US denies breaking UK rules on Israel bomb flights

By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States denied on Thursday
that it had broken British air transport procedures after
London complained about U.S. flights through a Scottish airport
taking bombs to Israel.

A newspaper said Britain had agreed to allow Washington to
fly more weapons to Israel via its airports despite Foreign
Secretary Margaret Beckett saying she was “not happy” about
Washington failing to comply with procedures for such flights.

The Israel-bound arms flights threaten to overshadow Tony
Blair’s visit to Washington this weekend.

The prime minister has faced mounting criticism at home as
the only major world leader to join the United States in
refusing to call for Israel to immediately stop its two-week
bombing campaign of Lebanon.

Beckett said on Wednesday she had complained to Washington
because the United States had not followed procedure for flying
cargo loads of bombs bound for Israel through British airports.

“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,” she said in Rome after a Lebanon crisis meeting.

Newspapers have said two Airbus cargo jets loaded with U.S.
bunker-busting bombs landed at Prestwick. British officials
have not commented on the flights in detail but do not dispute
those accounts.

“It appears that insofar as there are procedures for
handling that kind of hazardous cargo, irrespective of what
they are, it does appear that they were not followed,” Beckett
said.

But British officials have since seemed to row back from
that position, saying authorities are still studying whether
any rules were broken. The Foreign Office refused to allow its
spokesman to discuss the subject on the record on Thursday.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Joe Carpenter said
Washington had double checked its records of all flights since
the reports emerged and found that it had not broken any
procedures, in Britain or anywhere else.

“It’s our policy that U.S. military flights and those
contracted on our behalf comply with existing bilateral
agreements,” he said. “There have been no recent deviations
from those procedures.”

The Evening Standard newspaper said London had given
Washington the all-clear to continue more Israel-bound arms
flights after sorting out the proper procedures. The Foreign
Office would neither confirm nor deny that report.

Blair’s backing for President Bush in refusing to call for
an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon is unpopular at home. Blair
has said an agreement on an international force and other
conditions are needed before a ceasefire can be called.

He was mocked by the media after he was overheard by an
open microphone at a summit offering his services to Bush to go
to the Middle East ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice. Bush didn’t accept the offer, and Blair didn’t go.

U.S. use of British airports has been an issue in the past,
with Blair being accused by parliamentarians and human rights
groups of allowing Washington to transport prisoners over
British territory outside of normal extradition procedures.

Blair says his government has broken no laws over such
“extraordinary renditions.”