POLITICIANS have called on Scottish ministers to intervene after revelations that the country has been used as a refuelling base for a jet used by American intelligence agencies to fly terrorist suspects to countries that torture prisoners.
The Scottish Executive faced fierce cross-party criticism yesterday for allowing Prestwick airport to be used by the Gulfstream V - an aircraft believed to be operated by the CIA for "rendition", the governmentsanctioned transfer of terrorist suspects to countries where torture is a routine method of extracting information.
MPs and MSPs said ministers should not allow Scotland to be "complicit" in such action.
Brian Donohoe, LabourMP for Cunninghame South, said:
"I am surprised at this and will raise it at the first opportunity with either the home or foreign secretary because there are all sorts of implications about this type of flight.
"What would happen if they were to escape? It is certainly something which has to be looked into."
The jet used by the CIA to transport suspects for fast-track interrogation by America's Arab allies has made frequent stops in Scotland since 2001, according to intelligence sources.
The Gulfstream V has now been transferred to another CIA front company, Bayard Foreign Marketing, registered in Portland, Oregon.
As The Herald revealed yesterday, the jet made a confirmed refuelling stop at Prestwick on June 25 this year.
Sources now say that the aircraft, which was listed as the property of Premier Executive Transport Services, of Delaware, until December 1, has landed in Scotland on a number of occasions in the past three years.
It has also made frequent stops in Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Baghdad, Tashkent, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan, Frankfurt in Germany, Larnaca in Cyprus, Indonesia, Egypt and Dulles International in the US.
Morocco, Jordan and Egypt, all US allies in the war on international terror, are understood to be holding a number of highprofile prisoners captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Pauline McNeill, Labour MSP and convener of the justice 1 committee, said: "We should absolutely not be taking part in this. We cannot, as a country, have laws against brutalising people and then turn a blind eye to those who do. It is immoral to be knowingly involved in this."
The executive refused to comment because security is reserved, but the Department forTransport simply said it did not ask about the passengers on a private flight.
Kenny MacAskill, the SNP justice spokesman, said ministers should not allow this. "The US may desire to flout the law but there is no reason Scotland should assist. Whatever these people have done, they are entitled to a fair trial. Simply because the US is the most powerful country in the world does not mean we should be accomplices."
Annabel Goldie, Tory justice spokeswoman, said she would not want Scotland to be complicit in anything which did not comply with international law.
CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, declined to comment on the ownership or movement of the Gulfstream, known in the intelligence community as "SpookAirOne".
A Department of Transport spokesman said: "If it is a private flight they do not have to have a permit. We have no record of it so can only assume it was a private flight."
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