UK to reveal secret agents' interrogation methods

Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:00pm EDT

* British to publish spy interrogation guidelines

* PM resists calls for public inquiry into rendition

* Critics say latest moves are not enough



By Luke Baker

LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain agreed on Wednesday to publish for the first time the guidance it gives intelligence agents when questioning suspects held overseas, following a series of torture allegations.

Former detainees, some of them British residents, have said they were tortured while held abroad with the knowledge -- if not the direct participation -- of British intelligence officers, raising allegations of collusion with torture.

Britain has denied involvement in torture or that it has sent terrorism suspects to third countries where they may be subjected to torture. But it has resisted holding a public inquiry into its involvement in what's known as rendition.

In a statement to parliament, Prime Minister Gordon Brown avoided any mention of an inquiry but he said there would be more oversight of the intelligence services, their interrogation methods would be published and he condemned torture.

"Britain condemns without reservation the use of torture for any purpose," he said. "Torture has no place in a modern democratic society. We will not condone it. Nor will we ever ask others to do it on our behalf."

To reassure the public that the secret services were conducting themselves within the law, he said the government would publish details on their methods of interrogation.

"We will publish our guidance to intelligence officers and service personnel about the standards that we apply during the detention and interviewing of detainees overseas, once it has been consolidated and reviewed by the Intelligence and Security Committee," Brown said.

"It is right that parliament and the public should know what those involved in interviewing detainees can and cannot do."

A senior intelligence official will monitor compliance with the rules, parliament's intelligence committee will review its own work and, where appropriate, allegations of wrongdoing.



"INADEQUATE MOVE"

The ground-breaking move follows repeated accusations, most prominently by Binyam Mohamed, a British resident recently released from Guantanamo Bay after four years in captivity, that British agents were complicit in his torture abroad.

Brown's announcement appeared to be an attempt to silence calls by politicians and human rights groups for a public inquiry into Britain's interrogation and rendition practices.

But Andrew Tyrie, head of a parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, said Brown's move was insufficient.

"The prime minister's announcement is inadequate," he said.

"We need a judge-led inquiry. He is isolated in his refusal to allow this. Lord Carlile, the government's own independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has concluded that a judge-led inquiry is necessary. I agree."

Brown is under particular pressure to submit to a public inquiry because government departments that had previously denied any role in rendition have since admitted involvement, including the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.

"We need to get to the truth on rendition, to enable us to draw a line under all this and move on," Tyrie said.

"Only a judge-led inquiry can give the public confidence that we have got to the bottom of all this." (Editing by Jon Boyle)



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