Extraordinary Rendition- the reality
As with the rights of those accused of criminal offences, most people don’t worry too much about the CIA carting terror suspects around the globe, dropping them off at various states who are prepared to torture them- torture by proxy or Extraordinary Rendition.
Surely, the United States cannot get up to such shenanigans with Her Majesty’s government as a more that willing conspirator? Tony Blair is encouraging the judiciary to order the deportation asylum seekers to countries where torture is endemic and the criminal justice system is not suffused by the concept of human rights. “Human Rights”- another phrase people don’t care much about. Or is this all part of Blair’s rebalancing of our criminal justice system that "still asks first and foremost, how do we protect the accused from potential transgressions of the state or the police?"
Back to rendition- for many, it’s easy to deny Extraordinary Rendition exists. After all most of the “evidence” comes from those who have, or allege to have been, tortured at the behest of the CIA. We are told they are terror suspects. The “evidence” cannot be trusted.
So those of us who are concerned about torture and protecting the rights of those accused of terrorist offences must doff their caps to-
The Committee on International Human Rights of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York And The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University School of Law for a wonderful paper “TORTURE BY PROXY:INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LAW APPLICABLE TO“EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS”
It’s now no use denying the existence of renditions. This is from the section “Off the Record- The United States involved in renditions to justice”
“According to an unnamed senior U.S. intelligence official there have been “a lot of rendition activities” since September 11, 2001: “We are doing a number of them, and they have been very productive.” Similarly, in an interview with the Washington Post, an unnamed U.S. diplomat acknowledged that “[after September 11, [renditions] have been occurring all the time…. It allows us to get information from terrorists in a way we can’t do on U.S. soil.”
According to another unnamed official, “[t]he temptation is to have these folks in other hands because they have different standards. “Someone might be able to get information we can’t from detainees,” said another. Another unnamed official who has been involved in rendering captives into foreign hands explained his understanding of the purpose of Extraordinary Renditions: “We don’t kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them.” Newsweek reported that at a classified briefing for senators not longafter September 11, 2001, then CIA Director George Tenet was asked whether Washington was planning to seek the transfer of suspected Al Qaeda detainees from governments known for their brutality. “Congressional sources” told Newsweek “that Tenet suggested it might be better sometimes for such suspects to remain in the hands of foreign authorities, who might be able to use more aggressive interrogation methods.” Most recently, on October 13, 2004, the Israeli newspaper HaAretz reported that the CIA runs a top-secret interrogation facility in Jordan, where at least 11 detainees who are considered Al Qaeda’s most senior cadre are being held. HaAretz relied on “international intelligence sources” who, according to the newspaper, “are considered experts in surveillance and analysis of Al-Qaida and are involved in interrogating the detainees.” HaAretz reported that detention of Al Qaeda suspects outside the United States “enables CIA interrogators to apply interrogation methods that are banned by U.S. law, and to do so in a country where cooperation with the United States is particularly close, thereby reducing the danger of leaks.”
posted by Tony @ Wednesday, September 14, 2005
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