Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary
Group on Extraordinary Rendition
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE INQUIRY
INTO THE
FOREIGN AND
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE'S
HUMAN RIGHTS
ANNUAL REPORT
2007
I am writing about extraordinary rendition in
my role as Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary
Rendition. I welcome the Committee's inquiry into the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office's Annual Human Rights Report 2007.
Since the FCO's last Human Rights Annual Report,
evidence has come to light regarding the nature of the US extraordinary
rendition programme, and UK involvement in it[43].
On 5 February 2008 CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that
"waterboarding" had been used by the US during the interrogation
of three people[44].
On 8 March 2008 President Bush vetoed a bill that would have outlawed
the use of "waterboarding" and other "enhanced"
interrogation techniques[45].
He justified his action by saying the bill "would take away
one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror[46]".
The US continues to operate its extraordinary rendition programme:
last month, alleged al-Qaeda member Muhammad Rahim was transferred
from secret CIA detention to Guantanamo Bay[47].
FOREIGN AND
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
HUMAN RIGHTS
ANNUAL REPORT
2007
The FCO Human Rights Annual Report states that:
"[r]eal and perceived injustice...can fuel the extremist,
radicalising ideology[48]",
and continues, "[p]romoting human rights, democracy, good
governance and the rule of law, often in the long term, is the
most effective guarantee of our own security[49]".
In its Report the Government repeated its condemnation
of Guantanamo Bay[50].
This sits uneasily with the Government's refusal to condemn the
United States' policy of extraordinary rendition. Detainees in
this clandestine programme have even fewer rights than those held
in Guantanamo Bay. You might conclude that a recommendation in
similar terms to that made in your First Report of 2005-06 in
relation to Guantanamo Bay[51],
about the continued use of extraordinary rendition by the US administration,
would be appropriate.
The FCO Report goes on to say: "We welcome
US government statements that have made clear its opposition to
torture...These include a categorical statement by President Bush
on 6 September 2006 that the US does not practise torture"[52].
Foreign Secretary David Miliband made it clear in a letter to
me that he considers "waterboarding" to be torture[53].
Government reliance on this statement in the face of US admissions
on "waterboarding" is wholly unacceptable. Your Committee
may wish to examine whether the FCO should continue to rely on
these US assurances.
The Foreign Secretary's Terrorist Suspects (Renditions)
Statement of 21 February 2008 is mentioned in the Report[54].
I am deeply concerned that the list of flights to be submitted
to the US for specific assurances includes "instances where
concerns have been raised that planes may have been on their way
to or from a rendition operation", but that these flights
are being submitted solely for the purpose of determining whether
rendition of an individual through UK territory or airspace in
fact occurred[55].
This is not the allegation that has been made[56].
The crucial question is whether or not these planes subsequently
went on to conduct rendition operations that would be illegal
under UK law, or were returning from such an operation[57].
Your Committee could ask further questions of the Government on
this issue, including:
— why the government is not asking
the US administration about flights through UK airspace or airports
on the way to or from a rendition;
— the government's view of the legality
of the alleged transit through UK airspace by aircraft on the
way to or from a rendition, but with no detainee on board; and
— what legal advice has been sought
on whether UK assistance, in the form of refuelling or the granting
of over-flight rights, could constitute complicity, were the detainee
subsequently or previously rendered to suffer torture, or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment at the hands of US or other authorities.
I hope that you will feel able to return to
the issue of extraordinary rendition in your inquiry into the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Human Rights Annual Report 2007.
I am placing this letter in the public domain.
24 April 2008
43 Terrorist Suspects (Renditions) Statement, 21 February
2008. Back
44
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
See, for example, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7229169.stm. Back
45
Dab Eggen, "Bush Announces Veto of Waterboarding Ban",
Washington Post, 8 March 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030800304.html Back
46
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030800304.html Back
47
Mark Mazzetti, "CIA Secretly Held Qaeda Suspect, Officials
Say", New York Times, 15 March 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/washington/15detain.html?hp Back
48
FCO Human Rights Annual Report 2007, 8 Back
49
FCO Human Rights Annual Report 2007, 10 Back
50
FCO Human Rights Annual Report 2007, 12 Back
51
"We conclude that the continued use of Guantánamo
Bay as a detention centre outside all legal regimes diminishes
the USA's moral authority and is a hindrance to the effective
pursuit of the war against terrorism. We recommend that the Government
make loud and public its objections to the existence of such a
prison regime." Foreign Affairs Committee First Report 2005-06,
para 39. Back
52
FCO Human Rights Annual Report 2007, 12-13 Back
53
Enclosed, and available at www.extraordinaryrendition.org. Back
54
FCO Human Rights Annual Report 2007, 16 Back
55
Letter to Mike Gapes, 18 March 2008. Back
56
In its Third Report of 2006-07 your Committee stated: "it
is arguable that refuelling an aircraft immediately before or
after its use in a rendition amounts to facilitating rendition",
para 78. Back
57
Your Committee recommended in para 80 of its Third Report 2006-07
that the Government ask the US administration whether aircraft
used in rendition operations have called at UK airfields en route
to or from a rendition and that it make a clear statement of its
policy on this practice. The Government refused. See "Response
of the Foreign Secretary", para 46. Back
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