Multiple leaks concerning the Senate\u2019s findings have thus far indicated the document will unveil new information relating to Britain\u2019s collaborative role in the program, particularly with respect to the US\u2019 use of British foreign territory Diego Garcia to transfer detainees via rendition flights.<\/p>\n
In early April, it emerged that the Senate\u2019s investigation had uncovered CIA detention of core suspects on the Indian Ocean Island of Diego Garcia \u2014 a territory that has long been leased by the UK as a military base to the US. The Senate\u2019s findings, in their leaked form, contradicted a serious of UK government denials that Britain presided over the CIA\u2019s use of Diego Garcia for its extraordinary rendition program.<\/p>\n
Following these revelations, several human rights groups have publicly said Diego Garcia played a crucial role in CIA extraordinary rendition \u2014 a program of moving terrorist suspects to covert prisons around the world in the absence of legislative oversight.<\/p>\n
In light of leaked data from the Senate\u2019s investigation and escalating criticism from NGOs, the UK government has faced mounting pressure to reveal the full extent of Britain\u2019s role in the contentious CIA program \u2014 specifically with respect to its alleged complicity in the running of a covert black site prison at Diego Garcia.<\/p>\n
![\"Leaked](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/news\/2c\/41\/40\/00\/rtxjvbu.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leaked accounts of the Senate\u2019s investigation findings indicate Britain collaborated in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program – particularly with respect to the US\u2019 use of UK territory, Diego Garcia. (Reuters)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nBut it appears the government\u2019s response to calls for transparency has culminated in increased efforts to lobby for censorship of the Senate\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
Despite Westmacott\u2019s nearly two dozen official meetings with SSCI officials prior to the release of the US\u2019 CIA rendition report, Britain\u2019s Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) also admitted these records only pertain to official meetings.<\/p>\n
The FCO emphasizes the list of meetings published is not \u201cexhaustive\u201d and does not indicate\u00a0\u201cbrush-by meetings\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or those incidences when Westmacott may have\u00a0\u201cattended the same events\u201d<\/em>\u00a0as these SSCI members.<\/p>\nFormer Foreign Secretary William Hague previously conceded the British government had discussed the issue of \u201cUK material\u201d in the SSCI\u2019s torture report with US officials. In an official letter to Reprieve, Hague revealed the UK government had sought\u00a0\u201cassurance\u201d<\/em>\u00a0that the Senate Committee would follow protocol in insuring material in which the UK is implicated be cleared by UK officials prior to its release.<\/p>\nFollowing recent revelations pertaining to Westmacott\u2019s regular meetings with SCCI members, Reprieve\u2019s executive director, Clare Algar, warned the logs uncovered further evidence of\u00a0\u201cdesperate attempts\u201d<\/em>\u00a0carried out by the British government to\u00a0\u201ccensor the Senate\u2019s report on CIA torture.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe UK government was\u00a0\u201cup to its neck in the CIA\u2019s program of rendition and torture \u2014 making it highly likely that the Senate\u2019s report will contain information that is deeply embarrassing for them,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Algar emphasized.<\/p>\nAlgar subsequently called for a dramatic policy shift in Westminster with respect to Britain\u2019s role in CIA rendition, urging ministers to endorse the publication of the torture report in the most transparent form possible.<\/p>\n
Confirmation that a British-owned territory was explicitly implicated in severe violations of human rights common to extraordinary rendition could expose the government to legal action.\u00a0In July, the European court of human rights ruled Polish government officials had actively facilitated the CIA\u2019s European secret prison program.<\/p>\n
Gareth Peirce, a lawyer for several Guantanamo detainees, said the British government must come clean on the government\u2019s alleged involvement in the rendition program.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll relevant treaties, UN mandates and an ever-increasing body of authoritative court rulings demand that investigations into suspected state involvement in the mechanisms of torture, including rendition, be speedy, transparent and far-reaching,”<\/em>\u00a0she said.<\/p>\nThis piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Records published under Britain\u2019s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act have compounded concerns that the UK government lobbied US officials to keep Britain\u2019s role in CIA torture and rendition out of a soon-to-be published Senate report. Newly-released data reveals Britain\u2019s ambassador to the US, Peter Westmacott, engaged in at least 21 separate meetings with members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-137538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Concerns](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/news\/2c\/41\/40\/00\/000_was8477492.jpg\")
Concerns have arisen Britain\u2019s US ambassador may have tried to lobby Senator Diane Feinstein in an effort to censor Britain’s role in CIA rendition out of a soon-to-published Senate report. (AFP Photo \/ Bremdan Smialowski)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n