Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Randell [mailto:Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk] 
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 5:44 AM
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up

Hi Dave:

The main front page story in today's (UK) Guardian, and one of the 
top stories on BBC Radio news today, is that of yet another leaked 
Government memo.

> Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up
>
> Leaked memo reveals strategy to deny knowledge of detention centres
>
> Richard Norton-Taylor
> Thursday January 19, 2006
> The Guardian
>
> The government is secretly trying to stifle attempts by MPs to find 
> out what it knows about CIA "torture flights" and privately admits 
> that people captured by British forces could have been sent 
> illegally to interrogation centres, the Guardian can reveal. A 
> hidden strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about rendition - the 
> US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they 
> are at risk of being tortured - is revealed in a briefing paper sent 
> by the Foreign Office to No 10.
>
>  The document shows that the government has been aware of secret 
> interrogation centres, despite ministers' denials. It admits that 
> the government has no idea whether individuals seized by British 
> troops in Iraq or Afghanistan have been sent to the secret centres.
>
> Dated December 7 last year, the document is a note from Irfan 
> Siddiq, of the foreign secretary's private office, to Grace Cassy in 
> Tony Blair's office. It was obtained by the New Statesman magazine, 
> whose latest issue is published today.
>
> It was drawn up in response to a Downing Street request for advice 
> "on substance and handling" of the controversy over CIA rendition 
> flights and allegations of Britain's connivance in the practice.
>
> "We should try to avoid getting drawn on detail", Mr Siddiq writes, 
> "and to try to move the debate on, in as front foot a way we can, 
> underlining all the time the strong anti-terrorist rationale for 
> close cooperation with the US, within our legal obligations."
>
> The document advises the government to rely on a statement by 
> Condoleezza Rice last month when the US secretary of state said 
> America did not transport anyone to a country where it believed they 
> would be tortured and that, "where appropriate", Washington would 
> seek assurances.
>
> The document notes: "We would not want to cast doubt on the 
> principle of such government-to-government assurances, not least 
> given our own attempts to secure these from countries to which we 
> wish to deport their nationals suspected of involvement in 
> terrorism: Algeria etc."
>
> The document says that in the most common use of the term - namely, 
> involving real risk of torture - rendition could never be legal. It 
> also says that the US emphasised torture but not "cruel, inhuman and 
> degrading treatment", which binds Britain under the European 
> convention on human rights. British courts have adopted a lower 
> threshold of what constitutes torture than the US has.
>
> The note includes questions and answers on a number of issues. 
> "Would cooperating with a US rendition operation be illegal?", it 
> asks, and gives the response: "Where we have no knowledge of 
> illegality, but allegations are brought to our attention, we ought 
> to make reasonable enquiries". It asks: "How do we know whether 
> those our armed forces have helped to capture in Iraq or Afghanistan 
> have subsequently been sent to interrogation centres?" The reply 
> given is: "Cabinet Office is researching this with MoD [Ministry of 
> Defence]. But we understand the basic answer is that we have no 
> mechanism for establishing this, though we would not ourselves 
> question such detainees while they were in such facilities".
>
> Ministers have persistently taken the line, in answers to MPs' 
> questions, that they were unaware of CIA rendition flights passing 
> through Britain or of secret interrogation centres.
>
> On December 7 - the date of the leaked document - Charles Kennedy, 
> then Liberal Democrat leader, asked Mr Blair when he was first made 
> aware of the American rendition flights, and when he approved them. 
> Mr Blair replied: "In respect of airports, I do not know what the 
> right hon gentleman is referring to."
. . .

Full text of the above article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1689852,00.html

Follow-up analysis on an inside page:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,1689854,00.html

cheers

Brian Randell

-- 
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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