D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Guest
CIA Confirms Rendition Flights to Brits
By Pamela Hess
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Washington (AP) - CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged
Thursday that two rendition flights carrying terror
suspects refueled on British territory, despite repeated
U.S. assurances that none of the secret flights since the
Sept. 11 attacks had used British airspace or soil.
Hayden told agency employees that information previously
provided to the British "turned out to be wrong."
The spy agency reviewed rendition records late last year
and discovered that in 2002 the CIA had in fact refueled
two separate planes, each carrying a terror suspect, on
Diego Garcia, a British island territory in the Indian
Ocean.
"The refueling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted
just a short time. But it happened. That we found this
mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention
of the British government, in no way changes or excuses the
reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of
intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex, and
uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to
learn from them," Hayden stated in the message obtained by
The Associated Press.
Hayden said neither man was tortured and denied there has
ever been a holding facility for CIA prisoners on Diego
Garcia. Both men remained on their respective planes during
the brief stops, according to a U.S. intelligence official
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.
Hayden delivered the news to the British government last
weekend on a previously scheduled trip to London.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced the
rendition flights earlier Thursday. British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said he "shared the disappointment that
everybody has" about the stops, and that it was important
to ensure they would not happen again.
The State Department's top lawyer, John Bellinger, flew to
London overnight to deal with potential diplomatic and
political fallout, according to a senior State Department
official.
One of the two prisoners is now jailed at Guantanamo Bay
Naval Base and the other was released to his home country,
where he has since been freed by that government, the U.S.
intelligence official said.
The CIA didn't interrogate or imprison either man,
according to the official. In this case, the CIA only moved
the two men from one country to another.
The CIA has held and interrogated fewer than 100 prisoners
in its detention program, using "enhanced" or harsh
interrogation techniques on about a third of them, Hayden
has told Congress.
The rendition program secretly transfers alleged terrorists
from one country to another without formal extradition
proceedings. It can involve moving prisoners to the custody
of governments where harsh interrogation techniques,
including torture, are known to be used. The U.S.
government insists it does not move prisoners to third
countries without assurances that torture will not be used.
The British government had previously insisted it had no
evidence to support allegations that Britain had been
involved in rendition.
At the time of the 2002 flights in question, the United
States and Britain did not have an agreement regarding the
use of the Diego Garcia facility for renditions, and the
refueling stops did not require permission from British
authorities, the State Department said.
However, that began to change in 2003 with an "evolving"
series of understandings that now require the United States
to seek and receive British permission to use Diego Garcia
for renditions, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
A "final mutual understanding" appears to have been in
place by late 2005, when Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said the United States respects the sovereignty of
foreign countries when conducting intelligence operations
within their borders, suggesting that the CIA conducts
rendition flights with the permission of the governments
involved.
In a Dec. 6, 2005, interview with Sky News from Berlin,
Rice publicly sidestepped a question about whether British
airports or airspace were being used in rendition, and
whether the British government was aware of it.
"We have obligations under our international conventions
and we are respecting the sovereignty of our allies," she
said. "We are not using the airspace or the airports of any
of our partners for activities that would lead renditions
to torture. We don't send people to be tortured."
McCormack said Rice spoke to Miliband about "the
administrative error" on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, even with the best intentions,
unfortunately, even with the most rigorous searches and,
unfortunately, with good technology, sometimes
administrative errors occur and this was the case,"
McCormack said. "We regret that there was an error in
initially providing inaccurate information to a good friend
and ally."
McCormack said the review last year was "self-generated."
A U.S. intelligence official said the review was prompted
by fresh allegations in the press last fall that Diego
Garcia was being used as a secret detention site.
"We, in taking a look in particular at the issue of Diego
Garcia, asked ourselves a few questions and as a result
generated this search," he said.
Gordon Johndroe, National Security Council spokesman for
President Bush, said the incident was "unfortunate" but
will not damage U.S.-British cooperation.
"Mistakes were made in the reporting of the information,"
he said. "But we will continue to have a good
counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and
United Kingdom."
