Account Rendered: Extraordinary Rendition and Britain's Role [Hardcover]

Since the destruction of the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001, the UK would seem to have lost its moral compass. Perhaps we lost it earlier. Either way the UK government has always denied complicity in any illegal rendition of individuals to other foreign powers who would torture them to gain intelligence. 'Rendition' is defined by the authors of this book as the `the involuntary transfer of an individual across borders without recourse to extradition or deportation proceedings')

The authors examine the veracity of believing this claim, and their evidence is damning. In 2005 Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, stated that, 'Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States and also, let me say, that Secretary Rice is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition, full stop'. Perhaps the Foreign Secretary was delusional and surrounded by those who perhaps believe that showing solidarity with the US meant swallowing its allies' excesses and lies.

This book is written using documents already in the public domain, and new information from other sources, Including the US Justice Department, the US State Department, the CIA, the FBI and our own Foreign Office. This is a tremendous service to all who believe in democracy in the UK. It illuminates the behaviour of those who are supposed to represent us. They perhaps should understand that they need to answer to the general public, not keeping them in the dark when it comes to the difficult choices that have to be made when combatting terrorism.

I found this book riveting in its implications. Why don't politicians trust the electorate to discuss torture and whether it has any place in extracting useful information from suspects? So much evidence now exists to suggest the doubtful value of information obtained under duress, irrespective of the potential value it may have to the intelligence community. So many activities already fly under the radar of monitoring agencies. This book helps ensure their actions don't remain invisible, and is essential reading as a result.

400 pages long consisting of 99 pages telling the story and 301 of notes and official documents. At times it really makes me wonder just whose side some of these people are really on. It is best summed up with, 'the detention and interrogation of terrorists has provided intelligence that has enabled identification and apprehension of other terrorists and warned of terrorist plots planned for the United States and around the world'. Therefore it is irrelevant really how the information is obtained, if persuasion is needed by whatever form then so be it. When you have people like former SAS soldier Ben Griffen making allegations then that is getting down to the final straw. If any of the following like Chris Mullen, Ben Griffen, anyone from Amnesty International, Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith or members of their families were caught up in another 7/7 would they still be jumping with the same dedication to defend the terrorists ?. The answers to questions obtained through rendition has no doubt saved many, many lives.