Straw: 'No record' of CIA flights [View All]

There are no records that the US has asked the UK government for permission to use its airports to move CIA suspects, Jack Straw has said. The foreign secretary says he is "as certain as he can be" that no requests have been made after "detailed searches" of official records. Liberty has asked the police to examine claims that UK airports are being used for the transfer of terror suspects. Reports claim at least 210 CIA flights had landed in the UK since 9/11.

'Two requests'
"Careful research has been unable to identify any occasion... when we have received a request for permission by the United States for a rendition through the United Kingdom territory or airspace," Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Our people have checked through all the detail of the Liberty suggestions.


"They have found no records which corroborate either the details of what Liberty say and no papers relating to any policy considerations of what Liberty say." He said it was the practise of the US government to ask permission of the UK when it has sought such transfers in the past. Two such requests were approved for flights taking suspects to the US for trial in 1998, under the Clinton administration, he said.

Legal action threatened
But another, where a suspect was being taken to a third country, was refused by Mr Straw because he was "not satisfied" about the circumstances. "We have checked the records as carefully as we can and I believe the answer we have given from the records suggest that there have been no such flights through United Kingdom
territory," he said. "We will continue to look at the evidence that Liberty and others have provided and to carry on making those checks." The foreign secretary said he was giving the information in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman. Human rights group Liberty has threatened to sue the UK Government if it fails to act.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4520508.stm