CIA rendition flights at Prestwick Airport confirmed
17.12.05
Details of cases involving four men being flown to the Middle East in an aircraft that then travelled to Prestwick airport emerged yesterday. The news came as George W Bush, the US president, reversed course and accepted calls for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.
Mr Bush said the agreement, which ends months of resistance from his administration, would 'make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad'.
Amnesty International yesterday told how one terror suspect was allegedly abducted in Pakistan and taken to Jordan, two were flown from Sweden to Cairo and the fourth was taken from Indonesia to Cairo on board the same Gulfstream V turbojet, which on all three occasions subsequently flew to Prestwick airport to refuel.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that any terror suspects were on board the aircraft, which it is claimed was chartered by the CIA, when it landed on Scottish soil. Nevertheless, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, is under increasing pressure to initiate an independent investigation into the use of UK airports during rendition flights, which are used to transport suspects to countries where they are tortured for information.
Mr Straw said three days ago that since Mr Bush took office in 2001 the British government had found no evidence of any requests from the US government 'for over-flights or for refuelling or other facilitation' of rendition flights. However, Amnesty International have provided details of three instances when rendition flights landed at Prestwick after transporting suspects to the Middle East.
Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: 'If Amnesty International's claims are true, then the government is under an even greater legal and moral obligation to investigate why flights are being allowed to pass through our country for rendition purposes.'
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