UK Admits CIA-run Rendition Flights: Report

[sonz]

CAIRO, March 7, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – A British minister admitted that CIA-chartered planes, suspected to have been used to render terror suspects from one country to another, usually where torture is used as an interrogation tool, landed in Britain several times, a leading British newspaper revealed on Tuesday, March 7.

Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, said in a letter to the Liberal Democrats' newly elected leader Sir Menzies Campbell that the two planes landed 14 times between October 2003 and May 2004 at RAF Northholt, west London, and RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, reported the Guardian.

He did not, however, describe the purpose of the flights.

One plane, a Boeing 737, was registered N313P, the other, a Gulfstream, was initially registered N379P and later as N8068V.

Reports of clandestine CIA interrogation centers and transport flights for terror suspects emerged in November, along with suggestions of on-board torture sessions.

Though the details are kept as a closely guarded secret, the CIA has since 9/11 rendered more than 100 people from one country to another, usually with well-documented records of abuse, without legal proceedings, according to the Washington Post.

The rendition program was first authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and was first used by former US President Bill Clinton.

US President George Bush has defended the controversial practice as "vital to the nation's defense."

Disturbing

Moore described the revelation as "disturbing.".

Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat's new foreign affairs spokesman, described the revelation as "disturbing."

"Were these rendition flights or not? Ministers must urgently obtain answers from the US government," he said.

"There is now a well-established pattern of partial disclosures after repeated denials."

Last week, the Liberal Democrats threatened to report Ingram to the parliamentary ombudsman if he continued to refuse to answer detailed questions about rendition flights.

In his letter, Ingram insisted his disclosure was not "at odds with the foreign secretary's statements on the subject."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that the government was "unaware" of any CIA flights landing in Britain or using UK airspace since 1998 and transporting terror suspects.

For months Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has been refusing to answer questions from MPs and the media about the issue.

In their replies about the subject, ministers have maintained that they either have no record of CIA flights since 1998, when they received four requests from the Clinton administration, or that such records had been destroyed.

A special parliamentary committee has been set up to investigate the flights.

The European Union has threatened sanctions against any of its member states found to have been allowing their territory to be used for the transport of the phantom detainees.

In a report entitled "Ending Secret Detention", the American Human Rights First said the US has more than 24 world detention camps , at least half of them operate in total secrecy, where the abuse of detainees is "inevitable".