They believe that such lenient 'European' laws create a huge gap in security, which need to be tightened and that human rights conventions such as the Convention Against Torture make it almost impossible for states to gain a reasonable and necessary degree of assurance against devastating attacks in an age of asymmetrical warfare against international terrorists.
Former U.S. officials such as Michael Scheuer, who helped to set up the CIA's rendition program during the Clinton administration, are more forthcoming about commenting on the nature and existence of 'extraordinary' renditions. Scheuer has in different statements and interviews to the media admitted that officials who authorized renditions were well aware that prisoners sent to countries such as Egypt would most likely be tortured (Grey 27 -- "Torture's Tipping Point"). He has further clarified that renditions were authorized by the U.S. National Security Council during the Clinton administration and officials in Congress, and "all of them understood what it meant to send suspects to those countries" (Pelley).
Other U.S. government officials admit that the extraordinary rendition program became much more potent after the 9/11 attacks on Trade Towers and Pentagon. Cofer Black, Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Centre from 1999 until May 2002, in a statement before the 9/11 Commission has testified: "...After 9/11 the gloves come off... 'No Limits' aggressive, relentless, worldwide pursuit of any terrorist who threatens us is the only way to go..." (Quoted in "Below the Radar" -- Amnesty International Report). Another American intelligence agent quoted in the December 26, 2002, Washington Post says: "We don't kick the ***** out of them [terrorist suspects]. We send them to other countries so they can kick the ***** out of them." (Quoted by Gutierrez, 13)
The 'Down Side' of Extraordinary Rendition
Research by investigative journalists, eye witness accounts, and testimony by victims of rendition who have later been released have given us a fairly detailed picture of how a 'typical' extraordinary rendition operation is carried out. It starts with a sudden attack by half-dozen or so hooded security officials on a 'terror suspect' in an airport lobby, busy-street or an apartment building; after physically overwhelming the suspect, he is promptly drugged and sedated by a suppository forced up their rectum, handcuffed, mouth duct-taped, and their clothes cut off their bodies with scissors. The "detainee" is then swaddled in diapers, dressed in orange jumpsuits, blindfolded, placed in handcuffs and leg irons, and dumped into a special CIA jet, to be flown off to an undisclosed secret location. Once transported to a country such as Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Jordan, the suspect is subjected to brutal interrogation, beatings and torture, without any judicial oversight.
Mistakes are Common
Any 'program' that violates a basic tenet of a fair justice system, i.e., assumption of innocence before being proven guilty, is bound to be prone to mistakes whereby the innocent are victimized along with the guilty. When a process is carried out in secrecy and without any judicial oversight, the chances of such mistakes are multiplied.
It is no surprise, therefore, to find a number of mistakes made in the process of extraordinary rendition due to victims being selected on basis of faulty intelligence, the flimsiest of suspicions, or even mistaken identity. One such well-documented case is that of Khaled el-Masri, a 43-year-old German of Lebanese origin who was unlawfully detained on December 31, 2003 while on a trip to Macedonia. After his arrest and interrogation for 23 days by the Macedonian intelligence agencies, during which he was denied access to the German embassy or any other person, Masri was handed over to U.S. officials, presumably CIA agents. According to el-Masri's testimony given after his release, the hooded CIA agents subjected him to the full extraordinary rendition SOP: such as cutting off his clothes with scissors; drugging him via his anus; putting him in diapers, tracksuit, and a hood; and shackling him to the floor of a waiting aircraft. The plane flew him to the "Salt Pit" -- an abandoned brick factory in Kabul, which was run by U.S. agents as a prison. Masri says that he was detained for five months in a dark cell, beaten, half-starved, and interrogated repeatedly by U.S. agents; he went on hunger strike to protest against his treatment, and was force fed ("The Rendition of Khaled-el-Masri").
In May 2004, five months after his detention, el-Masri was released after the Americans...
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