Legal Opinion: Has Britain been complicit in a US torture programme?

[struggle4progress]

Some MPs believe British overseas territories have been used for the torture of terror suspects. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, examines the evidence
Published: 17 October 2007

Diego Garcia, a tropical island located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, has long since given up its once-cherished status as a paradise destination. The last remaining coconut plantations were uprooted in the 1970s to make way for a US military base which is now home to nearly 2,000 American personnel.

At the height of the Cold War, the island's key role was to provide a home for US Air Force bombers and Awacs surveillance planes, as well as serve as a satellite-tracking station and communications facility. But independent military experts believe that, since 9/11, this horseshoe-shaped atoll has become the sinister destination for terror suspects who have undergone "extraordinary rendition".

A report by the Council of Europe published earlier this year found evidence that Diego Garcia was being used by the CIA as a secret prison and holding centre for people whom the Americans wished to interrogate and torture outside international law.

Both this report and human rights groups allege that Britain has played a complicit role in the use of the island as a staging post for international torture flights. Diego Garcia is a British overseas territory, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), leased to our American allies and still home to around 50 UK military personnel ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article3067211.ece

[Kagemusha]

1. Self-deleted

I need more practice shutting up. Sorry.

[Ian David]

2. No, because the British spell it "programme" so it's different than our "program" n/t