David Norris (Independent)

I ask the Leader again if we can continue to have a debate on Iraq. It is very important, even though sometimes we must feel like a Greek chorus, lamenting impotently the folly and blindness of leaders. There is something very tragic in seeing a great country like the United States miring itself in the filth of the war in Iraq. To illustrate how important it is that we continue to speak out on the issue, a report today indicates that there was yet another secret prison in Baghdad housing 625 people, so crowded together that they had to sleep on top of one another. Some prisoners had cigarette burns on their bodies, while others had broken limbs. It is an appalling situation.

We have seen the House of Commons report of the Foreign Affairs committee which states quite clearly that US personnel have been involved in grave human rights violations, as have UK personnel, and the Government in Britain is obfuscating. Our Government is obfuscating too, with regard to the flights at Shannon. We must bear in mind what Lord Carswell said about the use of information obtained through torture, namely that it would "...shock the conscience, abuse and degrade the proceedings and involve the state in moral defilement". We are involved in moral defilement.