British police have decided that they will not investigate the complicity of their intelligence services in the rendition and torture of British residents by America. The reason? "Insufficient evidence". They asked the spies, the spies denied it, and that apparently is good enough for them. So much for justice - it takes a back seat to not embarrassing those in power.
The good news is that at the moment they can't perform the same sort of tawdry whitewash over more recent renditions to Libya. There, thanks to the Libyan government, we have documentary evidence that the UK provided information on Libyans in the UK, and "took credit" for the rendition of Sami al-Saadi, who was detained for six years and tortured with beatings and electric shocks. So, there will be an "investigation". But that doesn't mean there will be justice. Instead, they'll just wait for public anger over the case to die down, then make exactly the same claim of "insufficient evidence" in a year or two's time. The government will then "draw a line under the matter" and try and pretend it never happened. Question ex-Ministers? Dig through the paper trail? Do their jobs? All of that will take a back seat to the British establishment's highest priority: protecting themselves and ensuring that their abuses go unpunished. And then they wonder why people turn to terrorism...
