WASHINGTON - The United States is now
relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture,
interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects
seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and for
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals
for Sanity
SUBJECT: Torture
A large number of secret documents detailing government blunders over Iraq remain buried in Whitehall, a Foreign Office whistle-blower said yesterday as he called for a full public inquiry into the war.
Secret Whitehall emails released yesterday provide damning new evidence that the notorious dossier making the case for invading Iraq was "sexed up".
They disclose that the intelligence services were sceptical over the "iffy drafting" of government claims that Saddam Hussein could mount a missile strike on his neighbours within 45 minutes of ordering an attack.
Britain's spies have been seeking guidance from an "ethical counsellor" on how to cope with moral dilemmas.
MI5 members have discussed issues like the rights and wrongs of extraordinary rendition and whether the Government was right to try to alter the ideological views of citizens.
Downing Street today rallied to the defence of David Miliband, the foreign secretary, over claims that the Foreign Office asked the US for help in suppressing crucial evidence concerning torture allegations.
The prime minister's official spokesman insisted the Foreign Office had merely asked the US to "set out its position in writing" when it solicited a letter for the American authorities to back up its claim that if the evidence was disclosed, Washington could stop sharing intelligence with Britain.
LONDON - A flurry of letters between the British Foreign Office and the US State Department has revealed that Washington did threaten to withdraw intelligence-sharing with Britain if documents related to the alleged torture of a British terrorism detainee in Guantanamo Bay were made public.
The High Court in London said on Wednesday the Foreign Office had refused to allow the torture documents to be revealed because of a "threat" from Washington to stop sharing intelligence with Britain.
On Jan. 26 in Copenhagen, I had the privilege to present to former Danish intelligence officer, Frank Grevil, the annual Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.
The late Sam Adams was a CIA analyst colleague who challenged the "fixing" of intelligence during the Vietnam War.
At long last. Change we can believe in.
In choosing Leon Panetta to take charge of the CIA, President-elect Barak Obama has shown he is determined to put an abrupt end to the lawlessness and deceit with which the administration of George W. Bush has corrupted intelligence operations and analysis.
First and foremost, the appointment gives hope that torture and "rendition" (a euphemism for kidnapping people for delivery to foreign torture chambers) is over - or will be in less than two weeks.
Character counts. And so does integrity.
