Extraordinary rendition
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¦¦ Extraordinary renditions allegedly have been carried out from these countries
¦¦ Detainees have allegedly been transported through these countries
¦¦ Detainees have alledgedly arrived in these countries
¦¦ The U.S. and suspected CIA "black sites"
Sources: Amnesty International[1]
Extraordinary rendition is an American extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation.[2] Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have called this practice "torture by proxy"[3] or "torture flights".[4]
Reportedly, in a number of cases (such as Khalid el-Masri) the practice of "extraordinary rendition" has been applied to innocent civilians, and the CIA has reportedly launched an investigation into such cases (which it refers to as "erroneous rendition"). In el-Masri's case, he may have been mistaken for another man with a similar name, Khalid al-Masri. The introduction of the term "erroneous rendition" should not be interpreted to mean that extraordinary rendition of any intended subject is legal.
Although rendition is not new, the current US policy of "extraordinary rendition" appears to be different in nature, and its usage as a tool in the US-led "war on terror" to apprehend suspected terrorists, but not place them before a court of law, is new.[5]
According to Swiss councillor Dick Marty's January 2006 memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states," about a hundred persons had been kidnapped by the CIA on European territory and subsequently rendered to countries where they may have been tortured. This number of a hundred persons does not overlap, but adds itself to the U.S. detained 100 ghost detainees.[6]
Media reports describe suspects as being arrested, blindfolded, shackled, and sedated, or otherwise kidnapped, and transported by private jet or other means to the destination country.[7] The reports also say that the rendering countries have provided interrogators with lists of questions. Although Egypt allegedly has been the most common destination, suspected terrorists have been rendered to other countries, such as Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan. According to former CIA case officer Bob Baer, "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear — never to see them again - you send them to Egypt."[8]
In a number of cases, suspects to whom the procedure is believed to have been applied later appeared to be innocent.[9]
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