Britain shamed over CIA flights

 

Richard Norton-Taylor

The Guardian   Thursday February 15, 2007

 

The European parliament yesterday accused EU governments including Britain, Germany and Italy of turning a blind eye to CIA flights taking terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured.

 

A report that was adopted by 382 votes to 256, with 74 abstentions, criticises Britain for cooperating with the CIA in sending three UK residents on rendition fights.

 

It expresses "outrage" at a legal opinion from Michael Wood, former legal adviser to the Foreign Office, who said "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture did not in itself breach international conventions "in so far as there is no direct participation in the torture".

 

Claude Moraes, the lone Labour MEP on the committee that drew up the report, said that although there was only circumstantial evidence of British collusion in the CIA practice the European Parliament had "set a line in the sand". He added: "It was a red flag for the future."

 

Amnesty International's UK campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said the British government should allow an independent investigation. "There is already serious concern at the possible complicity of UK officials in the rendition of two UK residents, Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna, from Gambia to Guantanamo Bay," he said. Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on rendition, said countries involved must "come clean on what they know, and fast".