Memo suggests Britain aided flights for detainees

Alan Cowell New York Times Jan. 20, 2006 12:00 AM

LONDON - Britain may have permitted the use of its airspace and airports for American transportation of foreign prisoners more frequently than it initially acknowledged, according to a memo published Thursday.

A memo said to have been written around Dec. 7 by a Foreign Office official, Irfan Siddiq, to Grace Cassy, an official in the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair, seems likely to deepen concerns about the CIA-operated flights.

Britain denies authorizing the use of its airspace or airports for extraordinary rendition, in which the prisoners are taken, without court approval, to third countries, where human rights groups say they might face torture.

On Dec. 12, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told lawmakers in the House of Commons that officials had discovered evidence of two instances in which Britain had authorized American rendition flights. Both were before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said.

"This is a classic case where people have got over excited by getting a leaked memo, rather than actually reading the content of it," a government spokesman said. He did not deny its authenticity.

The memo, published in the New Statesman magazine and in the daily Guardian, was quoted as saying: "We should try to avoid getting drawn on detail, at least until we have been able to complete the substantial research required to establish what has happened even since 1997 and to try to move the debate on."

"The papers we have unearthed so far suggest there could be more such cases," it said, adding: " . . . But we now cannot say that we have received no such requests (to use) U.K. territory or airspace for extraordinary rendition."