In the last week or two before Xmas, always a good time to bury bad news, the government has repeatedly exploited its prerogative to prevent the serious misdeeds of several sections of the established powers-that-be being brought to light and appropriate penalties imposed. A few days ago the extremely serious issue of whether the UK was involved in rendition (covertly seizing a targeted person anywhere in the world and bundling them off to a prison, usually in the Middle East, where it was known they would be subject to severe interrogation under torture) was swept under the carpet by a government decision taken secretly within the bowels of Whitehall.
Amongst other cases this involved two opponents of Gadaffi being intercepted on their flights through the intervention of UK agents, detained and flown off to be tortured in Gadaffi’s dungeons. The inquiry by Sir Peter Gibson was suspended because of police involvement of possible charges against officials and the then foreign secretary. The government then promised for more than 3 years that an independent judge-led inquiry would examine the allegations, but has now abruptly announced that the investigation will instead be handed to the Intelligence & Security Committee (ISC), which is as good as saying the whole thing will be kicked into the long grass.
Gibson asked 27 searching questions about the whole affair, but now the answers, even if they’re investigated at all, will very likely not be made public. The ISC members are chosen by the PM, not independently by Parliament, and their hearings are almost always held in secret. Moreover its reports are censored before publication (and that assumes they’re published at all), in full consultation with the spooks on which it is reporting. So no chance at ever getting at the truth there.
What is so deplorable is not simply the UK’s almost certain involvement together with the US (again) in the scandalously illegal practice of rendition, but that the government can so easily block the truth coming out by the spooks’ scheming, the connivance of Whitehall officials, and the ministerial stroke of a pen.
