http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be360d5c-e0b0-11dc-b0d7-0000779fd2ac.htmlIt was always highly improbable that a British government so willing to follow the Bush administration into the folly of Iraq would escape being ensnared in the shameful practice of “rendition” – a US programme to kidnap and transport beyond the reach of the law suspects in the “war on terror”.
And so it has proved.
David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, admitted to parliament on Thursday that two US “extraordinary rendition” flights had landed on the UK’s dependent territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 2002, transporting one suspect to Guantánamo and another to Morocco. His predecessor, Jack Straw, and Tony Blair, the former prime minister, had assured parliament there was no evidence any such flights had used UK territory.
(snip)
What else does London not know – or want to be able to plausibly deny – in a relationship with Washington that appears as unsighted as it is unequal, despite Mr Blair’s pretensions to be a player?
This affair should not end without a thorough inquiry into whether other rendition operations have used British facilities, and indeed, whether Diego Garcia was part of the same lawless network that includes Guantánamo and Bagram.