Conclusions of the upcoming torture inquiry may have already been agreed


by Sunder Katwala    
9:01 am - July 6th 2010

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Today the government is expected to make an announcement about a judge-led commission or inquiry into whether the UK was complicit in the use of torture.

Patrick Wintour on the Guardian blog says the test for the Coalition will come in the details. He asks:

Nick Clegg, Edward Davey and Hague have demanded an inquiry so much in Opposition, they would look ridiculous if they rejected one today. But much will depend on the details. Is the inquiry to be held in public, what evidence will be published, what witnesses will be called, will the civil court cases being taken against the government be stopped, how will compensation, if any, be distributed to victims of torture? And, finally, how will the American security services be involved and how will torture be defined?

But the answers to several of these questions were already set out last week in a well informed Telegraph column by political editor Ben Brogan.

It bore all the hallmarks of several authoritative insider briefings.

Brogan was particularly sympathetic to the security services’ troubles in having to devote resources to dealing with allegations of torture, and to the problems which a full or frank inquiry could present for relationships with US intelligence, where “no one knows if the British can be trusted with secrets any more or whether we still have the stomach for the fight”, as Brogan put it.

So Brogan was full of praise for the creative Coalition statecraft by which, he claims, David Cameron has agreed to a closed inquiry which will exonerate the security services while upholding.

Those, like me, who have argued that our credibility and effectiveness in the fight against Islamists is undermined by putting our intelligence agencies on trial, will have to accept the setting up of an independent inquiry – being described as a “Chilcot lite” – that will sit mostly in secret. MI5 and MI6 will wear it if it means a line can be drawn under the affair. They are confident that it will find in their favour.
…
There are still details to be worked out. The legal arrangements are fraught. But here, perhaps, we begin to see the thrust of Mr Cameron’s foreign policy: a traditional, problem-solving Tory approach to a conundrum that cannot be wished away, as the previous government found. It marries a Conservative desire to defend the institutions of the state with Lib Dem beliefs in the imperative of human rights.

For Brogan, that is a very sensible and honourable compromise, serving both national security and human rights with a due sense of balance and discretion.

Yet the nagging thought remains: might not this apparent briefing, in advance, of the agreed conclusion of an inquiry perhaps slightly undermine its credibility?

Of course, the issue of how to have the most effective inquiry possible need not divide along party lines, and has not done so in the past.

Having made common cause with both Hague and Clegg in the past in calling for an Iraq Inquiry, I am sure we can be confident that Liberal Democrats outside government and within it will remain as committed to similar principles on this occasion.

Though we note with interest Chris Ames’ observation that Nick Clegg’s vocal complaints about calls for a more open Iraq inquiry process may perhaps, from the new perspective of government office, be settling into much greater understanding of Whitehall’s case for the status quo.

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About the author
Sunder Katwala is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He is the director of British Future, a think-tank addressing identity and integration, migration and opportunity. He was formerly secretary-general of the Fabian Society.
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Story Filed Under: Blog ,Conservative Party ,Foreign affairs ,Terrorism ,Westminster


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Reader comments


1. ukliberty

Another case of the title not being supported by the content.

Come on LC, you can do better.

2. Sunder Katwala

ukliberty@1

Yes, I agree I don’t claim that we know that.

This is cross-posted from Next Left, where the headline was “Could the conclusions of a “Chilcot lite” torture inquiry have already been agreed?”
http://www.nextleft.org/2010/07/could-conclusions-of-chilcot-lite.html

3. Tim J

Yes, a better title might be “MI5 and MI6 are confident that they will be exonerated in torture inquiry” given that this is the only suggestion made in Brogan’s piece that might be at all relevant to the post here.

4. Nick

A better title might be “Government plans to murder first-born children to cut costs”. It’s got about the same level of evidence backing it, and is a lot punchier ;)

5. Flowerpower

There is no evidence of any fix or of any conspiracy within government to hoodwink the public with a bogus report. Just more evidence of the essential dishonesty of the Left and their habit of issuing unsubstantiated slurs.

6. Sunny Hundal

I’ve put in a “may” in the headline, but any inquiry which has broadly agreed the results before it’s announced is not even worth having really. It’s just spin.

7. Flowerpower

I’ve put in a “may” in the headline

…and this makes the story less mendacious? This is sinking to the level of those stories you rightly criticized a week or two ago saying Gordon Brown “may have been committed to a mental hospital.”


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

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  2. Sally Brooking

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  3. Oriel Kenny

    RT @libcon: Conclusions of the upcoming torture inquiry have already been agreed http://bit.ly/93eLE1

  4. sunny hundal

    Cameron announces torture inquiry, but we already know what it's going to say: http://bit.ly/93eLE1

  5. House Of Twits

    RT @sunny_hundal Cameron announces torture inquiry, but we already know what it's going to say: http://bit.ly/93eLE1

  6. Aris

    RT @sunny_hundal: Cameron announces torture inquiry, but we already know what it's going to say: http://bit.ly/93eLE1

  7. blogs of the world

    Conclusions of the upcoming torture inquiry have already been agreed. by Sunder Katwala Ju… http://reduce.li/bcyiwg #conclusion





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