Gitmo detainees paid £12m settlements

Britain's spy agencies have paid some £12 million in out-of-the-court settlements to former British detainees in Guantanamo prison to prevent their legal action. Based on details of the payments included in published accounts for the security and intelligence agencies, the MI5 and MI6 spent £13.7 million on “losses and special payments” in the 12 months to the end of March 2011. The accounts do not specify exactly how much was paid to former British detainees at the United State's Guantanamo Bay detention facility as required by their lawyers in a confidentiality agreement with officials, yet the figure is reportedly around £12 million. “For legal reasons we cannot comment on the details of any settlement the Government came to with former Guant?namo detainees,” a Cabinet Office spokesman said. The estimate is based on the accounts over the past five years that show the agencies spent an average £1.5 million for losses and special payments annually. The MI5 and MI6 also emerged to have paid almost £14?million to 16 British nationals who were detained in Guantanamo to prevent them from taking their cases to the court. There has been no details on the charges the former detainees faced and how the British government came to identify their compensation complaints could be better dealt with through out-of-the-court settlements than before the judges. Yet there is another problem with the payments pointed out by National Security Advisor Sir Peter Ricketts. He warned in the accounts reports that spending millions of pounds on the settlements while keeping the agencies' officers under pressure to keep up with the spending cuts program could undermine their morale weakening national security. “Like other Government departments, the agencies have or are currently undertaking workforce rationalization strategies which could result in associated risks to staff morale and security,” Ricketts said. “The Agencies also face a challenge in that they must ensure their internal control systems are able to manage the significant increase in activity associated with the London 2012 Olympics. Preparations for this are in the advanced stages,” he further warned. The revelations also drew criticism from Conservative ranks with senior Tory MP Patrick Mercer questioning the correctness of the decision. “I hope that this was the right decision to pay suspects at the same time as not rewarding our own agents in the way that they should be… anything that hits their morale and efficiency has got to be very seriously questioned,” he said. Keeping legal action by the former detainees has been of such significance for the government that four of them were compensated without ever going to the court over fears that they could sue the government. The four complained that the government was complicit in their mistreatment at the detention center.