Head of MI6 Denies Role of Agency in Torture
By JOHN F. BURNS
NYT
LONDON — The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has joined other senior British government officials in the defense of Britain’s counterterrorism policies, rejecting accusations that his agency has colluded in the torture of terrorist suspects being interrogated abroad.
In an interview broadcast by the BBC on Monday, the official, Sir John Scarlett, said his officers were “as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else.” He said there had been “no torture and no complicity in torture” by Britain’s intelligence agencies, as several former detainees at the United States camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have alleged.
Sir John’s remarks were part of what the BBC described as the first broadcast interview given by a serving head of Britain’s overseas intelligence agency, which is also known as MI6. The interview was part of a radio series on the history of the service. In November, shortly after the service’s 100th anniversary, the MI6 chief will retire and be succeeded by Sir John Sawers, currently Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations.
The interview appeared to be part of a wider effort by the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to influence opinion in Britain at a time when pressure has been growing for a judicial inquiry into allegations that British officials from MI6 and its sister agency for domestic intelligence, MI5, knowingly assisted or allowed torture by agents of foreign governments.
(More here.)
NYT
LONDON — The head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has joined other senior British government officials in the defense of Britain’s counterterrorism policies, rejecting accusations that his agency has colluded in the torture of terrorist suspects being interrogated abroad.
In an interview broadcast by the BBC on Monday, the official, Sir John Scarlett, said his officers were “as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else.” He said there had been “no torture and no complicity in torture” by Britain’s intelligence agencies, as several former detainees at the United States camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have alleged.
Sir John’s remarks were part of what the BBC described as the first broadcast interview given by a serving head of Britain’s overseas intelligence agency, which is also known as MI6. The interview was part of a radio series on the history of the service. In November, shortly after the service’s 100th anniversary, the MI6 chief will retire and be succeeded by Sir John Sawers, currently Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations.
The interview appeared to be part of a wider effort by the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to influence opinion in Britain at a time when pressure has been growing for a judicial inquiry into allegations that British officials from MI6 and its sister agency for domestic intelligence, MI5, knowingly assisted or allowed torture by agents of foreign governments.
(More here.)
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