Detectives probing use of Scots airports for CIA torture flights hand over final report to Crown office

Craig McDonald
The Daily Record
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 19:46 UTC

© Fred Seggie

The Gulfstream Jet, known as the Guantanamo Express, at Glasgow Airport

Detectives investigating the use of Scottish airports by CIA torture flights have filed a final report to prosecutors more than five years after the probe began. Prosecutors could now level charges against US officials or organisations involved in the flights.

A police inquiry into so-called rendition stopovers was ordered by then lord advocate Frank Mulholland in 2013.

Politicians welcomed the breakthrough but demanded Mulholland's successor James Wolffe "outlined where the investigation is going".

Campaigners have compared the US planes to getaway cars used in bank jobs - and say the investigation into whether they broke Scots law is vital. Scottish Greens justice spokesman John Finnie, who described rendition as a "vile practice", gave a "qualified welcome" to the news.

He said: "I plan to write to the Lord Advocate again on these important developments."

© T. McCoy/Handout/Reuters

Prisoners in a holding area at the notorious Guantanamo Bay in Cuba

Liam Kerr, Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, said: "The previous Lord Advocate had committed to investigating this matter. The current Lord Advocate must now outline where that investigation is - and where it is going."

Dr Sam Raphael, of research group The Rendition Project, said: "Scottish territory was a vital part of these torture flights.

"The question remains: Can those involved in these serious crimes be brought to justice?"

We revealed in 2014 that police were investigating at least six stopovers - four at Prestwick airport and two at Glasgow.

Research by academics suggested 13 possible rendition flights also landed at Inverness, Wick and Aberdeen between 2004 and 2006. When Mulholland informed MSPs in June 2013 that the flights would be probed by police, he said:

"The use of torture can't be condoned. It is against international law and contrary to the common law of Scotland."

The US Senate issued a partially classified 500-page report on the CIA detention and interrogation programme in December 2014. Police Scotland asked the following year to see the full 6000-page report, which would reveal dates, locations and other details removed from the 500-page version. Scottish detectives have never received it.

It would include information that nails three flights which touched down in Scotland as being involved in transporting suspects for torture. One is Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, rendered from Afghanistan to Poland for torture in 2003.

© Daily Record

Gulfstream jet N379P - dubbed the Guantanamo Express - stopped at Glasgow Airport in March 2003 on the way back from dropping him at a CIA torture prison in Poland known as Detention Site Blue.

Comment: In 2013, the Rendition Project published a map detailing the CIA's vast rendition network:

In evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee, Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said US officials had refused permission for officers to board a flight to check the occupants. We told last year how police said they have no idea how much the five-year probe has cost taxpayers.

They said they did "not hold information" on the cost.

Police Scotland confirmed that the report had been submitted to the Crown Office.

The Crown Office said they had received the information, now being considered by their Serious and Organised Crime Division, but could not comment further as it was a live investigation.

Craig McDonald is a news reporter with the Sunday Mail. He can be contacted on 0141 309 3217 or at [e-mail]

Comment: RT adds:

The rendition flights transported terrorism suspects to and from secret detention sites where they were subjected to what is euphemistically known as "enhanced interrogation techniques," or torture. On their way back to the US, they frequently made stopovers on UK territory, including Scotland.

Scottish territory was a "vital part" of the program, Dr Sam Raphael of the research group The Rendition Project told the Glasgow-based Daily Record. "The question remains: Can those involved in these serious crimes be brought to justice?"

In 2014, the Record revealed that police were looking at at least six stopovers, at Prestwick and Glasgow airports. Another 13 possible rendition flights had landed at Aberdeen, Inverness and Wick between 2004 and 2006, according to researchers.

One of these flights, the paper reported, was transporting the 9/11 terrorist attack suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was taken from Afghanistan to Poland for interrogation in March 2003.

The CIA-owned N379P Gulfstream V jet had stopped at Glasgow Airport after dropping Mohammed off at "Detention Site Blue" in Poland, according to the Rendition Project. Chief Constable Iain Livingstone testified to Scottish lawmakers that US officials had refused permission to board the plane on that occasion.

That particular plane had made almost a dozen known rendition flights, and was dubbed "Guantanamo Express," according to the Daily Record. It was eventually sold to Australia in 2006.

The true extent of CIA's rendition and torture program remains unknown to this day. In December 2012, the US Senate Intelligence Committee finalized a report on the program that took five years to compile and cost an estimated $40 million. A 525-page excerpt of the report, containing the executive summary and key findings, was made public in December 2014; the full document is still classified.

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