More evidence of European collaboration with CIA torture flights and prisons

On December 12, Britain’s foreign secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that in 1998 the UK government had approved two requests made by the administration of then-president Bill Clinton to “render a detainee through UK territory or airspace.”

Straw, who was home secretary in 1998, said that one request was turned down because the individual concerned was to be transported to Egypt. He did not explain on what grounds this refusal to transport somebody to Egypt had been made.

On January 10, Straw said in a written statement to the Houses of Parliament that a search of Foreign Office records revealed that in 1998 the UK refused an American request to refuel a flight carrying detainees. Straw said that those officials had now completed a search of all relevant records dating back to when the Labour government took office in May 1997.

The fact that such requests were made by the US at all contradicts the claims made by Prime Minister Tony Blair that the US would not have made such requests, so that he would have no reason to have knowledge of the purpose of CIA flights through Britain.

Straw now claims that no rendition requests had been found since September 11, 2001. Following his answer, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee is to reopen an inquiry into Britain’s role in rendition flights.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/rend-j20.shtml