Re: [Pen-l] Rendition Lite

[ken hanly <northsunm@xxxxxxxxx>]

  There is nothing wrong with the LA Times article except that it could have listed lots of other cases. A good example is Maher Arar who was whisked off a plane in New York while transiting the US on his way to Canada. He was judged to be an Al Qaeda operative and sent to Syria where he was interrogated and tortured using questions that were provided by Canadian and probably US intelligence. The Arar Inquiry in Canada found that he had no connection with Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group and that he had been unfairly treated. He was awarded millions in compensation by the government. He is still on a US no fly list though. 
  As numerous articles have pointed out this type of rendition will probably become more commmon since torture is prohibited by Obama. The talk of the extra-ordinary rendition program which does seem to have been abandoned is a red herring. Why bother to go the trouble of having your own facilities and cause all sorts of PR grief. Contract out the torture.
  Perhaps rendition should be criticised as against buy American provisions

Blog:  http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
Blog:  http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html


--- On Tue, 2/3/09, Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Pen-l] Rendition Lite
> To: "PEN-L list" <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 1:21 PM
> On February first, the Los Angeles Times reported that
> renditions will continue under the Obama administration:
> 
> 	The CIAâs secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh
> interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay
> will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on
> the southeastern corner of Cuba.
> 
> 	But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama
> left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool.
> 
> 	Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA
> still has authority to carry out what are known as
> renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to
> countries that cooperate with the United States.
> 
> Not long after the article appeared, it was discredited as
> a hoax by Obama supporters Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings and
> Harperâs Magazine Scott Horton, an expert on extralegal
> abuses during the Bush administration, who wrote:
> 
> 	The Los Angeles Times just got punkedâ It misses the
> difference between the renditions program, which has been
> around since the Bush 41 Administration at least (and
> arguably in some form even in the Reagan Administration) and
> the extraordinary renditions program which was introduced by
> Bush 43 and clearly shut down under an executive order
> issued by President Obama in his first week.
> 
> 	There are two fundamental distinctions between the
> programs. The extraordinary renditions program involved the
> operation of long-term detention facilities either by the
> CIA or by a cooperating host government together with the
> CIA, in which prisoners were held outside of the criminal
> justice system and otherwise unaccountable under law for
> extended periods of time. A central feature of this program
> was rendition to torture, namely that the prisoner was
> turned over to cooperating foreign governments with the full
> understanding that those governments would apply techniques
> that even the Bush Administration considers to be torture.
> This practice is a felony under current U.S. law, but was
> made a centerpiece of Bush counterterrorism policy.
> 
> 	The earlier renditions program regularly involved
> snatching and removing targets for purposes of bringing them
> to justice by delivering them to a criminal justice system.
> It did not involve the operation of long-term detention
> facilities and it did not involve torture. There are legal
> and policy issues with the renditions program, but they are
> not in the same league as those surrounding extraordinary
> rendition. Moreover, Obama committed to shut down the
> extraordinary renditions program, and continuously made
> clear that this did not apply to the renditions program.
> 
> Hortonâs reassurances to the contrary, I for one would
> not use Bush 41âs renditions program as a benchmark for
> human rights.
> 
> full:
> http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/rendition-lite/
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