A Torturous Society

Torture according to the press is something carried out by unscrupulous foreigners but just isn't British. So how come  a letter discovered in Downing Street at the National Archives has placed Britain in the dock at European Court of Human Rights accused of torturing detainees in Northern Ireland in the 1970s? 'The confidential memo written in March 1977 by Merlyn Rees, then Labour home secretary, states that, six years earlier, Tory ministers had authorised the use of torture in Ulster. Mr Rees told prime minister James Callaghan that he thought individuals or soldiers should not be prosecuted because "a political decision was taken" to use the so-called deep interrogation techniques.' (Times, 6 December) These techniques included wall standing in stress positions, white noise, hooding, sleep deprivation and withholding of food and water. RD