Editing Extraordinary rendition (section)

== Background ==
By 2004, critics alleged that torture was used against subjects with the knowledge or acquiescence of the United States, where the transfer of a person for the purpose of torture is unlawful.<ref name=bbc2004jan23 /><ref name=statesman2004may17>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/node/147955|title=America's gulag|first=Stephen|last=Grey|date=17 May 2004|website=[[New Statesman]]}}</ref> In addition, some former detainees, such as the [[Australians|Australian]] citizen [[Mamdouh Habib]], claimed to have been transferred to other countries for interrogation under torture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/online/AustraliansGuantanamo|title=Australians in Guantanamo Bay. A Chronology of the detention of Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks|last=Nigel|first=Brew|date=2007|website=Chronologies ONline|access-date=19 December 2019}}{{dead link|date=January 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> In December 2005, then [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Condoleezza Rice]] insisted:<ref name=rice1>{{cite web|title=Remarks of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Upon Her Departure for Europe, 5 Dec 2005|url=http://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/57602.htm|publisher=[[U.S. State Department]]|access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref>

<blockquote>The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.</blockquote>

Between 2001 and 2005, CIA officers captured an estimated one hundred fifty people and transported them around the world.<ref name="NYT-17-Feb-2009" /><ref name="CIA-Background-Memo">{{cite web|url=https://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/082409/olcremand/2004olc97.pdf|title=Background Paper on CIA's Combined Use of Interrogation Techniques|publisher=[[ACLU]]|date=30 December 2004|accessdate=2 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="Huff-Post-08-28-09">{{cite web|first=Scott|last=Horton|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/28/new-cia-docs-detail-bruta_n_271299.html|title=New CIA Docs Detail Brutal 'Extraordinary Rendition' Process|website=[[Huffington Post]]|date=28 August 2009|accessdate=2 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="ACLU-Fact-Sheet">{{cite web |title=Fact sheet: Extraordinary rendition |url=https://www.aclu.org/documents/fact-sheet-extraordinary-rendition |accessdate=29 March 2007 |publisher=[[American Civil Liberties Union]] |lang=en}}</ref>

Under the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|Bush administration]], rendered persons were reported to have undergone torture by receiving countries. Journalists, civil and constitutional rights groups, and former detainees have alleged that this occurred with the knowledge or cooperation of the administrations of the United States and the United Kingdom.<ref name="britain-condemned">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/4963949/Britain-condemned-over-extraordinary-rendition.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/4963949/Britain-condemned-over-extraordinary-rendition.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Britain condemned over extraordinary rendition|first=Rosa|last=Prince|date=21 August 2011|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Such revelations prompted several official investigations into alleged secret detentions and unlawful interstate transfers involving [[Council of Europe]] members. A [[#27 June 2006 Council of Europe resolution|June 2006 report]] estimated that 100 people had been kidnapped by the CIA on [[European Union]] soil with the cooperation of Council of Europe members and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centers ("[[black site]]s"), some located in Europe. According to the separate [[#European Parliament's investigation and report|European Parliament report of February 2007]], the CIA has conducted 1,245 flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face torture, in violation of Article 3 of the [[United Nations Convention Against Torture]].<ref>[http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta06/ERES1507.htm Resolution 1507 (2006).]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612123848/http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=%2FDocuments%2FAdoptedText%2Fta06%2FERES1507.htm |date=12 June 2010 }} Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states</ref> A large majority of the [[European Union Parliament]] endorsed the report's conclusion that many member states tolerated illegal actions by the CIA, criticizing several European governments and [[intelligence agencies]] for their unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation.<ref>{{cite report|first=Julia|last=Hall|url=https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/eur010012011en.pdf|title=Amnesty International European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights: Current Evidence: European Complicity in the CIA Rendition and Secret Detention Programme|publisher=[[Amnesty International]]|location=Brussels|date=25 January 2011|accessdate=21 March 2025}}</ref>

Within days of his 2009 inauguration, [[Barack Obama]] signed an [[Executive order (United States)|executive order]] opposing rendition torture and established a task force to provide recommendations about processes to prevent rendition torture.<ref name="White House">{{cite web |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/EnsuringLawfulInterrogations/ |title=Ensuring Lawful Interrogations |publisher=[[White House]] |access-date=17 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126061153/http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/EnsuringLawfulInterrogations/ |archive-date=26 January 2009 }}</ref> His administration distanced itself from some of the harshest [[counterterrorism]] techniques but permitted the practice of rendition to continue,<ref name="LA-Times-2009-Feb-01">"[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-feb-01-na-rendition1-story.html Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool]". ''LA Times'' 1 February 2009. Access 21 November 2011.</ref> restricting transport of suspects to countries with jurisdiction over them for the purpose of prosecution after diplomatic assurances "that they [would] not be treated inhumanely" had been received.<ref>{{cite news
| title=N.Y. billing dispute reveals details of secret CIA rendition flights
| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ny-billing-dispute-reveals-details-of-secret-cia-rendition-flights/2011/08/30/gIQAbggXsJ_story_1.html
| newspaper=The Washington Post
| date=1 September 2011
| first=Thomas
| last=Erdbrink}}</ref><ref name="Panetta clarification">{{cite web
| year = 2011
| url = https://www.propublica.org/blog/item/as-rendition-controversy-reemerges-obama-admin-policies-murky
| title= Renditions—and Secrecy Around Them—Continue
| access-date =7 October 2011}} Panetta's clarification of current US "Rendition policy".</ref>