UK Colluded With US in Extraordinary Rendition of Suspects in Iraq

Hutton admits Iraq suspects were handed to US

[Members of Parliament] were given inaccurate information regarding the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects, the defence secretary, John Hutton, admitted yesterday as he confirmed for the first time that UK forces in Iraq handed over individuals to the US, which flew them to a prison in Afghanistan.

He said British forces in Iraq had undertaken operations "to capture individuals who were subsequently detained by the US". Specifically, he revealed that in February 2004 British soldiers - known to be SAS troops - handed over two terrorist suspects captured outside the UK-controlled zone covering south-eastern Iraq.

...the admission is deeply embarrassing to the government coming in the wake of the dispute over the suppression of evidence of UK collusion in the alleged torture of former British residents, including Binyam Mohamed released last week after more than four years in Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve, the human rights group, said the government had confirmed what its investigators uncovered many months ago - "that the UK has colluded with the US in the illegal practice of extraordinary rendition". Its executive director Clare Algar said: "This government has misled us again and again.".

February 27, 2009

for complete article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/27/hutton-extraordinary-rendition