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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Mark Tran

Which UK officials met torture report committee members, and when?

Sir Nigel Sheinwald
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the UK's ambassador to Washington until 2012. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

The Foreign Office has released a list that reveals senior ministers and diplomats met members of the Senate intelligence committee at least 24 times from 2009. This week the committee released a damning report on the CIA’s use of torture.

Among those who met the committee were the home secretary, Theresa May, the former Labour minister Lord West and the UK’s ambassadors to Washington, according to information obtained by the human rights group Reprieve.

The Foreign Office said the list was not exhaustive and did not show where there had been “brush-by” meetings or attendance at the same events (for example, dinners and receptions).

• Lord West, then parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Home Office, met the committee in October 2009.

• Theresa May met the committee in July 2011.

• Sir Peter Westmacott, the current British ambassador, met Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the Senate intelligence committee, in April and May 2014. He met at least six other senators on separate occasions – Martin Heinrich (Dem), Marco Rubio (Rep), Saxby Chambliss (Rep), Mark Warner (Dem), Susan Collins (Rep) and Jay Rockefeller (Dem).

• Sir Nigel Sheinwald, ambassador until 2012, met Feinstein at least four times between 2009 and 2010, and at least six other senators on separate occasions – Rockefeller, Collins, Rubio, Warner, Ron Wyden (Dem) and James Risch (Rep).

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