Shocking. Sounds just like his friend in the White House.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, told Parliament on 12 December last year that checks had uncovered no occasion since the attacks of 11 September 2001 when the US had asked to use British airspace for rendition flights.
But in a briefing note to Tony Blair's office five days earlier - obtained by the New Statesman magazine - the Foreign Office admitted it had no idea how many times the UK had allowed such flights to cross its skies. As of early December it had been unable "to complete the substantial research required to establish what has happened since 1997".
The memo, from Irfan Siddiq to Grace Cassy at 10 Downing St, suggests the Prime Minister "should try to avoid getting drawn on detail" and "try to move the debate on". On 22 December, Mr Blair said at his monthly press conference: "It is not something that I have ever actually come across until this whole thing has blown up, and I don't know anything about it."
The key thing the Foreign Office did accept was that extraordinary rendition "is almost certainly illegal" and any British co-operation "would also be illegal".
