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CIA's counter-terrorism rendition program gets nod from Obama
UNDER executive orders issued by the US President, Barack Obama, last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as "renditions", or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that co-operate with the United States.Current and former US intelligence officials said that the rendition program might be poised to play an expanded role because it was the main remaining mechanism - aside from Predator missile strikes - for taking suspected terrorists off the street. The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA and a target of international scorn as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured. The European Parliament condemned renditions as "an illegal instrument used by the United States". Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of the Boeing Corp, accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights. But the Obama Administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard. The decision underscores the fact that the battle with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the United States is shutting down the prisons, it has not finished taking prisoners. "Obviously you need to preserve some tools. You still have to go after the bad guys," an Obama Administration official said. "The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice." One provision in one of Mr Obama's orders appears to preserve the CIA's ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis". Despite concern about rendition, Mr Obama's prohibition against the use of most other counter-terrorism tools could prompt intelligence officers to resort more frequently to the "transitory" technique. The decision to preserve the program has not drawn major protests, even among some US human rights groups. "Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. Posted by: john frum 2009-02-02 |
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