Tom Scotney

Corporate responsibility… Isn’t that an oxymoron?

News today (here) that Hiatt, the Birmingham manufacturers who allegedly made the handcuffs used at Camp X-Ray, are to be packed up and shipped to America at short notice (much like the inmates at GB).

I say allegedly of course, to be fair. Hiatt owners BAE haven’t formally admitted that their subsidiary firm equipped one of the most horrific human rights abuses of recent years.

Why haven’t they admitted it, when it seems pretty obvious, considering former inmate Moazzam Begg said he saw the name stamped on his cuffs? Mainly because they say they just don’t know whether it’s true or not.

Said a BAE spokeswoman today:

We can tell you who are customers are and one of our customers in the US Department of Defence.

What they do with the products is really a question for them.

Which makes me think. They don’t know. And do they really care?