London, UK, February 22 2007 – Yesterday’s extraordinary confession by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband about Britain’s role in extraordinary rendition is hardly surprising given the politically expedient record of lies and spin from successive British governments. Rather than apologising to the victims of torture and extraordinary rendition, Miliband merely apologised for the inaccurate denials by the British government of their complicity in the CIA’s rendition programme.

Commenting on this, Dr Imran Waheed, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, "When it comes to the ‘war on terror’, politicians believe that they can say and do what they like because the ‘ends justify the means’. That is why we have seen the use of secret detention, detention without trial, extraordinary rendition and torture. A dodgy dossier and non-existent WMDs were used to occupy Iraq, with the deaths of over half a million Iraqi civilians." 

"Yesterday’s admission by Miliband is hardly surprising. Over a year ago a report by MEPs expressed ‘serious concern about the 170 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at UK airports, which on many occasions came from or were bound for countries linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees’. The report also deplored ‘the stopovers at UK airports of aircraft which have been shown to have been used by the CIA’, on other occasions, for ‘extraordinary renditions’".

 

"According to the Foreign Office adviser Michael Wood, receiving or possessing information extracted under torture, as long as there is no direct participation in the torture, is not prohibited. Under the Caliphate the ends do not justify the means – the principles of its judicial system dictate that torture is outlawed and citizens are innocent until proven guilty irrespective of the wishes of politicians."

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