US ‘torture flights’ may have been in Scotland
Investigation into a possible extraordinary rendition flight at Prestwick ended in odd exchange on tarmac
A public inquiry has been demanded after it was revealed Scottish police officers were stopped from checking whether a US flight at Prestwick Airport contained torture program detainees.
A report found the UK tolerated “inexcusable” treatment of detainees by the US following the 9/11 terror attacks.
Police Scotland officers were blocked from boarding a US government flight at Prestwick Airport to check whether it was carrying detainees as part of America’s secret torture and interrogation programme, a report has found.
The report by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) at Westminster found that the UK tolerated “inexcusable” treatment of detainees by the US during the war on terror following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The SNP, Labour and the Liberal Democrats all called for a public inquiry into what British spies knew of the US rendition and torture programme.
Revelations have since shed thrown light on a network of “black sites” around the world where suspects were held and tortured by US intelligence agencies, as well a web of secret flights transporting detainees into captivity, including at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2013, Police Scotland opened an investigation into whether criminal offences were committed when flights stopped at Scottish airports on at least six occasions.
MPS and peers said it was “beyond doubt” that British intelligence agencies knew at an early stage that the US was mistreating detainees, and said “more could have been done” to change US behaviour.
However, the report found no “smoking gun” suggesting officers carried out or deliberately overlooked physical mistreatment. The ninestrong committee includes SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford.
In 232 cases, British officials supplied questions or intelligence to allies, and in 198 cases received intelligence obtained from detainees despite knowing of or suspecting mistreatment. There were at least 38 cases in 2002 alone of British officers witnessing or hearing about mistreatment.
The committee rejected agencies’ claims that these amounted to “isolated incidents”.
In the report, testimony provided by Iain Livingstone, now serving as acting chief constable of Police Scotland, reveals how officers were prevented from boarding a plane on the tarmac at Prestwick to check whether it held detainees.
Mr Livingstone told the committee in 2017 his officers sought “guidance” from the Americans, “and that guidance was that we can have the individuals on the aircraft come off and meet you on the tarmac; however, you cannot come on board the aircraft. So we were then presented with... Border Force engaging with the Americans on the tarmac, taking them on their word that there was no one left on board their aircraft.”
The practice known as “extraordinary rendition” – used by the US particularly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks – saw terrorist suspects flown to despotic countries so they could be tortured.
It allowed US officials to state publicly that America did not torture people accused of committing a crime, even though this was being contracted out to an ally with little regard for human rights. The term ‘erroneous rendiiton’ grimly sums up one problem when the rule of law is circumvented.
As the US was flying people about to a network of “black sites” around the world, it needed other allies to be complicit in the practice even if those countries were too squeamish or, relatively speaking, principled to get directly involved.
According to a report by MPS and peers on the intelligence and security committee, the UK was one of those countries.
It described how, following claims Prestwick Airport was being used as a stop-off point for the secret flights, Police Scotland opened an investigation in 2013 into whether any crimes had been committed.
But when the UK Border Force tried to find out who was on board one flight that had landed at Prestwick, a rather odd exchange took place. Iain Livingstone, now acting chief constable of Police Scotland, told how Border Force officers were given “guidance” by the Americans that they could not board the plane but its occupants were prepared to meet them on the tarmac. The Americans gave their word no-one else was inside.
Despite being “acutely aware of potential allegations in the past around extraordinary rendition” and wanting to look around the plane for that reason, the officers took the Americans’ word for it.
It is an incident that speaks volumes about the so-called “special relationship” between the US and UK. We are, very much, the junior partner and US officials are happy to make that crystal clear when they feel the need to.
However, the officers at Prestwick could have directed their questions to agents of our own government. It was “beyond doubt” the UK’S intelligence agencies knew detainees were being mistreated and that “more could have been done” to stop what the US was doing, the committee found. And it was “difficult to comprehend” how senior officials “did not recognise the pattern of mistreatment by the US”.