"Reminiscent of the German Concentration Camps"

Extracted from the UK's Guardian news section and Germany section.

"For almost 60 years, the evidence of Britain's clandestine torture programme in postwar Germany has lain hidden in the government's files. Harrowing photographs of young men who had survived being systematically starved, as well as beaten, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme cold, were considered too shocking to be seen. As one minister of the day wrote, as few people as possible should be aware that British authorities had treated prisoners 'in a manner reminiscent of the German concentration camps'."

"Almost six decades later the photographs were still being kept secret. Four months ago they were removed from a police report on the mistreatment of inmates at one of the interrogation centres, near Hanover, shortly before the document was released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

Although the file was in the possession of the Foreign Office, the pictures were removed at the request of the Ministry of Defence. They have finally been released after an appeal by the Guardian. The photographs were taken in February 1947 by a Royal Navy officer who was determined to bring the torture programme to an end. Pictures of other victims, taken by the same officer, appear to have vanished from the Foreign Office files.

Meanwhile documents about a secret interrogation centre which the War Office operated in central London between 1945 and 1948, where large numbers of men are now known to have been badly mistreated, are still being withheld by the Ministry of Defence. Officials say the papers cannot yet be released because they have been contaminated with asbestos."

OK, we can say, that's a while back now: apologise, pay compensation, move on.

But, have we moved on: the torture of prisoners in Iraq; Guantanamo Bay; all the deceit surrounding the attack on Iraq; 'asbestos'. Not a bloody thing has changed.

What, we must wonder, is being secretely filed away right now: with the sly deceivers relying on their own death to protect them.