Police chiefs accused of 'whitewash' over British links to CIA torture flights
By Marie Woolf, Political Editor
Published: 10 June 2007
The police have been accused of "spinning" the facts on CIA torture flights after they claimed they had conducted an 18-month inquiry that found no evidence of collusion by Britain.
Shami Chakrabarti of the civil rights group Liberty accused chief police officers of a "whitewash" for having denied the UK had allowed the CIA to use its airports to take terror suspects to secret prisons. She questioned the timing of the statement, saying it was "miraculous" that, after 18 months, the police had released their findings just as the Council of Europe, the human rights organisation, found Britain did help the CIA fly terror suspects to prisons.
Last weekend, a plane repeatedly linked to CIA torture flights was spotted land- ing in the UK. The aircraft, which MEPs say has been involved in "ghost flights", was logged arriving at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk.
The CoE report said the CIA ran dark prisons in Poland and Romania after 9/11, and Britain had provided support by allowing agency planes to land at UK military and civilian airports.
The Association of Chief Police Officers had said there was "no evidence UK airports were used to transport people by the CIA for torture in other countries".
Ms Chakrabarti said: "When politicians spin it is disappointing. When police engage in [similar] activity it is dangerous.This spin produced a whitewash."