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No 'torture planes' in Britain
09/06/2007 16:34 - (SA)
London - Britain did not allow CIA planes to use its airports to secretly transfer terrorism suspects to third countries or US-run jails, chief police officers said late on Friday at the end of an 18-month probe.
The findings fly in the face of a Council of Europe report published on Friday which claims the United States and its NATO allies secretly agreed to allow the CIA to hold terror suspects in Europe.
A probe was launched 18 months ago by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) after human rights group Liberty claimed that flights chartered by the US government through the CIA landed in British airports.
Liberty was concerned that the flights were on their way to jails where suspects risked torture. It was also claimed the CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights have flown into Britain more than 210 times since 2001.
"The issue of rendition has been aired extensively in the media and has featured prominently in official reports over a recent period of months", said the ACPO probe, which was led by Michael Todd, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police.
"Mr Todd has now examined all of the information available relating to this issue and has concluded that there is indeed no evidence to substantiate Liberty's allegations", an ACPO statement said.
Report full of 'spin'
"There was no evidence that UK airports were used to transport people by the CIA for torture in other countries", it said.
"There was nothing to substantiate the claims in the evidence supplied by Liberty."
However, Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti accused ACPO of "spin" and questioned whether there had in fact been any investigation.
"Over 18 months ago, Liberty wrote to the police expressing concern based upon credible investigations that Britain had been used as a staging post for the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition", she said.
"We asked for a police investigation," she added.
"This afternoon, Senator Dick Marty issued the Council of Europe official report finding European collusion with extraordinary rendition and blanket over-flight clearances" for US military flights, she said.
"Coincidentally, Liberty today received a written response from Chief Constable Mike Todd on behalf of ACPO refusing to commence any police investigation into the allegations", Chakrabarti said.
- SAPA
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