CIA Report: UK Defends Actions Over Interrogation Claims

_79686656_79686649

None of the redactions from a CIA report on interrogation related to British involvement in the mistreatment of prisoners, Number 10 has said. Read more from the BBC:

Downing Street confirmed UK and US intelligence agencies discussed the controversial report before it was published.

But a spokesman insisted any redactions would have been made on “national security grounds”. The report found “brutal” treatment of al-Qaeda suspects in the wake of 9/11.

Senators looked at how the CIA handled detainees in the years after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. The full document, produced by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, remains classified.

The published report contains no reference to UK agencies.

Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to be questioned by MPs on Monday about a meeting she held with the committee in 2011. Downing Street said Mrs May “discussed a range of issues” at the meeting.

Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate committee, said CIA tactics – which included repeated waterboarding, slapping, stress positions and sleep deprivation – amounted to torture.

A version of the report was finished in 2012, but there were disagreements about what should be published. Part of this process was a “classification review” by the CIA into what information should remain classified.