A lawyer representing people allegedly flown on CIA flights to Libya and tortured has accused Britain of covering up details of its involvement. Britain says its records are incomplete because of water damage.

Cori Crider, a lawyer from charity Reprieve which is investigating CIA flights through the Britain-administered island of Diego Garcia, said Thursday that the loss was strikingly convenient.

The U.S., which has a large military base on the Indian Ocean island, admitted using it in 2002 for its extraordinary rendition program.

Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds said logs of flights landing and taking off from the island in 2002 are “incomplete due to water damage.”

Crider says “the government might as well have said the dog ate their homework.”

(AP)