Official apology after CIA ‘torture’ jets used UK base

Reuters

David Miliband told MPs that two CIA flights landed at the RAF air base on Diego Garcia (above)

The Independent, February 22, 2008

A British territory in the Indian Ocean was used for American “torture” flights, despite categorical denials of Britain’s involvement from both Tony Blair and Jack Straw, the Government admitted yesterday.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, had to make a humiliating apology to the Commons after it emerged that the US failed to tell British officials that two CIA rendition flights carrying suspected terrorists landed on the island of Diego Garcia in 2002. Six years on, one of the suspects is still being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The other has been released.

Mr Miliband denied there was a deliberate cover-up and said he believed the US had acted “in good faith”. However, Gordon Brown, attending an EU summit in Brussels, expressed his “disappointment” and said Washington’s failure to disclose the flights earlier was “a very serious issue”.

Continued . . .