CRUEL BRITANNIA: A SECRET HISTORY OF TORTURE by Ian Cobain
The official line is clear: the UK does not ‘participate in, solicit, encourage or condone’ torture. And yet, the evidence is irrefutable: when faced with potential threats to our national security, the gloves always come off.
Drawing on previously unseen official documents, and the accounts of witnesses, victims and experts, prize-winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain looks beyond the cover-ups, the equivocations, and the attempts to dismiss brutality as the work of a few rogue interrogators, to get to the truth. From WWII to the War on Terror, via Kenya and Northern Ireland, Cruel Britannia shows how the British have repeatedly and systematically resorted to torture, turning a blind eye where necessary, bending the law where they can, and issuing categorical denials all the while. What emerges is a picture of Britain that challenges our complacency on human rights and exposes the lie behind our reputation for fair play.
