Downing Street Says » Extraordinary Rendition

Asked what exactly the Prime Minister had meant when he had replied that "I don’t know what you are referring to," when asked by Charles Kennedy, at PMQs today, about CIA flights through the UK, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that Charles Kennedy had made an assertion which the Prime Minister didn’t recognise. If journalists had looked back over what we had said all week we had made it clear that we did not believe that we were involved in this story. That had been our position all along and the Prime Minister was simply repeating that position.

Asked if the Prime Minister had asked anyone to investigate the issue, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had said what he had said with good cause. The Government’s position on this had been set out in Jack Straw’s response to Condoleezza Rice’s statement and we had nothing to add to that. Questioned further the PMOS said that he was not going to endlessly repeat himself on the issue, journalists could go back to the record of previous briefings for the position. The main point was that we accepted what Condoleezza Rice had said as Jack Straw had made clear in his statement.

Asked why the Prime minister’s influence over the US was so weak given that the Prime Minister had said that he had brought up the issue of Guantanomo Bay with the US administration on a number of occasions, and asked for the situation to come to an end, the PMOS said that the US was a sovereign country and they would have to take the decisions on this, not us. The Prime Minister’s position was clear and, as a result of that, certain provisions concerning UK citizens had been made and the rest of it was not a matter for us.

3 Comments »

"…not a matter for us". Really? So detaining people without access to basic human rights is ok as long as they’re not UK citizens? What a ridiculous thing to say! Since when did events in foreign countries affecting foreign people prevent us from getting involved (for good or bad reasons)?

It sounds like the poodle has done some token yapping but doesn’t have any true conviction on moral issues. Like we didn’t know.
Comment by Will Hall — 8 Dec 2005 on 1:17 pm | Link
It pisses me off when people who make their living from the craft of using words don’t have a basic grasp of the English language.

"I don’t know what you are referring to,"

Should be expressed by a Prime Minister as "I do not know to what you refer"

Pontius Pilate did a similar hand washing act but managed to use his own language correctly – according to the written records.

So much for a private education ;>)
Comment by Roger Huffadine — 8 Dec 2005 on 7:25 pm | Link
You are right, up with this we should not put.

Winston Churchill said that.
Comment by Sweet Melinda — 9 Dec 2005 on 12:43 am | Link

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» Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Extraordinary Rendition

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