UK hires company that arranged rendition flights for lucrative public sector contracts

Lawyers at Charity Reprieve are asking why Computer Sciences Corporation has been hired for public contracts that run to hundreds of millions of pounds. The company worked for the CIA arranging secret rendition flights to Guantanamo Bay and black sites that the CIA used for interrogation and torture.

Now the CSC is working for the UK Home Office to strengthen border controls. In 2007 the firm was hired to produce a UK visa that uses advanced biometrics technology a contract that runs until 2014.

The firm seems to be a favorite with the UK. The company has had contracts with the Royal Mail, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and the Civil Nuclear Police Authority. They are also under contract with the National Health Service a contract that also has come under fire.

A spokesperson for Reprieve said:: "People will be appalled to hear that their government has been handing out hundreds of millions of pounds to a company which helped organised the CIA's illegal renditions programme. "We need to know whether ministers at the time were aware of CSC's activities. If so, did they really think that a firm involved in some of the worst excesses of the 'war on terror' was an appropriate recipient of major public sector contracts?" However a spokesperson for CSC had this to say: "We recognise that being a decent, responsible business is critical to our success. By implementing sustainable practices, we seek to ensure the vitality of the communities in which we live and do business, the morale and effectiveness of our global team, the health of our environment and the productivity and collaborative strength of our client relationships." Who could argue with that! What's good for the CIA must be good for the UK public sector. For more see this article.

For more about CSC see this Wikipedia article. The article makes no mention of its involvement with the CIA. It is quite successful and has contracts with large corporations and governments globally involving IT applications. Perhaps it still has good connections with the CIA. The company is headquartered in the U.S. at Falls Church Virginia. The company moved its headquarters from California. It is now close to CIA headquarters in nearby Langley Virginia and the center of the U.S. government in Washington D.C.