UK complicit in US actions

Alistair Duff justifies singling out the United States for criticism for its use of illegal interrogation techniques in the War on Terror because he claims that no other Western country has used torture "as official policy" (Letters, 28 August). Such a claim would come as a surprise to those who were targeted for torture by the French in Algiers in the 1950s and by Republican prisoners subject to illegal interrogation methods by the British security forces in the early 1970s.

The conduct of the Bush Administration since 9/11, good and bad, has been assisted by many of its allies, including the UK Government. Singling out the US for criticism simply obscures our own actions and complicity in the use of illegal interrogation methods.

Phil Rumney, Reader in law, University of the West of England.