Complicit Page #6

by the name of Hazem.

You appear to have been caught up

in this expose.

Accompanying the photograph

is a story on a British spy

complicit in Colonel Hazem's torture

of a British man in a Cairo jail.

The information is very detailed

and the photograph irrefutable.

Tomorrow, this will be everywhere.

And of course it is only

a matter of time, hours,

before you will be

personally identified.

Is it true?

Did you ask this colonel to torture

Mr Waleed Ahmed?

Yes, I did.

What else could I have done,

weighing up the illegality against

the consequences of doing nothing?

I have always understood that we

work with politically

unacceptable regimes

if it means that we are safeguarding

our people from attack at home.

It's what you've said to me

yourself.

But we cannot break the regulations

set by Parliament, and you have.

The regulations were not working.

I am in the Service

to protect my fellow citizens,

not to protect the rights of someone

who's trying to kill us!

Edward, we're not here

to discuss your ethics.

We are here because you have been

exposed to public scrutiny,

and, more importantly,

because you have exposed

the Service to public scrutiny.

And so you see, now, it is

all about damage limitation.

We cannot raise the defence

that what you did was to protect

the country because we cannot

publicly admit that ricin

is at large -

it would cause countrywide panic.

Neither can we claim that

Waleed Ahmed is a terrorist

because we cannot produce

sufficient evidence to charge him.

And what we have got against him

has been rendered

useless by his torture.

Mr Waleed Ahmed has been

devastatingly cunning

and you have been

devastatingly careless.

For all this,

we still could have protected you -

we would have protected you -

but you got found out.

And that leaves us

unable to either protect you

or to defend your conduct.

The director general has no option

but to present this

to the Home Secretary as a case

of one bad apple.

The consequences of regarding

yourself as a persecuted outsider -

your tendency to operate alone and

your somewhat obsessive behaviour '

have left you

in an untenable situation

and I have no choice but to suspend

you until further notice.

And it is only fair to warn you

that in this period of suspension,

it would be wise for you to consider

where else you might wish

to continue your career.

Everything I've done

has been for my country

and for the people of my country.

I had no choice.

OK?

My client is here to remind the

Security Services of this country

that he is

a citizen of this country.

And no more or less British

than themselves,

or anyone born here

and to whom this is home.

That he cannot visit family in Yemen

and visit friends in Egypt

on his way home without being

detained and subject to torture

by the very people who exist

to protect him

brings shame upon us all.

My client asks that you now

respect his privacy and allow him

to return to his community

and to his family.

Thank you.

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