Ellynne wrote about Leylan:
So, I see him as a potentially good man who may not like the evils he sees but considers himself powerless to oppose them in more than very small ways. He may not like the status quo or the corruption but he sees himself as powerless to do anything about it - an attitude so strong it persists even when he has a position of power where he _could_ do something.
Oh wow! Pakistan are all out without saving the follow-on!
Sorry, er... Leylan...
I see him as the embodiment of the line about "for evil to triumph, it is necessary only for good men to do nothing" (sorry, haven't got precise wording to hand), which is essential to the Federation.
My key scene: LEYLAN: And the prisoners? DAINER: We've killed six. LEYLAN: Six? DAINER: Seven. In the course of quelling a riot and protecting the ship, sir. LEYLAN: Very well. Carry on. DAINER: Thank you, sir. RAIKER: I can get them out of there, sir.
On the tape I have, Leylan looks slightly pained about the deaths (and Dainer appears to think he has to justify them), though he goes along with it, accepting the justification. That makes sense; at least, it will sound OK in the report. But Raiker is watching him carefully, smiles when he sees Leylan's initial reaction, and then makes his offer. My conclusion is that it's Leylan's brief wince that gives him the idea; if *Leylan* is squeamish about killing prisoners, how much more so Blake...
As Ellynne implies, Leylan probably knows the difference between right and wrong, but he's long since lost the will, if he ever had one, to do anything about it. Blake, since his recapture, is bursting with the will to do something about it.
This also ties in with Steve R's remarks about most people not going out of their way to put themselves in danger. Leylan wouldn't exactly be in danger, or not immediately, if he asserted himself. But it would be standing up to be counted, and it's pretty much engrained in Federation society that no one stands up to be counted. (The Kommissar on Horizon: "So you're a Resister. Some malfunction of the genes, I suppose. It throws up a Resister about every hundred thousand.") The Federation depends on apathy far more than it does on evil.
Oh, Caddick's got Salim Elahi for a pair!
Think I'd better concentrate on cricket for a bit.