Donald Trump’s comment that he believes torture “absolutely works” would present the UK intelligence services, who work closely with US counterparts, with a major dilemma if the US were to resume such interrogation methods. The bulk of the intelligence being assessed by the UK agencies – especially GCHQ but also the overseas agency MI6 and, to a lesser extent, M15 – comes from the US. None of them would want to contemplate loss of that access, yet if the intelligence had been obtained through torture it would put them in breach of international law. But in reality the position of the UK intelligence agencies is more ambiguous. The full extent to which MI6 was involved in rendition in the aftermath of 9/11 has still to come out.

Source: The Guardian January 26, 2017 11:02 UTC