Leaked Cables Show US, UK Quarrel on Spy Flights

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/02/world/middleeast/AP-WikiLeaks-Britain.html?_r=1&hp

British officials complained to U.S. diplomats about secret American spy flights using foreign U.K. airbases, fearing that the data collected during those missions could implicate their country in potential human rights violations, according to secret diplomatic memos released by WikiLeaks.

The British officials demanded from American diplomats that all such flights in the future be cleared by London, according to the cables sent by U.S. Embassy in London in 2008, and which were released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday.

American officials dismissed the British concerns and demands as burdensome and obstructive to counterterrorism efforts, the cables showed.

At the heart of the dispute were U.S. spy flights flown over Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon that used the British airbase in Cyprus. The planes collected intelligence that was passed on to third party governments including Lebanon. American diplomats wrote that the British feared that the U.K. could unwittingly aid torture because of that.


UK overruled on Lebanon spy flights from Cyprus, WikiLeaks cables reveal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-cyprus-rendition-torture