Brown regrets UK rendition
Updated on 21 February 2008
Gordon Brown expressed disappointment that two secret rendition flights passed through UK territory.
The United States said a check of its records shows that two planes carrying one terror suspect each stopped to refuel at a base on the British island of Diego Garcia in 2002.
Mr Brown has promised safeguards will ensure it won't happen again, but it's highly embarrassing for the government and for Anglo-American relations.
In a statement to the House of Commons, the foreign secretary David Miliband said: "Contrary to earlier explicit assurances that Diego Garcia had not been used for rendition flights, recent US investigations have now revealed two occasions, both in 2002, when that had in fact occurred.
"An error in the earlier US records search meant that those cases did not come to light. In both cases, a US plane with a single detainee on board refuelled at the US facility in Diego Garcia.
"The detainees did not leave the plane, and the US Government have assured us that no US detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia.
"US investigations show no record of any other rendition through Diego Garcia or any other overseas territory, or through the UK itself, since then.
"Yesterday, US and UK legal teams discussed the issue, and I spoke with Secretary Rice.
"We both agree that the mistakes made in those two cases are not acceptable, and she shares my deep regret that the information has only just come to light.
"She emphasised to me that the US Government came to us with the information quickly after they discovered it."
