UK parliament inquiry mulls summoning Blair, Straw

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw could be summoned before a parliamentary inquiry over a recent US Senate report on the use of torture by the CIA, a report says.

The report, published by The Guardian on Sunday, said the two senior figures from the former British government may be called in to give evidence to the parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

According to the report, the committee would likely ask Blair and Straw about the extent of any British involvement in the torture of suspects detained by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of the ISC and a Conservative former foreign secretary, said he would investigate “without fear or favor” regardless of whether it might cause embarrassment to the country’s security services, ministers or the parliament.

This is while the current Tory-led coalition government is facing growing pressure to announce a separate judge-led inquiry amid concerns of close ties between the ISC and the Westminster establishment.

The developments come in the wake of the release of a US Senate report last week that confirmed the use of violent and harsh methods of torture by the CIA after the 9/11 attack in 2001.

Following the release of the report, critics in the UK demanded that the British government come clean about how it helped the CIA in its rendition program by delivering suspects to interrogation and torture sites.

On December 10, veteran British lawmaker David Davis said the UK participated in the CIA’s rendition program. Davis also said the government turned a blind eye to the US spy agency’s torture of suspects and operated a secret policy of complicity in the practice.