Editing Extraordinary rendition (section)

== Historical instances ==
=== Historical cases ===

The [[American Civil Liberties Union]] alleges that extraordinary rendition was developed during the [[Clinton administration]]. CIA officials in the mid-1990s were trying to track down and dismantle [[Islamic fundamentalism|militant Islamic]] organizations in the [[Middle East]], particularly [[Al Qaeda]].<ref name="ACLU-Fact-Sheet" />

According to Clinton administration official [[Richard A. Clarke|Richard Clarke]]:

{{blockquote|'extraordinary renditions', were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgment of the host government ... The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the [[White House Counsel]], [[Lloyd Cutler]], demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until [[Al Gore]] belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from [[South Africa]]. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: 'Lloyd says this. Dick says that.' Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'<ref>[[Richard A. Clarke]], ''[[Against All Enemies]]'' pp 143–4</ref>}}

Both the Bush and Clinton cases involved apprehending known terrorists abroad, by covert means if necessary. The Bush administration expanded the policy after the [[9/11 attacks]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dunn|first=Hastings|date=2005|title=Bush, 11 September and the conflicting strategies of the War on Terrorism.|journal=Irish Studies in International Affairs |volume=16|pages=11–33|doi=10.3318/ISIA.2005.16.1.11|jstor=30001932|s2cid=153831509 }}</ref>

In a ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' interview with CIA veteran [[Michael Scheuer]], an author of the rendition program under the Clinton administration, writer [[Jane Mayer]] noted:

<blockquote>In 1995, American agents proposed the rendition program to [[Egypt]], making clear that it had the resources to track, capture, and transport terrorist suspects globally – including access to a small fleet of aircraft. Egypt embraced the idea ... 'What was clever was that some of the senior people in Al Qaeda were Egyptian,' Scheuer said. 'It served American purposes to get these people arrested, and Egyptian purposes to get these people back, where they could be interrogated.' Technically, U.S. law requires the CIA to seek 'assurances' from foreign governments that rendered suspects won't be tortured. Scheuer told me that this was done, but he was 'not sure' if any documents confirming the arrangement were signed.<ref name="mayer" /></blockquote>

Scheuer testified in 2007 before Congress that no such assurances were received.<ref>"I have read and been told that Mr. Clinton, Mr. Berger and Mr. Clarke have said, since 9/11, that they insisted that each receiving country treat the rendered person it received according to U.S. legal standards. To the best of my memory, that is a lie." [http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/34712.pdf ''Extraordinary Rendition in U.S. Counter terrorism Policy: The Impact on Transatlantic Relations''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101093745/http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/34712.pdf |date=1 November 2007 }}, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Subcommittee on Europe, 17 April 2007, p. 12.</ref> He acknowledged that treatment of prisoners may not have been "up to U.S. standards":

<blockquote>This is a matter of no concern as the Rendition Program's goal was to protect America. The rendered fighters delivered to Middle Eastern governments are now either dead or in places from which they cannot harm America. Mission accomplished, as the saying goes.<ref>[http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/34712.pdf Extraordinary Rendition in U.S. Counter terrorism Policy: The Impact on Transatlantic Relations.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101093745/http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/34712.pdf |date=1 November 2007 }}, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Subcommittee on Europe, 17 April 2007, p. 14.</ref></blockquote>

Thereafter, with the approval of President Clinton and a presidential directive ([[PDD 39]]), the CIA elected to send suspects to Egypt, where they were turned over to the Egyptian [[Egyptian General Intelligence Service|Mukhabarat]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch4.htm|title=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States|website=govinfo.library.unt.edu|access-date=2019-12-19}}</ref> (→ [[Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim]])

=== 20th century ===
The CIA was granted permission to use rendition of indicted terrorists to American soil in a 1995 [[presidential directive]] signed by President [[Bill Clinton]], following a procedure<ref>[[Presidential directive]] [https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd39.htm PDD 39], 1995</ref> established by [[George H. W. Bush]] in January 1993.<ref>[https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsd/index.html <nowiki>National Security Directives (NSD) [Bush Administration, 1989-93]</nowiki>].[[National Security Directive]] 77, January 1993</ref>

The United States has since increasingly used rendition as a tool in the "[[war on terror]]", ignoring the normal [[extradition]] processes outlined in international law.<ref>Raymond Bonner: [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19777 "The CIA's Secret Torture"], ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', 11 January 2007</ref> Suspects taken into United States custody are delivered to third-party states, often without ever having been on United States soil, and without involving the rendering countries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Piret|first=Jean-Marc|date=2008|title=The war against terrorism, international law and the growth of unchecked executive power in the U.S.|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-interdisciplinaire-d-etudes-juridiques-2008-1-page-59.htm#|journal=Cairn. Info|volume=60|pages=59–111}}</ref>

