Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Five "Myths" About Rendition:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_10_21-2007_10_27.shtml#1192975531
Former Clinton Adminsitration National Security Council staff member
Daniel Benjamin takes to the Washington Post's Outlook section to
address [1]"5 Myths about Rendition (and that New Movie)." Writes
Benjamin:
With hearings in Congress, legal cases bouncing up to the Supreme
Court and complaints from Canada and our European allies, the issue
of rendition is everywhere. There's even a new, [2]eponymously
titled movie in a theater near you, starring Reese Witherspoon as a
bereft wife whose innocent husband gets kidnapped and Meryl Streep
as the frosty CIA chief who ordered the snatch. Like most covert
actions and much of the war on al-Qaeda, the practice is shrouded
in mystery -- and, increasingly, the suspicion that it's synonymous
with torture and lawlessness.
In fact, the term "rendition" in the counterterrorism context means
nothing more than moving someone from one country to another,
outside the formal process of extradition. For the CIA, rendition
has become a key tool for getting terrorists from places where
they're causing trouble to places where they can't. The problem is
where these people are taken and what happens to them when they get
there. As a former director for counterterrorism policy on the
National Security Council staff, I've been involved with the issue
of rendition for nearly a decade -- and some of the myths
surrounding it need to be cleared up.
Here are Benjamin's five "myths":
1. Rendition is something the Bush administration cooked up. 2.
People who are "rendered" inevitably end up in a foreign slammer --
or worse. 3. Step one of a rendition involves kidnapping the
suspect. 4. Rendition is just a euphemism for outsourcing torture.
5. Pretty much anyone -- including U.S. citizens and green card
holders -- can be rendered these days.
References
1.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101900835_pf.html
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/
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