UK admits to two landings of rendition flights

Britain: After years of denial, and to its acute embarrassment, Britain's Labour government has admitted that two US special…

Britain:After years of denial, and to its acute embarrassment, Britain's Labour government has admitted that two US special or "extraordinary rendition" flights landed on British territory in 2002.

In a statement to MPs yesterday, foreign secretary David Miliband confirmed - contrary to repeated assurances by former prime minister Tony Blair and then foreign secretary Jack Straw - that two US flights carrying terrorist suspects had stopped to refuel on the UK-dependent territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Mr Miliband told the Commons these cases had not previously come to light because of an "error" in an earlier US records search, and that he was "very sorry indeed" to have to correct previous ministerial assurances that rendition flights had not used British bases. Mr Miliband also said US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice shared his concern: "We both agree that the mistakes made in these two cases are not acceptable and she shares my deep regrets that this information has only just come to light."

US officials last week corrected previous assurances and confirmed the flights which involved two men, neither British, one of whom has since been released while the other is held at Guantánamo Bay.

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Mr Miliband said: "The House and the government will share deep disappointment at this news, and about its late emergence. That disappointment is shared by our US allies. They recognise the absolute imperative for the British government to provide accurate information to parliament. I reaffirm the government's commitment to that imperative today." The prime minister, Gordon Brown, also expressed his disappointment and determination to put safeguards in place to ensure similar incidents could not happen in the future.

However, Conservative shadow foreign secretary William Hague expressed concern that previous "very specific assurances" from the government about the use of British territory and airspace had turned out to be false. And he pressed for assurances that further cases of this nature had not occurred.

Mr Hague said: "The delay in releasing this information and the evident absence of a request [for prisoner transfers by the American authorities] in these cases are bound to undermine public trust in the arrangements we have with the US . . . Whatever the specifics of these cases, their revelation inevitably focuses attention on the wider issue of how rendition is used."

He went on: "The efforts of the US, our most important ally, to fight international terror, are essential to the security not only of America but of Britain and many other nations. But allegations that rendition has led to the torture of terrorist suspects have been used to undermine the moral standing of the US."

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said Mr Miliband's statement raised more questions than it answered and that yesterday's revelations underlined the need for a full inquiry into allegations that the Diego Garcia base was used as a secret CIA prison.