The Report titled; Fabricating Terrorism: British Complicity in Renditions and Torture, highlights a litany of cases where British authorities have been expressly involved in the torture and illegal rendition of suspects in the ‘War on Terror’. Such unlawful practices have been strongly condemned by human rights organisations worldwide, and yet Britain remains complicit in them. Geoffrey Bindman, chair of the British Institute of Human Rights, comments that the document is a, ‘damning indictment’ of British policy. He continues to say that the cases, “…demonstrate an intolerable level of collaboration and collusion between UK and US authorities in the abuses which have taken place at Guantanamo and elsewhere through the ‘outsourcing’ of torture."

The case studies provided on the ex-Guantánamo detainees provides shocking evidence that British authorities were complicit in their abduction and torture before being sent to Guantánamo and even whilst being detained there. Binyamin Al Habashi – a British resident kidnapped and rendered to Guantánamo via the torture dungeons of Morocco relates his Moroccan torturers mocking him, “Why do you think the Brits sold you out to us so cheaply? Why do you think they sent you here?...We have been working with the British, and we have photos of people given to us by MI5.”

One of contributors of the report, the chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights Geoffrey Bindman spent several months in two leading American Law schools and said this taught him enormous respect for the legal system developed by the founding fathers of the American Constitution which has its roots in English Legal system going back several hundred years to the time of Magna Carta.

He continued by saying that Until the current American presidency, it meant the rule of law and personal liberty was sacred except for those proved in a fair legal process to have broken the law. The Bush administration has thrown overboard nearly a thousand years of history by introducing a new concept of pre-emptive action, which in the name of countering terrorism justifies detention, torture and bombing on the basis of guesswork about what could happen, abandoning the need for evidence or fair legal processes. Some argue that the supreme duty to protect its citizens justifies a government in taking even these extreme measures.

The tragedy is that they have had the opposite effect, increasing hostility and violence while doing nothing to do reduce the threat to its citizens. The tragedy for the United Kingdom is that its government has been seduced by the rhetoric of the "war on terror" into giving support to failed and inhuman US policies. In doing so it has undermined its own professed commitment to human rights and the rule of law. The case histories recounted in this report are appalling illustrations of brutal and inhuman treatment. If substantiated, they demonstrate an intolerable level of collaboration and collusion between UK and US authorities in the abuses which have taken place at Guantanamo and elsewhere through the "outsourcing" of torture.

They also demonstrate a pathetic reluctance on the part of the UK government to stand up for the rights of its own citizens and permanent residents against illegal and unacceptable treatment. It is nevertheless important to note that there have been encouraging signs of resistance both in the USA and in Britain to these misguided attempts to undermine the rule of law. At least some US judges are beginning to challenge the administration's efforts to deny access to the courts to prisoners at Guantanamo and to conceal its oppressive conduct from the public.

In Britain it is heartening that there are courageous judges who have rejected the use of evidence obtained by torture and outlawed the indefinite detention of immigrants without trial in places such as Belmarsh. The 68 page report highlights the systematic violation of international laws with evidence directly implicating the US administration who while denying involvement in torture, partly by redefining its meaning, has admitted that it is overseeing an 'outsourcing' process of intelligence gathering in which terrorist suspects benefit from being rendered or transferred to interrogator countries experienced and sympathetic to the cultural needs of the detainees. However, the role of British authorities in this programme has still to be fully revealed. On numerous occasions Government representatives have denied any involvement in the transferral of individuals and torture.

However as the evidence continues to mount over the recent months it has become apparent that an international chain of abuse links both the US and UK administrations to breaches of international human rights conventions. Such examples against British authorities include showing how senior members of the Labour Government including Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon mislead the House of Commons and the general public over their knowledge and complicity in illegal acts of rendition. The unncovering of evidence that British secret service operatives were involved in interrogations of detainees where abuse and torture were used.

Evidence has been shown that British intelligence purposely passed misinformation to 3rd party countries which was used as a basis to detain, torture and m u t i l a t e innocent British citizens and foreign nationals who are British residents. Findings that British government officials overseas reneged on their duty to protect the welfare of foreign nationals who are British residents, abandoning them to torture and intolerable prison conditions.

Furthermore, how CIA rendition or 'torture' flights were covertly allowed to pass through British airspace and land on British soil, on their way to countries with poor human rights record a scenario denied by the British Government. The report is aimed at parliamentary ministers and to provide a useful resource for the parliamentary lobby group to fuel the momentum for a full and independent investigation of the compelling evidence against British involvement.