MI6 Boss Speaks Out On 'Torture'

One of the UK's top 'spooks' has said there is a divergence in the UK and the USA's attitude to the use of questionable interrogation methods.

Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has admitted to a "difference in values" with America in the fight against terrorism and their use of controversial interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.

Previously Head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Mr Scarlett's first interview as Head of the Secret Intelligence Service has revealed the 'split'.

Sir John revealed that the behaviour of the CIA, the American equivalent of MI6 wasn't always what the UK would necessarily approve of.

The Obama administration recently published controversial guidelines issued to CIA interrogators under George Bush's leadership that revealed they had authorised 'waterboarding' and a range of other 'harsh' techniques that included sleep deprivation, stress positions, slapping and slamming detainees against walls.

Many decades ago in Northern Ireland, such techniques were illegally used against terror suspects by the Army - which led to widespread condemnation by human rights' activists.

However, Sir John now said the US, which has a close intelligence relationship with the UK, was aware that Britain "did not share America's values in this area", and stressed MI6's commitment to human rights.

Asked if he agreed that some of the things the Americans had done were "unacceptable", he told the BBC: "Our American allies know that we are our own service, that we are here to work for the British interests and the United Kingdom.

"We're an independent service working to our own laws - nobody else's - and to our own values."

Asked if that precluded torture, he added: "No torture and there is no complicity with torture."

Sir John said his officers were "as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else."

But he added: "They also have the responsibility of protecting the country against terrorism and these issues need to be debated and understood in that context."

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph in which they said there was no policy "to collude in, solicit, or directly participate in abuses of prisoners" but admitted "it is not possible to eradicate all risk. Judgments need to be made."

MI5, the domestic security service, is also facing a criminal inquiry into allegations that it colluded in the torture of Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee, and a number of other prisoners from the camp have also brought legal cases against the government.

(BMcC/KMcA)