When Jack Straw was a Saddam apologist. posted by Richard Seymour

If you were an Iraqi Kurd who had been tortured by Saddam's regime and was seeking refuge in Britain in 2001, you might have received a letter from the Home Office indicating that the Home Secretary:

is aware that Iraq, and in particular the Iraqi security forces, would only convict and sentence a person in the courts with the provision of proper jurisdiction ... you could expect to receive a fair trial under an independent and properly constituted judiciary.

This was what was told to an Iraqi Kurd who refused an order to shut off power to Kurdish parts of Iraq. He was suspended, electrocuted and beaten. The letter, passed on to the Refugee Council, went on to say in the protocol of such refusal letters:

"The secretary of state considers your claim to be an example of prosecution not persecution."

This was part of an unannounced decision by the Home Office to dramatically increase deportations of Iraqi Kurds living in Britain, and in that year refusal rates for Iraqi applicants stood at 78%.
Imagine if some leftist had made the claim that "Iraq, and in particular the Iraqi security forces, would only convict and sentence a person in the courts with the provision of proper jurisdiction". They would be pilloried and vilified in every organ, and The Sun would surely denounce such a person as a traitor. The British government does not give a diseased testicle about the plight of ordinary Iraqis, as is illustrated daily by the impunity of those carrying out and ordering disgusting abuse of Iraqi civilians and prisoners and by the ritual contempt with which asylum seeker are treated.