Torture and Rendition General Links

Rendition:On Planet Jack and Planet Tony...[lots of links in here incl FAC EVIDENCE]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/671

Rendition: Is There Anything Left Of Jack Straw's Credibility?[and here]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/667

Charles Kennedy's Questions on Renditon: Some good points, but has he has missed the point when it comes to Jack Straw[More Rendition Links]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/654

Why the UK Government Can't Hold the Line: On assurances that we don't use inteligence extracted by torture.[Jacks FAC torture evidence and the Law Lords Ruling]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/650

Rendition Week: A Question for Condi [and more rendition links]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/649

Condi Wriggles on Rendition, is the issue overtaking Blair too? [more torture and rendition links, incl ABC articel on US methods in Black Sites]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/645

Rendition Week: Condi to answer questions on Rendition by reminding us of our obligations in fighting terrorism.[The Build up to 'rendition week and condi's explanation]
https://blairwatch.co.uk/node/635

Audio Link
21/12/2005
I, I have absolutely no evidence to suggest that anything illegal has been happening here at all, and I'm not going to start ordering inquires into this, that and the next thing when I've got no evidence to show whether this is right or not - and I honestly, and you know, it's like all this stuff about camps in Europe or something - I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing.
I can't tell you whether such a thing exists - because, er - I don't know.
https://blairwatch.co.uk/down/blairrend.mp3

European Complicity1
The European Union secretly allowed the United States to use transit facilities on European soil to transport "criminals" in 2003, according to a previously unpublished document. The revelation contradicts repeated EU denials that it knew of "rendition" flights by the CIA.
The European Union secretly allowed the United States to use transit facilities on European soil to transport "criminals" in 2003, according to a previously unpublished document. The revelation contradicts repeated EU denials that it knew of "rendition" flights by the CIA.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/11/wrendition11.xml

European Complicity2
Ex-US Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that Europeans are being disingenuous when they deny knowledge of the rendition of terror suspects.
Mr Powell said the recently highlighted practice of moving people to places where they are not covered by US law was neither "new or unknown" to Europe.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538788.stm

December 5, 2005
Condi Rice
In conducting such renditions, it is the policy of the United States, and I presume of any other democracies who use this procedure, to comply with its laws and comply with its treaty obligations, including those under the Convention Against Torture. Torture is a term that is defined by law. We rely on our law to govern our operations. The United States does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances. Moreover, in accordance with the policy of this administration:

-- The United States does not transport, and has not transported, detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture.

-- The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured.

-- The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Dec/05-436751.html

Intelligence and Security cte
["The Handling of Detainees by
UK Intelligence Personnel in Afghanistan,
Guantanamo Bay and Iraq"]

33. We do not attempt to answer these difficult questions, on which opinions are divided.
However, the Foreign Secretary told us:

"… there are certainly circumstances where we may get intelligence from a liaison
partner where we know, not least through our own Human Rights monitoring, that
their practices are well below the line. But you never get intelligence which says,
'here is intelligence and by the way we conducted this under torture' … One of the
things that is done with intelligence that comes from liaison partners, obviously an
assessment is made about its provenance. Because it does not follow that if it is
extracted under torture, it is automatically untrue. But there is a much higher
probability of it being embellished.
But my last point … is a real area of moral hazard which is that if you do get a bit
of information which seems to be completely credible, which may have been
extracted through unacceptable practices, do you ignore it? And my answer to that
is, the moment at which it is put before you, you have to make an assessment about
its credibility. Because, just in terms of the moral calculus, [what] if we had been
told through liaison partners that September 11th was going to happen, with all the
details [of how the information was obtained]. Now, torture is completely
unacceptable and [we would] query whether that was the reason why we got the
information … but you cannot ignore it if the price of ignoring it is 3,000 people
dead."
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/publications/reports/intelligence/treatdetainees.pdf

LONDON, Dec. 19 (UPI)
Rendition via UPI
U.K. minister 'lied over CIA flights'

The British Foreign Office privately accepts that CIA rendition flights did pass through its territory, a diplomatic source told United Press International.

The well-placed source said the Foreign Office "totally accepts" that the United States used British airfields to transfer prisoners abroad for interrogation, and is "extremely worried" about the political consequences.

The revelation that the Foreign Office accepts that CIA rendition flights passed through Britain comes in direct contrast to official denials by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who last week "categorically" denied that any such flights had taken place.

He told the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday: "Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories, that officials are lying, that I'm lying ... that Secretary Rice (U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) is lying, there is simply no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition."

However, the source told UPI that although the Foreign Office had not known of the CIA rendition flights at the time, it was now aware that it should have known.

Ministers were "extremely worried" about the issue, the source said. Both Downing Street and the Foreign Office were simply "hoping it is going to go away."
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20051219-015258-8067r