Scotland's authorities have been urged to establish a separate investigation into the transit through the nation's airports of prisoner transfer flights by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The Scottish National Party (SNP), a left wing political party committed to Scottish independence from the UK, has published a dossier on flights it suspects of having been operated by the CIA to transport terrorist suspects to the US Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The SNP alleges the refuelling of these flights on Scottish soil breaches UK laws on aiding the transfer of detainees to locations where they are at risk of being tortured.
Flight International has obtained photographs of the two aircraft alleged by the SNP to have been used for the flights.
The party's foreign affairs spokesman, Angus Robertson, has sent the report, compiled by a “senior aviation official,” to Scotland’s premier, Jack McConnell, urging the Scottish regional government to “use every avenue open to it through the criminal justice system to establish whether there has been the illegal transportation of people through Scottish airports and discourage it ever happening in the future".
The report has also been forwarded to the committees of inquiry established by the Council of Europe, European Parliament and by the UK national parliament, which is currently conducting an inquiry into what the USA terms “rendition” flights.
Among the aircraft listed by the SNP as having landed at Prestwick, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports was a Gulfstream GV business jet (originally registered as N379P, re-registered as N8068V, pictured below) which it claims was used to transport suspects to the US prison at Guantánamo Bay. The aircraft is listed in the report as having landed five times at Glasgow and Prestwick airports between 2002 and the end of 2004.
The report also lists details of a Boeing MD-80 (N822US, pictured below) which the SNP says has been the subject of diplomatic inquiries by the Norwegian government and debate in the Canadian parliament. The aircraft is listed in the report as having landed at both Glasgow and Prestwick airports in 2002 and 2003.
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© Javier Fernández de Bobadilla |
Angus Robertson an SNP member of the UK parliament says: “The aircraft in question have been subject to diplomatic and parliamentary inquiries in different countries. This report establishes that they did pass through Scottish airports. The Scottish Executive now has a responsibility to pursue this issue like other governments.”
AIMÉE TURNER / LONDON
Source: Flight International