New Report on Extraordinary Rendition
Human Rights Watch has released a new report on the Administration's use of extraordinary rendition - shipping suspects off to countries that are known to practice torture. It's focus is the failure of diplomatic assurances to prevent abuse.
“Governments that are using diplomatic assurances know full well that they don’t protect against torture,” said [HRW Executive Director Kenneth]Roth. “But in the age of terror, they’re convenient. Only pressure from the public in Europe and North America can stop this negative trend.”
Governments rely on a variety of devices to transfer suspects to other countries, including renditions, removals, deportations, extraditions and expulsions. But none of them is legally permissible if the person to be transferred is at risk of torture on return.
“If these suspects are criminals they should be prosecuted, and if they’re not, they should be released,” said Roth. “But shipping them off to countries where they’ll be tortured is not an acceptable solution.”
The 91 page report, Still at Risk: Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard, is available here (html).
Also read Nat Hentoff's new column in the Village Voice on rendition, but not right after you eat:
One of the CIA's jet planes used to render purported terrorists to other countries—where information is extracted by any means necessary—made 10 trips to Uzbekistan. In a segment of CBS's 60 Minutes on these CIA torture missions (March 5), former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray told of the range of advanced techniques used by Uzbek interrogators:
"drowning and suffocation, rape was used . . . and also immersion of limbs in boiling liquid."
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