The head of Britain’s domestic spy service yesterday defended his organization’s work amid an escalating row over allegations it tried to cover up its involvement in torture.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, MI5 director-general Jonathan Evans hit out at the allegation from one of Britain’s most senior judges that the agency had a “culture of suppression.”
In rare public comments, he said the accusation — which came in a draft court ruling relating to the case of a Guantanamo Bay inmate — was the “precise opposite of the truth.”
He said that British intelligence was “slow to detect” US mistreatment of detainees after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
But he added: “We in the [British] agencies did not practice mistreatment or torture then and do not do so now, nor do we collude or encourage others to torture on our behalf.”
In his harsh criticism of MI5, which was removed from the final published court judgment but leaked, Judge Lord Neuberger also accused the service of failing to respect human rights and misleading parliament.
Judges handed down the ruling on Wednesday as they ordered the release of once-secret information about the case of former detainee Binyam Mohamed that showed he had been subject to abuse at the hands of US authorities. The publication of the summary showing Britain was aware of the US authorities’ abuse, combined with the judge’s criticism, intensified a row about MI5’s alleged attempts to conceal its collusion in torture.
Evans also warned that Britain’s enemies could use the escalating row as “propaganda to undermine our will and ability to confront them.”
Born in Ethiopia, Mohamed — who went to Britain in 1994 seeking asylum — says that in Morocco in 2002 he was questioned by people using information that could only have come from the British intelligence service.
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