Power has always corrupted, and the British state is not and never has been immune
Power has always corrupted, and the British state is not and never has been immune. On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed how the man from Whitehall put the shredder to energetic use to conceal colonial crimes in the 50s. Allegations of British voices popping up to question abused suspects in far-flung places continue under this government and up until this day; indeed, there is reason to believe that the courts will soon hear more such complaints.
With the passage of time the UK's post-9/11 dealings might have become one more lesson in how Bad Stuff Happens. It hasn't happened though. Extra digging still yields extra dirt about the Blair years. In respect of rendition, at least, things are not looking good for the prime minister who said history would be his judge. Time was when Whitehall would simply dismiss talk of torture as the stuff of deranged conspiracies. But Binyam Mohamed's claim to have been "abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways" was steadily borne out. Rangzieb Ahmed's missing fingernails cried out for a public account that never came. Then, thanks to the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, we learned about the rendition and mistreatment of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, and of how a top MI6 man told that regime that the safe dispatch of this human "air cargo" as being "the least we could do for you".
It is, in sum, increasingly plain that the British security state was out of control for a number of years. The remaining question is whether this was a case of rogue agencies running wild or of malign instructions from the political masters. The united front between the professional and elected arms of government may already be descending into a blame game. After the former foreign secretary Jack Straw insisted amid the Belhaj row that no minister could know everything that is done in their name, there were weekend reports that officials had paid him a visit to confront him with evidence that he had signed off on the case. On Wednesday, it emerged legal action was being taken against him – and not in the familiar form of a case against the secretary of state, but as a case against Mr Straw personally. In the background is a police investigation which could give rise to grave criminal charges.
The wheels of justice must be given time to turn – rushing to conclusions is in no one's interest. As home secretary, Mr Straw passed the Human Rights Act, and he often seemed more concerned with the rule of law than his boss. And yet it was on his watch that the foreign office calmly described late-night flights to the lawless hell of Guantánamo as a "preferred option". Whether blame in the Belhaj case attaches to him or not, something plainly went awry. The proceedings against him are only the latest straw in a chilling wind.