The Ghosts of Torture (Hentoff)

New attorney general twists the rule of law to which he is 'deeply committed'
by Nat Hentoff
January 21st, 2005 6:04 PM

<snip> In its letter to Gonzales, New York's bar association asked him to "address our serious concerns on the topic of so-called 'extraordinary renditions.' This term refers to numerous, well-documented instances of U.S. involvement in extrajudicial transfers of terrorist suspects to countries where there is a serious risk that detainees will be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. . . . The practice of extraordinary rendition is a clear and unequivocal violation of international law, and is contrary to U.S. law and policy.

"We urge you to make clear that, as Attorney General, you will condemn this practice and enforce all domestic and international measures that prohibit it." <snip>

Kennedy confronted Gonzales with the utterly clear language of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which the United States ratified: "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations, of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power, or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

The CIA has been kidnapping American prisoners and sending them to other countries to be tortured since the Clinton administration, but with particular urgency and quantity since 9-11, as I will show in a future column. Moreover, the CIA has forcibly transferred prisoners from various locations into its own secret interrogation centers, including ships at sea, where the prisoners' identities are secret, resulting in their being called "ghost prisoners" by human rights organizations. <snip>

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0504,hentoff,60389,6.html

They have redifined "rendition," which is evident if one compares the discussions of rendition in DCI Tenet's testimonies in the 90's to those given while serving under Bush. If the CIA had a policy of "extraordinary rendition," under Clinton, it is not clear from my (admitedly cursory) reading of the public record. I will be interested to read what Henthoff has to say on this.