UK Requests Proof of Involvement in CIA Torture from US: Official

MOSCOW, December 14 (Sputnik) — The UK Intelligence and Security Committee will request the United States for any materials indicating the country's involvement in the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) rendition and torture of terrorist suspects, the committee's head told the BBC on Sunday.

On December 9, the US Senate Intelligence Committee made public the summary of a report on brutal torture techniques used by CIA on terrorist suspects. The UK government reportedly requested that segments of the report pertaining to the country's intelligence participation be redacted.

"We are going to request the Americans [for] any references there may be to the United Kingdom and United Kingdom's possible involvement in these matters [CIA tortures], if it was redacted in the public report, yes we want to see that," Sir Malcolm Rifkind was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Rifkind added that in the United Kingdom, redaction of reports can only be done on national security grounds and not to prevent political embarrassment. "We hope the same principle applies in America, that's what we have to test," he told the news outlet.

On Saturday, Rifkind in a letter to The Telegraph said the committee's inquiry into whether the UK MI5 domestic security service and MI6 foreign intelligence service were involved in CIA's rendition of terror suspects would be complete by the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told The Telegraph on Saturday that former Prime Minister Tony Blair and then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw should account publicly on their knowledge relating to the report's findings and the United Kingdom's possible involvement.

Prior to the recent US Senate report, the debate on UK's involvement in terror suspects rendition practices was intensified by the torture of UK resident Binyam Mohamed, who was brutally interrogated by the CIA between 2004 and 2009, with the alleged knowledge of the UK intelligence.