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this
report
More at:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ih_E55NL7KRk9nfiyDT5U19nDUKwD8UUSM1O0
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
By Pamela Hess
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Washington (AP) - CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged
Thursday that two rendition flights carrying terror
suspects refueled on British territory, despite repeated
U.S. assurances that none of the secret flights since the
Sept. 11 attacks had used British airspace or soil.
Hayden told agency employees that information previously
provided to the British "turned out to be wrong."
The spy agency reviewed rendition records late last year
and discovered that in 2002 the CIA had in fact refueled
two separate planes, each carrying a terror suspect, on
Diego Garcia, a British island territory in the Indian
Ocean.
"The refueling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted
just a short time. But it happened. That we found this
mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention
of the British government, in no way changes or excuses the
reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of
intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex, and
uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to
learn from them," Hayden stated in the message obtained by
The Associated Press.
Hayden said neither man was tortured and denied there has
ever been a holding facility for CIA prisoners on Diego
Garcia. Both men remained on their respective planes during
the brief stops, according to a U.S. intelligence official
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.
Hayden delivered the news to the British government last
weekend on a previously scheduled trip to London.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced the
rendition flights earlier Thursday. British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said he "shared the disappointment that
everybody has" about the stops, and that it was important
to ensure they would not happen again.
The State Department's top lawyer, John Bellinger, flew to
London overnight to deal with potential diplomatic and
political fallout, according to a senior State Department
official.
One of the two prisoners is now jailed at Guantanamo Bay
Naval Base and the other was released to his home country,
where he has since been freed by that government, the U.S.
intelligence official said.
The CIA didn't interrogate or imprison either man,
according to the official. In this case, the CIA only moved
the two men from one country to another.
The CIA has held and interrogated fewer than 100 prisoners
in its detention program, using "enhanced" or harsh
interrogation techniques on about a third of them, Hayden
has told Congress.
The rendition program secretly transfers alleged terrorists
from one country to another without formal extradition
proceedings. It can involve moving prisoners to the custody
of governments where harsh interrogation techniques,
including torture, are known to be used. The U.S.
government insists it does not move prisoners to third
countries without assurances that torture will not be used.
The British government had previously insisted it had no
evidence to support allegations that Britain had been
involved in rendition.
At the time of the 2002 flights in question, the United
States and Britain did not have an agreement regarding the
use of the Diego Garcia facility for renditions, and the
refueling stops did not require permission from British
authorities, the State Department said.
However, that began to change in 2003 with an "evolving"
series of understandings that now require the United States
to seek and receive British permission to use Diego Garcia
for renditions, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
A "final mutual understanding" appears to have been in
place by late 2005, when Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said the United States respects the sovereignty of
foreign countries when conducting intelligence operations
within their borders, suggesting that the CIA conducts
rendition flights with the permission of the governments
involved.
In a Dec. 6, 2005, interview with Sky News from Berlin,
Rice publicly sidestepped a question about whether British
airports or airspace were being used in rendition, and
whether the British government was aware of it.
"We have obligations under our international conventions
and we are respecting the sovereignty of our allies," she
said. "We are not using the airspace or the airports of any
of our partners for activities that would lead renditions
to torture. We don't send people to be tortured."
McCormack said Rice spoke to Miliband about "the
administrative error" on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, even with the best intentions,
unfortunately, even with the most rigorous searches and,
unfortunately, with good technology, sometimes
administrative errors occur and this was the case,"
McCormack said. "We regret that there was an error in
initially providing inaccurate information to a good friend
and ally."
McCormack said the review last year was "self-generated."
A U.S. intelligence official said the review was prompted
by fresh allegations in the press last fall that Diego
Garcia was being used as a secret detention site.
"We, in taking a look in particular at the issue of Diego
Garcia, asked ourselves a few questions and as a result
generated this search," he said.
Gordon Johndroe, National Security Council spokesman for
President Bush, said the incident was "unfortunate" but
will not damage U.S.-British cooperation.
"Mistakes were made in the reporting of the information,"
he said. "But we will continue to have a good
counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and
United Kingdom."
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this
report
More at:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ih_E55NL7KRk9nfiyDT5U19nDUKwD8UUSM1O0
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.