UK police chiefs accused of 'whitewash' over British links to CIA torture flights

The British police have been accused of "spinning" the facts on CIA torture flights after they claimed they had conducted an 18-month inquiry that found no evidence of collusion by the UK. Shami Chakrabarti of the civil rights group Liberty accused chief police officers of a "whitewash" for having denied the UK had allowed the CIA to use its airports to take terror suspects to secret prisons. She questioned the timing of the statement, saying it was "miraculous" that, after 18 months, the police had released their findings just as the Council of Europe, the human rights organization, found Britain did help the CIA fly terror suspects to prisons. A plane repeatedly linked to CIA torture flights was recently spotted landing in the UK. The aircraft, which members of parliament say has been involved in "ghost flights," was logged arriving at a British air force base. The Council of Europe report said the CIA ran dark prisons in Poland and Romania after 9/11, and Britain had provided support by allowing agency planes to land at UK military and civilian airports. The Association of Chief Police Officers had said there was "no evidence UK airports were used to transport people by the CIA for torture in other countries."