Britain Involved in Rendition

Above: A scene from the movie “Rendition”

For years, people in the country have been contending the involvement of Britain in “rendition missions” of the United States. Today their fears were confirmed.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the House of Commons on Thursday that “contrary to earlier explicit assurances,” the Central Intelligence Agency had attested using the British island of Diego Garcia for refueling two American rendition flights in 2002.

Rendition is a handing over of a person from one jurisdiction to another – a common type of which is extradition where one country requests and obtains from another the surrender of a criminal. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, however, extreme rendition has allegedly been made by the United States (particularly the Central Intelligence Agency) on suspected terrorists. In such cases, it is believed that they transport suspects to countries like Egypt, Syria, and Uzbekistan – where they are “questioned” regarding terrorist attacks that they may or may not be involved with. Laws in these regions regarding questioning approve borderline torture. So in effect, the United States government is not liable for any kind of torture inflicted on their suspects.

The acknowledgment of the rendition flights contradicted previous United States assurances that no such flights had landed on British territory.

Controversial CIA Director General Michael Hayden (who earlier admitted to waterboarding al-Qaeda detainees) informed British officials that a recent review of agency records had shown that the agency committed an error in reporting to Britain previously that “there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace” since the September 11 attacks.

“That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong,” the Director said. “This time, the examination revealed the two stops in Diego Garcia. The refueling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted just a short time. But it happened.”

“That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex and uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to learn from them. In this case, the result of a flawed records search, we have done so.”

Miliband said he had received a personal apology from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“It is unfortunate that this was not known, and it was unfortunate it happened without us knowing that it had happened,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He assured that Britain will start installing procedures to ensure that such a breach will not happen again.

Director Hayden said that neither of the two detainees transported in the said rendition flights “was ever part of the CIA’s high-value terrorist interrogation program.”

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