Both the U.S. and U.K. governments strongly deny that they use torture against terrorism suspects captured overseas, but documents recently released in the U.K. show that the Central Intelligence Agency does benefit from information gained from torture.

Craig Murray, former U.K. ambassador to Uzbekistan, released the documents to the public after the Foreign & Commonwealth Office told him he could not use two source documents that show Uzbekistan routinely tortured terrorism suspects in a book he is writing.

One of the documents is a series of letters Murray wrote in which he objected to the use of torture because it was producing faulty intelligence and shocked the conscience.

“In March 2003 I was summoned back to London from Tashkent specifically for a meeting at which I was told to stop protesting. I was told specifically that it was perfectly legal for us to obtain and to use intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers,” Murray said.

The U.K. received this intelligence from the CIA.

The other document is a legal opinion from Michael Wood, the FCO’s legal adviser, saying that it is perfectly okay for the U.K. to use intelligence the CIA gathered on its behalf using torture, as long as it isn’t used for law enforcement purposes.

President George W. Bush has repeatedly stated that the U.S. does not engage in torture, but these documents call that statement into question. If the CIA itself did not perform the torture, it looked the other way as our “allies” did it for them.

In addition, CIA covert action programs have been greatly expanded since 9/11.

(Via Blair Watch)