US torture jets 'were refueled in Britain'
18.12.05
Evidence emerged last night of a CIA jet flying al-Qaeda suspects to secret prisons in the Middle East using Glasgow Prestwick airport on its journey. The claim will embarrass the Government, which has so far resisted mounting calls for an inquiry after assurances from Washington that it does not operate torture flights.
The new evidence, uncovered by respected aviation experts, casts doubt on a statement by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, this week that US authorities had never used British airfields for what they call 'extraordinary renditions'.
Three times in the weeks after the September 11 attacks, the same Gulfstream G5 executive jet allegedly ferried detainees to secret installations in Jordan and Egypt. Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, one of the men reportedly transferred on this flight, registration N379P, has not been heard of for four years. Another is now held at Guantanamo Bay.
Two men flown from Sweden to Cairo resisted efforts to get them on board the jet and Sweden's parliamentary ombudsmen criticised the police for letting US agents force them on to the plane. On all these flights, the jet used Prestwick to refuel on its way back to the US.
Details of alleged CIA torture flights have been uncovered by Chris Yates, a respected aviation expert and editor for Jane's Information Group. He found 'significant evidence' that a Gulfstream G5 executive jet and a Boeing 737 had flown 'innumerable times' from civilian and military airports.
'My research has revealed that these two aircraft roam globally and, although ostensibly in the US civil registry, have special dispensation to use US military air facilities around the world,'Mr Yates said. He added that, from photographic evidence, flight logs and air traffic database, he had 'certain knowledge' that the aircraft operated through Prestwick, Glasgow and Luton civil airports as well as military airfields at Mildenhall, Brize Norton and Northolt.
Mr Yates said his inquiries showed that at one point the two aircraft he identified as used by US agents appeared at Glasgow at the same time and left within a short time of each other, raising suspicions that prisoner transfers had taken place on British soil.
An all-party group of MPs will today ask Mr Straw a series of questions that will reopen the controversy of whether the Government was complicit in torture flights. Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP, also wants to know if the Ministry of Defence, which runs military airfields and the private companies running some of Britain's main airports, has covered up records of refuelling stops.
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