foreign government, without the knowledge or approval of ministers. FULL ARTICLE