The United States defended itself on Thursday over the inaccurate information provided to Britain on the two planes carrying terrorism suspects that refueled on a British Indian island of Diego Garcia.
"At the time we provided that information in 2002, we believed it was accurate. We believed that we had done a full and complete search of all of our records," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"And it turns out that as a result of a self-initiated review of records that the United States government itself took a second look at our records at the end of 2002, it turns out that there were, in fact, two refueling stops in Diego Garcia," McCormack said.
"We regret the fact that we, when asked back in 2002, provided what now turns out to be inaccurate information," the spokesman added.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Wednesday to express regret over the incident.
According to media reports, Britain admitted for the first time on Thursday that the United States had used its territory to transfer terrorism suspects, and the United States now told it the two planes with detainees refueled at a U.S. base on the British Indian Ocean island in 2002.
However, the United States has previously assured Britain that the island would not be used for such flights, according to British officials.
Britain has insisted that it is not aware of its territory being used by the United States to transfer terrorism suspects outside normal extradition procedures since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001, media reports said.
Source: Xinhua
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