War against terror and coercive interrogation techniques - did someone say torture?

Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve, which represents Binyam Mohamed, said: "It's incredibly offensive to suggest that the people who are bringing to light the ways in which the British intelligence service and US intelligence service have behaved badly could be responsible for giving succour to the enemy.

"The thing that gives succour to the enemy is the bad behaviour in the first place - and that's the reason we shouldn't be involved in torturing people."

The row over what MI5 knew has grown since the judgement, following the emergence of a letter to the judges from Jonathan Sumption QC.

Mr Sumption, who represented the government during the court case, objected to a specific part of the judgement written by Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls and second most senior judge in England and Wales.

The barrister said Lord Neuberger's paragraph was "exceptionally damaging" because it left the impression MI5 did not have a culture of respecting human rights and did not object to "coercive interrogation techniques".

He said the words could be interpreted as meaning that MI5 had also misled the Intelligence and Security Committee.

from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8513285.stm