Ex-UK Spy Chief: U.S. Misled Us on Torture

(AP)  United States intelligence agencies misled key allies, including Britain, about the mistreatment of suspected terrorists, according to the former head of the country's domestic spy agency, MI5.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, who retired in 2007 and is now a member of the House of Lords, said Tuesday that the U.S. deliberately suppressed details of its harsh handling of some detainees, including accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing," Manningham-Buller told a meeting at Britain's Parliament.

Britain's spy agencies have come under heavy criticism for their alleged collusion in the torture overseas of terrorist suspects, including detainees held in U.S. custody.

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In a recent court ruling, one of Britain's most senior judges questioned MI5's record on human rights and claimed the agency may have misled Parliament and the courts about how much it knew about mistreatment.

Manningham-Buller said that in 2002 or 2003 she questioned how the U.S. was able to supply Britain with intelligence gleaned from Sheikh Mohammed.

"I said to my staff, 'Why is he talking?' because our experience of Irish prisoners, Irish terrorists, was that they never said anything," she said.

"They said, well, the Americans say he is very proud of his achievements when questioned about it. It wasn't actually until after I retired that I read that, in fact, he had been water boarded 160 times," Manningham-Buller said.

She said the "Americans were very keen to conceal from us what was happening, as they were from many of their own people."

Manningham-Buller spent 33 years in British intelligence, and was head of MI5 between 2002 and 2007.

She said that, during that time, Britain's government complained to the U.S. about its treatment of detainees, but declined to offer details. "The government did lodge protests and I'm not going to say any more on that," Manningham-Buller said.

She said British spies are proud to be quietly effective, unlike the gung-ho U.K. intelligence officers portrayed in TV dramas. But she joked that members of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, may have been inspired by on-screen excess.

"One of the sad things is Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush all watched '24,"' Manningham-Buller said, referring to the popular TV show about a counter-terrorist agent.

Last month, Master of the Rolls David Neuberger, a senior judge, said MI5's insistence in a court case that it was unaware of the harsh treatment of some detainees held overseas in CIA custody was unreliable.

The ex-spy chief confirmed Tuesday that Britain was aware of mistreatment cases before she left office.

In an original draft of a ruling, Neuberger also criticized MI5's supposed lax attitude toward the mistreatment of detainees.

Manningham-Buller's successor, current MI5 director Jonathan Evans, has rejected the claims, and warned that the courts risk being exploited by those seeking to undermine British counterterrorism work.

The ex-chief said she believes that the allegations of complicity in torture could disrupt the work of MI5 staff.

"The allegations of collusion in torture and the lack of respect for human rights will wound those individuals personally and collectively, and in some respects - whether proven or not - it will make it harder for them to do their jobs," she said.

Police are investigating whether one MI5 officer - known as Witness B - is guilty of criminal wrongdoing regarding the alleged torture of an ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee. In a separate case, the actions of an MI6 officer are also being investigated.

Britain's government also faces 12 legal cases mounted by former detainees who claim the U.K. was complicit in their alleged torture.

[antoniof123]

Let the feeding frenzy begin.

[brianbwb2011]

OK, Britain, but whose idea was it to present the now-famous "British Intel", which turned out to be a then 10-year-old thesis by an Indian student at Berkley university?

Britain knew Bush was lying before the war started, not they want to point the finger?

[polisigh]

Of course Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld lied to the Brits. They lied to the American public and to the rest of the world.They are still searching for WMDs and Bush' military service records. And Rove is still making excuses for them.

[brianbwb2011]

The Brits were in on the lie from the beginning, Bush promised them a piece of the oil action, which didn't work out, now they are trying to avoid their responsibility.

Blair has all but confessed. Now if Britain had any stones whatsoever, they would at least help us bring Bush to justice.

[jayrh]

Let me guess, this is coming out of U.K. in an effort to further appease the Muslims. I sincereley hope that people here will look to our neighbors to see exactly how not to handle the problem of radical Islam. The British have been trying to appease them since at least 1917... What has it got them, a slow Islamization of the U.K. and they still have terrorist acts there.

Islam will never respect weakness. They respect strength... One common thing that you hear from radical Islam is that they will win in the end, just because the West doesn't have the stomach or the will for a continuous war that's needed to defeat them... Judging from our leftist governments in the U.K. and U.S., that's entirely true...

[brianbwb2011]

It is what they get for listening to the ASPD-afflicted war mongers like yourself, unable to understand that an unnecessary war, started on lies, on another country might make relatives of the victims who emigrated to your country less than happy.

What people of all religious stripe don't respect is stupidity, and you show enough to have earned any ill regard anyone might have towards you.

[jayrh]

We should be ashamed for mistreating these prisoners and making them uncomfortable! I mean, all they did was either kill or conspire to kill Americans!!!

[brianbwb2011]

ASPD, causing you to invent lies about that for which you have no proof.

Tim McVeigh was a redneck radical who blew up an American building, so by your logic, we should arrest and torture you, without evidence.

[mjlewis6]

This is an old criminal tactic of involving others while stealing from them. The Bush Administration USED the British and Polish and Spanish governments and did not SHARE what it was actually doing.
Hence, their reputations are tarnished to the extent that as signators to the ICC at the Hague, they would also be subjected to the same War Crimes laws regarding civilians and POWs... The US is not a signator nation....YET ! Cheney may have his day in court at the ICC to spout his rationalizations regarding waterboarding...so that whether the individual is a POW or a civilian...the invidious argument renders Cheney guilty, as well as all who followed his orders to do such a crime.

[jayrh]

ICC? Let me guess, you're all for a world order? Don't like our own constitution? You try to find ways around it? Or, are you even from the US?

Let's not make any terrorists uncomfortable, all they did was kill or try to kill Americans!!!

[brianbwb2011]

jayrh

The ones who killed innocent Americans died themselves in the act. The ones who claimed responsibility worked for the US.

Too bad your ASPD won't allow you to see truth.

[usaguy2010]

who cares, they shpuld have tortured them even more

[babooph]

Does he means LIED to us???!!!