Miliband: Britain was slow to act against US torture

[cal04]

Critics of Labour leadership frontrunner accuse him of 'burying his head in the sand' over abuses
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-miliband-britain-was-slow-to-act-against-us-torture-2064949.html

The United States did "bad things" to terror suspects in the wake of 9/11 which Britain was too slow to realise, David Miliband acknowledges today as he brandishes his record as Foreign Secretary to bolster his Labour leadership ambitions.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday, the contest's frontrunner speaks bluntly about both the behaviour of Britain's closest intelligence ally and the failings of his predecessors at the Foreign Office in not recognising sooner the US's unacceptable treatment of detainees.

Reaffirming his commitment to an "ethical foreign policy", Mr Miliband's remarks will shift the focus on to Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary as the Bush administration launched its "war on terror". "The facts are that bad things were done by the Americans after 2002 and they didn't tell anyone else," Mr Miliband said. "Slowly the pieces of the jigsaw were put together and when they were put together the British government acted.

"Should we have been faster to put those pieces of the jigsaw together? Yes. But is it true that Britain's secret agencies act without ministerial or legal oversight? No. Is it true that serious allegations are swept under the carpet? No. They actually end up with police investigations, which is the strength of our system."

[Peace Patriot]

1. I'd like to believe that somebody in that gang of slaughterers of a hundred thousand Iraqis

had a conscience, but I don't, really. Mostly innocent people--men, women and children--who paid the price of a horrible death for living in a land with lots of oil.

These leaders should be in sack cloth and ashes, on their knees, begging the world's forgiveness for ALL that they did. This unseemly backpedalling, saying, "oh, dear, we didn't know--we acted too late," strikes me as a crock.