UK has no record of CIA rendition flights, says Foreign Secretary News
UK has no record of CIA rendition flights, says Foreign Secretary

[JURIST] UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw [official website] said Monday in a BBC radio interview [recorded audio] that the UK has found no evidence that the US transported terror detainees [JURIST report] via UK airports, despite a UK newspaper report [JURIST report; Guardian report] last week alleging that CIA-owned or operated planes made 210 "ghost flights" to transport terror suspects through nearly 20 different UK facilities. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] has been accused of running secret prisons [JURIST report] in Eastern Europe and covertly transporting detainees in a practice referred to as extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. Straw said there are no governmental records that show any requests for rendition through UK territories since 9/11, highlighting that it is general procedure for the US to request permission for rendition flights. Straw noted, however, that military flights from other countries are not subject to checking by local authorities. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.