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UK Deputy PM says open to inquiry over spies' role in torture

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Thursday he would support an inquiry into whether British spies were complicit in CIA torture of terrorism suspects, if other investigations failed to uncover the truth.

 

Clegg said that while he was sure British intelligence agents were not involved with torture now, allegations that spies had known about the mistreatment of detainees by US authorities and others had to be fully examined.

 

"I, like everybody else, want the truth out there," he told LBC radio. "Torture cannot, will not, and is not being used under any circumstances by British agencies or indeed on our behest."

 

An inquiry headed by retired senior judge Peter Gibson, set up by Prime Minister David Cameron, concluded last year that British spies had known about the U.S. mistreatment of suspects.

 

His findings are being further examined by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.

  

Cameron said this week the use of torture "was always wrong", but appeared to dismiss the need for a new inquiry, telling reporters that the issue "has been dealt with from the British perspective".

 

Lawmaker David Davis, who ran against Cameron for leadership of the Conservative Party in 2005, said by using torture "we have become our enemies' most effective recruiting sergeant".

 

"We may not have engaged in torture ourselves, but time and time again we have turned a blind eye," he wrote in an article on the Conservative Home website.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.11.14, 13:32