Open Government

The Information Rights Tribunal has ordered the Ministry of Mission Creep to disclose its involvement in George W Bush's kidnap and torture programme, even though an internal investigation by the Ministry itself concluded that there was no evidence of anything nasty going on. True, the Ministry admitted a year later that two people had been spirited off to some hole in Bagram; but in a ministry that is typically run with the astuteness of holes like Geoff Hoon and Liam Fox, this counts as barely more than a book-keeping error. The chair of the relevant parliamentary group has written to the mercenary contractor and chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, intimating that the continued non-publication of the guidelines for intelligence officers does not inspire public confidence; Sir Malcolm will doubtless respond that it's all the fault of the Freedom of Information Act for asking silly questions in the first place. Just on the off-chance that any doubts may still be lingering, Daveybloke has decreed that kidnapping and torture operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2003 will be investigated by the Ministry once again; but it is just possible that the case will rumble on. After all, the allegations have been made by a former SAS member, which puts them in an altogether different class of credibilitude than the beard-muffled ravings of mere British residents.