Robert H. Tuttle

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Robert Holmes Tuttle.

Robert Holmes Tuttle is the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, a post he has held since the summer of 2005.^[1]^[2] A California native, he was appointed Ambassador by US President George W. Bush, having previously worked in the White House during the Reagan administration as an Assistant to the President in 1982, and Director of Presidential Personnel in 1985. The Ambassador was also on the Board of Directors of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is a graduate of the prestigious Stanford University, and earned his MBA at University of Southern California. Tuttle is a partner in a car dealership based in in Beverly Hills, California, and is married to Maria Denise Hummer. He has two daughters from a previous marriage.

Tuttle donated $59,000 to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.^[3] According to MSNBC: "British officials have privately complained about the appointment of political donors to the ambassador's post in London."^[3]

[edit] Denies that the USA sends suspects to Syria for torture

On December 22, 2005, during a BBC interview, Tuttle made statements about United States torture policy:^[4]

"I don't think there is any evidence that there have been any renditions carried out in the country of Syria. There is no evidence of that. And I think we have to take what the secretary [Condoleezza Rice] says at face value. It is something very important, it is done very carefully and she has said we do not authorise, condone torture in any way, shape or form."^[4]

An embassy official contacted the BBC, prior to the broadcast of the interview, with a partial correction, saying the Ambassador:

"...recognised that there had been a media report of a rendition to Syria but reiterated that the United States is not in a position to comment on specific allegations of intelligence activities that appear in the press".^[5]^[6]^[7]

Press reports identified Canadian citizen Maher Arar as the subject of an extraordinary rendition to Syria.^[2] Arar, a 34 year-old computer consultant, who had immigrated to Canada, from Syria, with his family, when he was a teenager, was arrested at a New York City airport, while changing flights on a return to Canada. After approximately two weeks in US custody Arar was hooded and flown to the mid-East in one of the CIA's clandestine fleet, Arar ended up in one of Syria's interrogation centres less than 48 hours later. The basic facts of Arar's rendition are not in dispute.

Opposition justice spokesman, Kenny MacAskill, said: "Rather than corrections and clarifications of a particular form of words what we need from the American government is a clear statement that this illegal and immoral practice will end."^[8]

According to The Guardian Tuttle implied that the United States had sought permission from the UK government, implicating the UK government in the practice of extraordinary rendition:

"Asked if he knew whether the US had sought permission from Britain, Tuttle said Rice had maintained that rendition would respect each country's sovereignty. His reply would seem to imply the US had sought permission, possibly leaving the British government open to challenge."^[2]

Swiss Senator Dick Marty has taken the position that member states of the European Union that knowingly participated in extraordinary rendition would be in violation of EU rules.^[9] A December 13, 2005 BBC article states that member states that violate EU rules on torture could be putting their EU voting rights in jeopardy.^[9]

[edit] Ambassadorship

In March 2006 Tuttle was the subject of some British media attention following an attack by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, on the US embassy's refusal to pay the London congestion charge.^[10] Livingstone described Tuttle as "one of George Bush's closest cronies and a big funder of his election campaign" and said he was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook"; Tuttle declined a response to these comments.^[11] The embassy has claimed that the charge is a form of taxation, and diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Transport for London, which is headed by the Mayor, considers the charge to be a fee for services, and points out that other embassies in London pay it, and US embassies in other cities pay similar road charges. The embassy says that the decision to stop paying was made before Tuttle became Ambassador, although the embassy only ceased payment after he took up the post.