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
I find this statement truly predjudiced. It should read:
"If hooking up a terrorist's scrotum to a car's battery cables will save one American's life..."
Agree...... The comment is actually a reference from a retired general. Wish I could take credit !
Free trips to exotic locales at government expense and they are complaining. Tsk, tsk.
Do you see sleeper troll? I have to wear this to foil hat to prevent your black hole of intelligence from stealing my I.Q. P.S. YOU AIN'T FUNNY.
This country seems to be wearing its Levis inside out. We defend terrorists' rights not to be tortured for information and punish a kid who'd write this same thing in a school paper. By definition, a terrorist has no individual rights. By definition, an American has the inalienable right to free speech. Now back to regular programming...
The administration has made that difference clear numerous times. In any event, it is a distinction with little practical difference. POWs have no legal right to counsel to determine their status and terrorists aren't supposed to be tortured or summarily executed.
I suppose it would be helpful if the media ever bothered to inform itself about the topics they report, but that isn't in the administration's control.
Seems like the trolls are out in force today......
Provided that the body parts are removed from a terrorist prior to boiling, I don't see what the big deal is.
</sick-twisted-humor-that-popped-into-my-head-and-probably-shouldn't-be-posted-on-a-public-forum disclaimer ...
Am I missing something? So what? Big Deal! The CIA turned these guys over to people who knew how to deal with them. And The New Yorker thinks this is a problem. Oh, that's right, they also thought making somebody where women's panties was tortunre to.
Are we becoming a nation of wimps or what?
But...But...I'M NOT 13!!!!!!
LOL!
I hope so. If it's obvious to ME what the bill is intended to do I would think the R's would see it.
Let's see now, the people being shot at, (at the scene) and catch the culprits in the act, are sending them off to who-knows-where, without any evidence?
And, those who sit in the safety and comfort provided by same, somehow know (in absentia) that the opposite is true?
It's close, but arrogance triumphs over the lack of common sense here.
What is being reported is NOT BATTLEFIELD related captures but the kidnapping of citizens off the street IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES ALL OVER THE WORLD. People who may have the same name as some "wanted" suspect or simply have a name that some tortured individual gave his torturer to stop the abuse. They are literally kidnapped on their way to work or shopping etc. and then spirited off to be tortured in another nation without any intervening legal niceties to inquire if they are even the person who was being sought. Like the Salem witchhunters, mere accusal is sufficient.
People who defend and justify a system of punishing and torturing people based on no more evidence than their simply being accused by someone, somewhere of some wrongdoing had better be careful what they wish for. They may find actually living under such a system once it is fully implemented to be much less enjoyable than they anticipated. But then, there are unteachable knuckle-draggers everywhere who only learn by their mistakes.
"News" from Agence France Presse?
LOL!!!
heck yeah to infinity!
and beyond.
may the muslim slime be forced to endure helen thomas and
nancy palosi and b. boxer as concubines for eternity.
even howard dean could not come up with a scream
painful enough for that fate.
It makes a quite lovely marinade for BBQ pork ribs.
How close is this legislation to being passed?
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