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The Belhaj case shows British intelligence agencies are out of control

Tony Blair’s non-apology to the victim of ‘extraordinary rendition’ – and Jack Straw and Theresa May’s attempts to draw a line under the issue – raise more questions than they answer.

By Richard Norton-Taylor
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Image: Fatima Boudchar and her son, with lawyers from Reprieve, outside the Houses of Parliament, May 2018. Credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Images, all rights reserved.

For years, Britain’s three security and intelligence agencies – the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6; the domestic Security Service, MI5; and GCHQ, the worldwide communications eavesdropping agency – have insisted they are accountable to ministers, that they are responsible to democratically-elected politicians. And for years, ministers have insisted that the agencies are properly accountable to them.

We all now know what some of us have been saying for a very long time: such assertions are myths. The Prime Minister herself has admitted it.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0