US rejects weapon flight concerns

The White House has dismissed UK concerns about the use of Prestwick Airport in Scotland by US planes carrying bombs to Israel. "Apparently, the British foreign minister thinks the paperwork was not in order," said spokesman Tony Snow. "The Department of Defense does," he added. "We'll get it straightened out." UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett protested to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, claiming procedures were ignored. "We have already let the United States know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault, and we will be making a formal protest if it appears that that is what has happened," Beckett said. Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that two chartered Airbus A310 planes with a cargo of laser-guided "smart bombs" stopped at Prestwick, 30 miles south of Glasgow. The Israelis have requested the munitions to attack bunkers being used by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. British opposition parties reacted angrily, with Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond claiming the UK government should decide whether to "be an aircraft carrier" for the US. Salmond said that "with an escalating Middle East conflict," it was ill-advised to send bombs "to arm one side in that conflict to the teeth." This was especially true "at a time when hundreds of civilians, many children, United Nations observers, have already been eliminated, killed, by similar weapons," he said. Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell suggested the US was taking the UK for granted. "Who knows how many of these munitions may be used to cause the kind of damage to Lebanon which the prime minister of that country described in Rome as cutting his country to pieces," he said. The US has lodged requests to bring two more planes through the UK carrying bombs and missiles for Israel over the next two weeks. Asked whether Britain was uncomfortable about such shipments, Snow replied: "I'm not sure that's the case, because these sorts of things have happened before and probably are going to happen again."