'No evidence' UK supported CIA flights
Terror suspects are thought to be secretly flown between countries by the CIA
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Saturday, 09, Jun 2007 08:10
There is "no evidence" to suggest that Britain allowed America's intelligence chiefs to use the country's airports for its controversial rendition policy, leading police officers have claimed.
An investigation by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) rejected claims made by the human rights group Liberty, which insists that the CIA has flown a number of terror suspects through the UK and on to other countries where they may have faced torture.
The conclusion of the 18-month inquiry comes as the CIA's supposed policy of extraordinary rendition, the secret practice of transferring terror suspects between countries without public legal proceedings, comes under fresh scrutiny.
Yesterday a report published by the Council of Europe claimed there was evidence to suggest that secret CIA detention centres had been in operation within Europe and that European authorities had been complicit in their establishment.
But in the latest inquiry into the CIA's alleged use of rendition, Apco said there was nothing to substantiate claims that UK airports had been used to covertly transfer terror suspects to other countries.
"There was no evidence that UK airports were used to transport people by the CIA for torture in other countries. There was nothing to substantiate the claims in the evidence supplied by Liberty," Apco said in a statement.
Liberty, which had claimed that CIA flights carrying terror detainees had flown into Britain more than 210 times since 2001, last night questioned Apco's findings.
The director of the human rights organisation, Shami Chakrabarti, accused the association of police chiefs of "spin" and insisted that Liberty's claims had been based on "credible investigations".
Meanwhile the CIA has accused the Council of Europe of making distorted allegations after the European human rights organisation reported that secret CIA prisons existed in Poland and Romania between 2002 and 2005 and had been established "with the co-operation of official European partners belonging to government services".
The council's probe, led by Swiss politician Dick Marty, said the American intelligence service was able to hold "high-value detainees" in Europe due to a secret agreement made between the US and its allies under Nato confidentiality rules.
A CIA spokesman told the BBC the intelligence agency's operations had been "lawful, effective, closely reviewed and of benefit to many people - including Europeans - by disrupting plots and saving lives".