Miliband 'duped by US' over rendition flights
British Foreighn Secretary David Miliband was facing fresh claims today that the US imprisoned terror suspects on British territory.
Campaigners said the foreign secretary allowed himself to be “duped by the US on a colossal scale” following new claims of interrogation on Diego Garcia, a UK-controlled island in the Indian Ocean.
A former senior American official told Time magazine that in 2002 and possibly 2003, the US imprisoned and interrogated at least one terrorist suspect on the island.
Mr Miliband has repeatedly denied claims the US has detained terror suspects on British territory.
However, the anonymous source, described as a frequent participant in White House Situation Room meetings, told Time a CIA counter-terrorism official twice said “high-value prisoners” had been held and questioned on the island.
The official also claimed the US may have kept prisoners on ships within Diego Garcia’s territorial waters.
Legal action charity Reprieve said the source proved British territory had been used for “kidnapping, extraordinary rendition, illegal imprisonment and possibly torture”.
In February, the US administration admitted that, contrary to previous assurances, two CIA “rendition” flights carrying terrorist suspects seized abroad had landed on Diego Garcia in 2002.
Last month Mr Miliband said the US had pledged no further US intelligence flights had since landed on British territory.
A Foreign Office spokesman said today: “Our intelligence and counter-terrorism relationship with the US is vital to the national security of the United Kingdom.
“We accept US assurances on rendition in good faith. But if others have definitive evidence of rendition through the UK or our overseas territories, including Diego Garcia, then we will raise it with the US authorities.”
Reprieve – whose lawyers represent 32 prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay – said the Government’s denials were “no longer tenable”.
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s director, said: “Today’s Time story further demonstrates that the British Government has allowed itself to be duped by the US on a colossal scale.
“While ministers have spent years looking the other way, British territory has been used for kidnapping, ’extraordinary rendition’, illegal imprisonment and possibly torture.
“However, ignorance is no excuse when it comes to crimes of this magnitude.”
Mr Stafford Smith said the US must “come clean” about the existence of the “secret prison” on Diego Garcia, and the Government must ensure it does so.
The Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee last month urged the Government to press the US authorities for information on whether any American military flights landing in the UK were part of the “rendition circuit”, even if they did not have detainees on board at the time.
The committee said ministers had “a moral and legal obligation” to ensure that planes used for rendition did not enter UK airspace or land at UK airports.
