LONDON, March 10 (UPI) -- British personnel breached human rights policy during interrogations in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq, a parliamentary committee says.
The Intelligence and Security Committee reported Thursday there was no evidence of deliberate abuse of detainees. Rather, intelligence personnel had taken part in activities that contravened British policy because of a failure in training.
Personnel were not sufficiently briefed on the Geneva Convention or the British prohibition of certain interrogation techniques, committee Chairman Ann Taylor said.
As a result intelligence officers twice interviewed hooded detainees, a breach of British policy, she said.
"We note that the personnel were required to operate in very difficult and unusual conditions to fulfill the U.K. intelligence community's duty to obtain intelligence for the purpose of protecting the U.K. from terrorist threats," she said.
The relevant ministers were not consulted prior to interviews nor were they informed "in a timely manner" of the potential abuse of detainees by U.S. authorities, Taylor said.
British personnel witnessed or conducted some 2,000 interviews in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq, the committee reported.
