Derek Pasquill – When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries

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Derek Pasquill worked as a civil servant at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a unit dealing with engagement with the Islamic world. He grew increasingly concerned over the government’s tacit support for the US’s policy of extraordinary rendition, and with the Foreign Office’s policy of consulting on issues of concern to the Muslim community exclusively via extremists in the Muslim Council of Britain.

Derek leaked a number of documents to The Observer newspaper, and to journalist Martin Bright, which formed the basis of a number of critical articles, and also Bright’s pamphlet for Policy Exchange, “When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries”. In January 2006 Derek was arrested and subsequently charged with six counts of breaching the Official Secrets Act.

Derek lived for two years facing a possible prison sentence, until his actions were vindicated when the case was thrown out at the Old Bailey earlier this month. It had come to light that Derek’s leaks had caused a significant rethink of the government’s strategy. Support for extraordinary rendition had been quietly dropped, as had the government’s over-reliance on the MCB.