BRITISH MPs are to go to court in a landmark legal case in the United States in a bid to force the authorities there to release thousands of pages of files about the extraordinary rendition of Islamic terrorist suspects.
Court papers have been lodged in Washington DC by the 60- strong House of Commons all-party committee on extraordinary rendition, seeking a judicial review of the Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to publish the documentation up to now.
Applications under British and US freedom of information legislation were made a year ago to the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the department of homeland security and a variety of British government departments.
The group, led by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, is seeking details of agreements that may have existed between the United States and the United Kingdom about the clandestine transfer of prisoners to countries for interrogation, some of whom were tortured.
Saying that the extent of British involvement is of “paramount” interest, the all-party group said information should be given about whether CIA aircraft were allowed to over-fly or to refuel in British territory before, during, or after such operations.
In particular, the MPs have demanded sight of papers detailing the use by Americans of Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean leased to the US, in rendition transfer, and the identities of two suspects known to have been brought there.
The British government had repeatedly denied, said Mr Tyrie, that the UK had “facilitated” rendition or that Diego Garcia was used in this manner or that British military and security officers were “dragged into rendition”.
“Each allegation was categorically denied, each has subsequently been admitted,” said Mr Tyrie, who founded the unofficial Commons grouping in December 2005 along with Labour MP Chris Mullin and former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell.
In reply to the freedom of information applications by the group, the CIA released 2,000 “highly redacted” pages of records, which the MPs have published on www.extraordinaryrendition.org
The British foreign and commonwealth office, Mr Tyrie told The Irish Times yesterday, had expressed no opinion about his decision to challenge the US authorities before a US court – the first time, it is believed, that an MP has done so.
Mr Tyrie said: “Bringing this litigation against the CIA, department of defence, department of justice and other US government agencies, represents a globalisation of accountability for two of the world’s leading democracies.
“I hope that this groundbreaking litigation will lead to comprehensive disclosure in the US. Only then can we give the public confidence that we have got to the bottom of rendition and British involvement in it.”
The MPs’ applications to British authorities under the UK’s freedom of information Act have also met no success, although appeals against the refusals are being investigated by the UK information commissioner.
