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GS (UK/US) 4: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Mr Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition

 

 

I have written to your Committee on several occasions about rendition and I hope that you will take these earlier submissions into account in this inquiry. I will not repeat those submissions here. In summary, specific issues of concern relating to UK-US relations include:

 

Diego Garcia and Rendition Flights

 

· The use of Diego Garcia for the rendition programme;

· the apparent breach or inadequacy of Agreements between the UK and the US concerning its use;

· the unreliability of US assurances on this issue;

· the withholding of information by the US about the two known rendition flights through Diego Garcia, including the names and treatment of the detainees involved, and where they were held before and after their renditions;

· allegations that UK airports and airspace have been used for so-called rendition 'circuit flights' (flights to or from carrying out a rendition);

· the implications for the US' use of Diego Garcia in the future.

 

Detainee Handovers

 

· The rendition of detainees captured by UK Forces and handed over to US forces;

· allegations of further UK Forces involvement in the US rendition programme and detainee mistreatment, including allegations surrounding the UK Special Forces;

· the apparent inadequacy of procedures in place to ensure the proper treatment of people captured by UK Forces and handed over to US forces;

· the implications for UK Forces working alongside US forces in the future.

 

Intelligence Agencies

 

· The involvement of the agencies in the US rendition programme, including that documented in the cases of Binyam Mohamed, Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna;

· allegations of further UK agency involvement in the US rendition programme;

· the implications for the UK-US intelligence sharing relationship.

 

More detail of these issues has been sent to you in my letters of 29th January and 3rd May of 2009.[1]

 

 

23 September 2009


[1] Published in the Committee's Seventh Report of Session 2008-09, Human Rights Annual Report 2008, HC 557, Ev 63 and 150.