Miliband's extraordinary apology on rendition

"SORRY FOR letting kidnappers and torturers use our territory". This is what foreign secretary David Miliband should have said in his belated apology to victims of 'extraordinary rendition' flights carried out by the US CIA spy agency.

Instead, he was "very sorry indeed" about having to correct previous statements (ie lies) by former prime minister Tony Blair (as recently as January 2007) and previous foreign secretary Jack Straw, who denied British airbases had been used for rendition purposes by the CIA.

Two CIA rendition flights used the airbase on the UK island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 2002. One of the terrorist suspects abducted is still being held in the US-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Many people suspect this is the thin end of a large wedge of secret cooperation between Blair's government and the CIA after the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Around 800 prisoners have passed through Guantanamo Bay since its establishment in January 2002. Many others were abducted and taken to secret CIA prisons for 'interrogation' ie torture, in third countries such as Afghanistan and Algeria.