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A cartoon by Steve Bell published in The Guardian on July 9, 2009 © 2009 Steve Bell
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Philip Challinor, wrote the following piece in The Curmudgeon (25 November 2009: 19:34), in response to Cruel Britannia: British Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of Terror Suspects in Pakistan (a report by Human Rights Watch, 24 November 2009):
Flawed Intelligence
A report by Human Rights Watch claims that there is clear evidence of the British government's involvement in the inexpediently enhanced interrogation of its own citizens, and that the British government has thus placed itself in a "legally, morally and politically invidious position". Irrelevances aside, it is not altogether clear what the legal and political consequences might be - the empty suit at the Ministry of Justice may be put on trial, and then again it may not - but doubtless the Glorious Successor will make some effort to smooth things over in the next few days by inquiring after the health of a minor celebrity. The Foreign Office sent out a spokesbeing to give out a prepared denial; representing Her Majesty's Loyal and Complicit Opposition, William Hague huffed and David "Liberty or Death" Davis puffed, while a spokesbeing for the Ascended Incarnation of the Vicar of Downing Street gave out a prepared denial.
The Human Rights Watch report is partly based on the testimony of Pakistani intelligence agents who were doing a crucial job under difficult circumstances and who stated that British agents were grateful that "all means possible" were being used to extract information - accuracy being at best a secondary consideration in the War Against the Abstract Noun. It is not known whether the Pakistani agents were motivated by envy of our freedom and prosperity, or whether they were themselves tortured into accusing the British intelligence services of including the sort of people whose actions Tony Blair would not condone.
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