Critics have accused the CIA of employing rendition for the purpose of circumventing American laws mandating [[due process]] and prohibiting [[torture]], labeling the practice "torture flights".<ref>{{cite news | title= Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up | url=https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,,1689853,00.html| access-date=23 January 2006 |work=The Guardian|location=London| date=19 January 2006 | first=Richard | last=Norton-Taylor}}</ref> Sociological comparisons have been drawn between extraordinary rendition and the [[death flights]] implemented, most notably, by Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>Austin, Jonathan Luke., 2015. [https://web.archive.org/web/20151204051611/http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/11/26/1354066115616466.abstract "We have never been civilized: Torture and the Materiality of World Political Binaries."] ''European Journal of International Relations'', [[doi:10.1177/1354066115616466]]</ref> Defenders of the practice argue that culturally informed and native-language interrogations are more successful in gaining information from suspects.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18709-2005Mar8.html 'Rendition' Realities], David Ignatius, ''The Washington Post'', 9 March 2005; p. A21</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/10/two_experts_on_1.html|title=Two experts on extraordinary rendition: one invented it, the other has seen its full horrors|first=Neil|last=Mackay|newspaper=[[Sunday Herald]]|date=18 October 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609062959/http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/10/two_experts_on_1.html|archive-date=9 June 2007}} (link is to text of article on [[Craig Murray]]'s website)</ref>

Hundreds of documents retrieved from [[Foreign relations of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi|Libyan foreign ministry]] offices in [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] following the [[2011 Libyan civil war]] show that the CIA and [[MI6]] rendered suspects to Libyan authorities knowing they would be tortured.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/06/libyan-dissident-tortured-sues-britain |title=Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition |date=6 October 2011 |access-date=6 September 2018 |newspaper=The Guardian|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/7/discovered_files_show_us_britain_had |title=Discovered Files Show U.S., Britain Had Extensive Ties with Gaddafi Regime on Rendition, Torture |date=7 September 2011 |access-date=6 November 2011 |publisher=Democracy Now!}}</ref>{{failed verification|reason=source speaks of MI6 cooperation, it never suggests active rendition|date=June 2015}}

In a number of cases, such as those of [[Khalid El-Masri]] and [[Maher Arar]], suspects caught up in the procedure suffered lengthy detentions, despite ultimately being found innocent.<ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/17/1530242 Outsourcing Torture: The Secret History of America's "Extraordinary Rendition"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050225100031/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F02%2F17%2F1530242 |date=25 February 2005 }}, [[Democracy Now]], 17 February 2005</ref> The CIA reportedly launched an investigation into such incidents of "[[#"Erroneous rendition"|erroneous rendition]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=11527&lang=en|title=PACE – Doc. 10957 (2006) – Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states|website=assembly.coe.int|access-date=2019-12-19}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
[[File:Map of Countries involved in US Extrordinary Rendition.svg|thumb|300px|right|
{{legend|#000000|The U.S. and suspected CIA "[[black site]]s"}}
{{legend|#3333FF|Extraordinary renditions allegedly have been carried out from these countries}}
{{legend|#9999FF|Detainees have allegedly been transported through these countries}}
{{legend|#FF0000|Detainees have allegedly arrived in these countries}}
''Sources:'' Amnesty International<ref name=AmnestyInternational060101>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/POL30/003/2006/en {{"'}}Rendition' and secret detention: A global system of human rights violations"], [[Amnesty International]], 1 January 2006</ref> [[Human Rights Watch]]]]
Following the [[11 September 2001 attacks]] the United States, in particular the [[CIA]], has been accused of rendering hundreds of people suspected by the government of being terrorists—or of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations—to third-party states such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan. Such "[[ghost detainees]]" are kept outside [[judicial]] oversight, often without ever entering US territory, and may or may not ultimately be transferred to the custody of the United States.<ref name="mayer">Mayer, Jane. ''The New Yorker'', 14 February 2005. {{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6|title=Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America's 'extraordinary rendition' program.|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=20 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050213094301/https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6 |archive-date=13 February 2005 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

According to a 4 December 2005 article in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' by [[Dana Priest]]:

<blockquote>Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an [[enema]] and sleeping drugs. They outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA's own covert prisons—referred to in classified documents as "black sites", which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern Europe.<ref name="WaPo051204">{{cite news | first=Dana | last=Priest | title=Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301476.html | access-date=18 December 2005 | newspaper=The Washington Post| date=4 December 2005 }}</ref></blockquote>

Following mounting scrutiny in Europe, including investigations held by the [[Swiss people|Swiss]] State Councillor [[Dick Marty]] who released a public report in June 2006, the [[United States Senate|US Senate]], in December 2005, was about to approve a measure that would include amendments requiring the Director of National Intelligence to provide regular, detailed updates about secret detention facilities maintained by the United States overseas, and to account for the treatment and condition of each prisoner.<ref name="NyTimes051215">{{cite news |title=Senate is Set to Require White House to Account for Secret Prisons |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1071FFA34550C768DDDAB0994DD404482 |date=15 December 2005 |access-date=18 December 2005 |work=The New York Times |first=Douglas |last=Jehl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408042758/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1071FFA34550C768DDDAB0994DD404482 |archive-date=8 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>