Posted on 02/08/2005 10:48:57 PM PST by ainitfunny
Fair use for education/discussion purposes:
Yahoo! News News Home - Help AFP CIA renditions of terror suspects are 'out of control:' report
Sun Feb 6, 5:57 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)'s 'rendition' of suspected terrorists has spiralled 'out of control' according to a former FBI (news - web sites) agent, cited in a report which examined how CIA (news - web sites) detainees are spirited to states suspected of using torture.
Michael Scheuer a former CIA counterterrorism agent told The New Yorker magazine "all we've done is create a nightmare," with regard to the top secret practice of renditions.
In an article titled 'Outsourcing Torture' due to hit newsstands this week, the magazine claims suspects, sometimes picked up by the CIA, are often flown to Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Jordan, "each of which is known to use torture in interrogations."
The report said suspects are given few, if any, legal protections.
Despite US laws that ban America from expelling or extraditing individuals to countries where torture occurs, Scott Horton -- an expert on international law who has examined CIA renditions -- estimates that 150 people have been picked up in the CIA dragnet since 2001.
The New Yorker report said that suspects in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East "have been abducted by hooded or masked American agents" and then sometimes forced onto a white Gulfstream V jet.
The jet -- marked on its tail by the code N379P which has recently been changed to N8068V -- "has been registered to a series of dummy American corporations ... (and) has clearance to land at US military bases," it said.
Maher Arar was arrested in 2002 by US officials at John F. Kennedy airport and then claims he was put on a "executive jet" which flew him to Amman, Jordan, before he was driven to Syria.
Arar says he was tortured in Syria and told his interrogators anything they wanted due to the beatings He was released without charge in 2003 and is suing the US government for his mistreatment.
He claims that the crew onboard the Gulfstream identified themselves as "the Special Removal Unit" during radio communications on his flight to Jordan.
"The most common destinations for rendered suspects are Egypt, Morocco, Syria and Jordan, all of which have been cited for human rights violations by the (US) State Department," the report said.
By holding detainees without counsel or charges of wrongdoing, the administration of US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) "has jeopardized its chances of convicting hundreds of suspected terrorists, or even of using them as witnesses in almost any court in the world," the report said.
The article cited Dan Coleman, an ex Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism expert who retired in July 2003.
Coleman told The New Yorker that torture "has become bureaucratized," by the Bush administration, and that the practice of renditions is "out of control."
Scheuer said there had been a legal process underlying early renditions, but as more suspects were rounded up following the September 11, 2001, attacks, "all we've done is create a nightmare."
Abductees are effectively classified as "illegal enemy combatants," by the US government, which is how it also classifies the estimated 550 'war on terror' detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Such a classifiction, the US argues, exempts such detainees from the protections of the Geneva Conventions, part of which govern the treatment of prisoners.
The report also cited the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, as saying Washington has accepted intelligence from Uzkbekistan that was "largely rubbish."
[B]The ambassador claims to know of at least three individuals rendered to Uzbekistan by the United States, where cases of the authorities boiling prisoners' body parts have been documented.[/B]
Washington has admitted it is holding some suspects, including top Al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but it does not say where he is detained.
Mohammed has reportedly been "water boarded" during interrogations: So called 'water boarding' refers to a practice whereby a detainee is bound and immersed in water until he nearly drowns.
Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or r[edistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright Policy - Ad Feedback
Yeah... LOL SYRIA!
We catch Syrian insurgents and send them to... SYRIA for torture? right.
FYI
Who's Responsible for Rendition ?
From Michael Ledden at the National Review Online:
I doubt anyone in this administration ( which, remember, already retreated from its earlier positions on interrogation methods permitted against captured terrorist suspects) is going to point out that the most controversial and ethically questionable method of all was developed during the Clinton administration in direct response to orders that came directly from the White House. "Rendition" was a Clinton creation, and was approved by Clinton's lawyers, with no apparent cries of pain either from the Justice Department or from anyone in Congressional "oversight" committees. Gonzales might quietly make that point if anyone yells at him. It won't register with the Democrats, but it might help the public understand the real world a little better. [My emphasis]
You have become not only fools, but UNAMERICAN fools.
Your faulty reasoning is that the more heinous and outrageous the crime that is committed, the LESS EVIDENCE IS REQUIRED TO START EXACTING REVENGE UPON SOMEONE, UNTIL YOU ARRIVE AT THE POSITION YOU NOW HOLD THAT MERE ACCUSAL OF A TERRIBLE DEPRAVITY IS SUFFICIENT IN AN OF ITSELF TO EXACT UNLIMITED REVENGE UPON THE ONE ACCUSED.
That kind of thinking led to the "REIGN OF TERROR" and eventually bit Robespierre (it's author)in the butt.(or should I say head?) Grab a history book and get an education about what and where that kind of sentiment leads.
That will be seen as a diversion from an investigation into the torture charges and will go nowhere, the media will see to that--any such move would be portrayed as a Republican attempt to change the subject. The torture issue is The stealth issue for the dems. Just watch. If anyone needed proof all they have to do is look at how the dems are "quietly" helping this legislation along, and are already laying the groundwork for "The Story". Remember the dems talking about how they never put out "The Story"--i.e. laid out the groundwork for removing Bush and voting for Kerry? They sure haven't forgotten it. They're doing it right now.
Could this be another Democrat scumbag who was thrown overboard by Porter Goss and who now wants to (continue to) undermine Bush?
>claims he was put on a "executive jet" which flew him to Amman, Jordan, before he was driven to Syria.
Right. We're going to send him to a country that is one of the leading suppliers of insurgent terrorists in Iraq!?!?!
They forgot about the black helicopters!
Such BS
Try the Decaf.
Uh huh huh huh huh...you said "Unit."
That's nice.
So what? No big whoop.
Agree, And sending them to Syria is bull too.
Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or r[edistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Questions or Comments Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright Policy - Ad Feedback
Yes, France is an honest country!
LOL!
Even if it was true, I don't care. It beats having your beheading video taped for world entertainment.
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