Britain’s international standing has been undermined by allegations that its spies colluded in torture, but reforms to remedy the damage should preserve the secrecy that espionage needs, the government said on Wednesday. According to extracts from a speech released in advance by his office, Foreign Secretary (Minister) William Hague said he hoped a strengthening of outside scrutiny of the security services and an inquiry into reported abuse would contribute to “drawing a line under the past”.
Hague, who oversees Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, (SIS), and the Government Communications Headquarters intercept agency, said secrecy was vital to their “dangerous work”. “Many agents and sources risk their lives — some lose their lives — to give us the vital information to keep us safe. We have a duty to protect them,” he said. Hague said he saw hundreds of operational proposals a year and did not approve all of them. “Intelligence throws up some of the most difficult ethical and legal questions that I encounter as Foreign Secretary,” he said.
“Some of them relate to the proper use of intelligence in reaching and justifying decisions in foreign policy — the most controversial instance of this, the Iraq War, is currently the subject of an inquiry. “But we also saw allegations of UK complicity in extraordinary rendition leading to torture. The very making of these allegations undermined Britain’s standing in the world as a country that upholds international law and abhors torture.”
PROBE INTO PAKISTAN, LIBYA, GUANTANAMO: British authorities say they would never use, or encourage others to use, torture to obtain information. An independent inquiry announced by Prime Minister David Cameron in July last year will examine allegations made by several Britons of Pakistani descent that they were abused in custody in Pakistan with the complicity of British officials.
