JURIST - Paper Chase: US used 20 UK airports for 'ghost flights': newspaper

[JURIST Europe] CIA-owned or operated planes made over 210 "ghost flights" through nearly 20 different British airports that may have been used to transport terror detainees [JURIST report] being relocated as part of the US practice of extraordinary rendition, according to the UK Guardian newspaper Tuesday. The Guardian notes that there is no evidence showing that any detainees were actually on the planes that landed at both military and civilian airports throughout the UK, but a recent report [official PDF text] to the UK All Party Group on Extraordinary Rendition [Guardian backgrounder] by the NYU Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) [institute website] warned that simply providing landing strips and refueling services could implicate the United Kingdom as an accomplice [JURIST report] if the US were found to be breaking international law. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of rendition [JURIST news archive]. On her departure for a European junket Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that US rendition practices conformed to international law [JURIST report] and that it had not transported anyone to be tortured abroad. The Guardian has local coverage.

D. Wes Rist is Bureau Chief for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. He is based in the UK.

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