LONDON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- There is no record of any U.S. request to use British airports for CIA transfers of terror suspects, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted Monday.
Straw said he is "as certain as he can be" that no such requests have been made, after "detailed searches" of government records.
Prominent human rights group Liberty has demanded the foreign secretary and eight police forces investigate reports that the CIA has used British airports to transfer terror suspects abroad for interrogation under a process known as extraordinary rendition.
Media reports have suggested that planes operated by the CIA have landed in Britain on more than 200 occasions since the Sept. 11 attacks. Many former detainees claim they were tortured after being transferred to secret holding locations around the world.
"Careful research has been unable to identify any occasion... when we have received a request for permission by the United States for a rendition through the United Kingdom territory or airspace," Straw told BBC Radio.
"Our people have checked through all the detail of the Liberty suggestions.
"They have found no records which corroborate either the details of what Liberty say and no papers relating to any policy considerations of what Liberty say."
The foreign secretary said it was the practice of the United States to request permission when it sought to carry out such transfers.
Two such requests were approved for flights taking suspects to the United States for trial in 1998, under the Clinton administration, he said.
But Straw refused a further request, where a suspect was being taken to a third country, because he was "not satisfied" about the circumstances.
"We have checked the records as carefully as we can and I believe the answer we have given from the records suggest that there have been no such flights through United Kingdom territory," he said.
"We will continue to look at the evidence that Liberty and others have provided and to carry on making those checks."
Straw said he was giving the information in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Sir Menzies-Campbell, the Liberal Democrat's shadow foreign secretary.
In response to Straw's comments, Menzies-Campbell said he had no doubt of the "good faith" of the foreign secretary in this matter but the truth was the government simply didn't know whether British airfields had been used for extraordinary rendition. He called for a system of inspection, saying: "We have international obligations and a moral responsibility; both need to be met in full."
Liberty has threatened to take legal action to force an investigation if the authorities do not respond fully to its concerns.
Responding to Straw's comments Monday, Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said that while she was glad the government had at least taken notice of the growing concerns over extraordinary rendition, the foreign secretary's remarks were particularly worrying for the answers they did not contain.
Liberty had requested that Straw ask the U.S. government whether it has used British territory for the purposes of extraordinary rendition, and to seek assurances that in future it would not do so. It was not clear whether he had done this, she said.
The group had also asked him to investigate whether British territory had been used for such purposes. A simple check of whether requests had been made was insufficient, Chakrabarti continued.
Liberty looked forward to a "serious" response to its request for an investigation, delivered by letter on Nov. 30, she said.
"Few would be naïve enough to expect a foreign power to ask specific permission to use Britain for the shameful and shadowy business of kidnap and torture. We need a proactive investigation rather than a Foreign Office file-check."
Liberty has demanded to see evidence of a full investigation into the claims by Dec. 14, or it will force a judicial review of the government's decision not to do so.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd has agreed to meet Chakrabarti "in the near future for an initial exploration of the issues" raised.
The government also faces further scrutiny by members of Parliament.
An all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition -- of which Sir Menzies-Campbell is a leading member -- has called on the foreign secretary to give evidence to it, insisting it will not be satisfied with "vacuous replies."
Straw will also be grilled Tuesday by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Not only will he be asked about reports of CIA flights, but also allegations that MI6 -- Britain's equivalent of the CIA -- handed over a London man to the CIA for rendition and torture.
Binyam Mohammed Al-Habashi, an Ethiopian who sought asylum in Britain, has told lawyers he suffered abuse, sleep deprivation and torture at a number of CIA facilities around the world.
After being arrested in Karachi, Pakistan when he tried to board a flight using a false passport, he was released by Pakistani authorities to MI6 agents who in turn passed him to the CIA, he claims.
Al-Habashi says he spent 18 months in detention in Morocco before being transferred to the so-called "Dark Prison" in Kabul, Afghanistan and later to Guantanamo Bay, where he is awaiting a military trial. Interrogation techniques during that time included cutting his penis with a scalpel, chaining him to walls and floors for days and injecting him with heroin until he became addicted, he alleges.
The British government has insisted it does not condone torture and has accepted U.S. assurances that its personnel do not practice abusive interrogation techniques.
Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament last week that it was vital to distinguish between transferring prisoners abroad -- a long-standing U.S. practice -- and torture.
He "accepted entirely" U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's assurances -- given during her European tour last week -- that although the United States practiced rendition, it did so within the confines of U.S. and international law.
However, the majority of Europeans remain skeptical of her response, which was widely denounced by British parliamentarians as vague and unsatisfactory.
MPs have questioned whether the U.S. definition of torture corresponds to that of Europeans, and have demanded clarification of why suspects are rendered abroad if it is not to avoid legal restrictions on treatment of detainees.
With judicial investigations underway in three European countries and public outrage mounting, it is an issue that is unlikely to go away any time soon.
