A new report presents, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) black site network, drawing on new data derived from an unprecedented analysis of the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 study of CIA detention.

The report CIA Torture Unredacted, by The Rendition Project, comes just a week after the one year anniversary of the Government announcing that it would decide – within 60 days – whether or not to hold an independent judge-led inquiry into UK involvement in post-9/11 torture. No decision has yet been made.

Key findings include:

Identification of the 28 individuals whose renditions were facilitated using UK territory as crucial staging and refuelling posts. This includes the at least two individuals who were rendered using the British-owned island of Diego Garcia: Mohammed Iqbal Madni and Umar Faruq.

It identifies the individual to whom the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) referred as the “unknown detainee” – Umar Faruq – believed to have been rendered through Diego Garcia in September 2002.

Included in this list of individuals rendered using UK territory or airspace is Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was tortured in Thailand among other places while current CIA Director Gina Haspel allegedly ran the black site there.

This includes the use of Glasgow airport in the rendition of Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, whose torture in Egypt led to the false information which provided part of the case for the Iraq War. The ISC report revealed that an MI6 officer stood by and watched as he was rendered to Egypt in a coffin.

Among these detainees rendered with the assistance of UK territory or airspace was Saifullah Paracha, currently the oldest detainee in Guantanamo, who was rendered to torture and arbitrary detention for what has now been almost 19 years.

The report lists a total of 28 cases of UK territory or airspace being used for renditions, which compares with the 28 cases the ISC report identified in which it found the UK “suggested, planned or agreed to rendition operations proposed by others”. While the number itself may be a coincidence, the new report raises the question of whether the UK agreed to the use of its territory and airspace to facilitate these renditions as part of these plans and agreements.

The report names Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni, who faced severe torture after his rendition to Egypt in January 2002, and who may be one of the ‘29 renditees’ referred to in the ISC report as having been rendered to a country believed to be Egypt.

The report will be officially launched this evening with a panel discussion by the authors at an event at Westminster University.

The Rendition Project is a collaborative research initiative run by Prof Ruth Blakeley at the University of Sheffield (and previously, the University of Kent) and Dr Sam Raphael at the University of Westminster. It is at the forefront of efforts to investigate and understand the use of rendition, secret detention and torture by the CIA and its allies in the 'war on terror'.

* Read CIA Torture Unredacted here

* The Rendition Project https://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/

* Reprieve https://reprieve.org.uk/

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