tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345139809206736127.post3375709863006639309..comments2012-02-05T06:06:20.000-05:00Comments on Back To Our Senses: Silly Lies About Tortureback_to_our_senseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02538669600104594646noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345139809206736127.post-55952613808122933582009-02-04T08:43:00.000-05:002009-02-04T08:43:00.000-05:00Valtin - thanks for your comment. I will try to a...Valtin - thanks for your comment. I will try to address the issues you raise in a later post.back_to_our_senseshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02538669600104594646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8345139809206736127.post-6793589832640372892009-02-03T17:37:00.000-05:002009-02-03T17:37:00.000-05:00I don't know if I would accept Richard Clarke as m...I don't know if I would accept Richard Clarke as my expert on renditions. Or even Scott Horton, at this point. This is what Amnesty International says about rendition (link at end of comment -- sorry for the length but this is important -- quote is in italics):<BR/><BR/><I>Amnesty International uses the term "rendition" to refer to a variety of practices by the US authorities involving transfers of individuals from one country to another, without any form of judicial or administrative process such as extradition. These practices, usually carried out in secret, include transferring "war on terror" detainees into the custody of other states, assuming custody of individuals from foreign authorities and abducting suspects on foreign soil.<BR/><BR/>The practice of transferring a detainee from US custody to the custody of a foreign state is usually called "extraordinary rendition" in the USA, and appears to have been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 1995. Cases in which suspects are transferred into US custody, and are detained and interrogated by US personnel outside of the US, have also been referred to as "extraordinary renditions", but are sometimes called "reverse renditions". Amnesty International describes all such practices as "rendition"....<BR/><BR/>The US administration has acknowledged it uses "rendition", maintaining that the practice is aimed at transferring "war on terror" detainees from the country where they were captured to their home country or to other countries where they can be questioned, held or brought to justice. It has contended that these transfers are carried out in accordance with US law and treaty obligations, including those under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It denies transferring detainees from one country to another for the purpose of allowing interrogations involving torture....<BR/><BR/>Amnesty International believes that these practices are illegal because they bypass any judicial or administrative process such as extradition. Under international law, it is illegal to transfer people from one country to another without any kind of judicial or administrative process.<BR/><BR/>Moreover, most victims of "rendition" were arrested and detained illegally in the first place: some were abducted; others were refused access to any legal process. Many victims of "rendition" have been or continue to be held in prolonged arbitrary detention and they have been or continue to be subjected to enforced disappearance. All of the victims of "rendition" Amnesty International has interviewed have also said they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.<BR/><BR/>"Rendition" usually involves multiple human rights violations, including abduction, arbitrary arrest and detention and unlawful transfer without due process of law. It also violates a number of other human rights safeguards: for example, victims of "rendition" have no possibility of challenging their detention, or the arbitrary decision to transfer them to another country.</I><BR/><BR/>All rendition is illegal, and the attempt to split rendition into good and bad types is a neo-con shell game that doesn't deserve the embrace it is getting in certain liberal circles.<BR/>http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/POL30/003/2006/en/dom-POL300032006en.htmlValtinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07427976389098964420noreply@blogger.com