UK Regulator Denies CIA Torture Report Redacted to Hide Britain’s Role

UK's Intelligence and Security Committee claims that the redactions made to the report on CIA torture practices did not concern London's awareness of the mistreatment of detainees.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Britain's security and intelligence services did not seek to cover up their complicity in US mistreatment of terrorist suspects when they asked the US Senate to redact its report on CIA torture practices, a UK regulator said in a Wednesday statement.

"The UK Agencies did request redactions to the primary material which was used by the Senate Committee when drafting its full report. We have seen these requests and can confirm that all were directly related to national security interests. They do not concern UK involvement or complicity in, or awareness of, the mistreatment of detainees," the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said.

The US Senate released a report in December 2014 that documented "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the Central Intelligence Agency on suspected terrorists. It found that the CIA had misled Congress and the public about the effectiveness of its torture program.

The report was heavily redacted, prompting speculation that references to Britain's involvement had been erased to shield the UK security services from public outrage.

The ISC added that UK security agencies were at no stage provided with unedited reports on CIA torture, rather they were given "sight of heavily-edited extracts, which they could not retain."

The CIA torture report detailed damning evidence that the CIA went overboard on the torture of suspects after the September 11 bombings. Methods of interrogation described in the report include waterboarding, mock executions, prolonged sleep deprivation, the threat of sexual abuse and threats against family.