Extraordinary Rendition Report Finds More Than 50 Nations Involved In Global Torture Scheme

[Cali_Democrat]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. counterterrorism practice known as extraordinary rendition, in which suspects were quietly moved to secret prisons abroad and often tortured, involved the participation of more than 50 nations, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Open Society Foundations.

The OSF report, which offers the first wholesale public accounting of the top-secret program, puts the number of governments that either hosted CIA "black sites," interrogated or tortured prisoners sent by the U.S., or otherwise collaborated in the program at 54. The report also identifies by name 136 prisoners who were at some point subjected to extraordinary rendition.

The number of nations and the names of those detained provide a stark tally of a program that was expanded widely -- critics say recklessly -- by the George W. Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has been heavily condemned in the years since. In December, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, condemned the CIA's detention and interrogation efforts as "terrible mistakes."

Although Bush administration officials said they never intentionally sent terrorism suspects abroad in order to be tortured, the countries where the prisoners seemed to end up -- Egypt, Libya and Syria, among others -- were known to utilize coercive interrogation techniques.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/extraordinary-rendition-torture-report_n_2617809.html?ref=topbar

[bemildred]

1. Oh heck no, they didn't intend for anybody to be tortured.

[lovuian]

2. Bush administration talk about the reign of terror

you can see 50 nations were scared of them

[hughee99]

8. It could be. I'll bet a lot fewer nations were involved when the Clinton Admin was doing it. n/t

[riverbendviewgal]

3. CNN has nothing about this report.

but it did have one report in 2011...

The Supreme Court has again refused to review the limits of liability involving the secret detention of a suspected terrorist under the government's post-9/11 "extraordinary rendition" program.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/05/16/scotus.rendition/index.html?iref=allsearch


It will be interesting to see if the Uglicans react to this.

[riverbendviewgal]

4. more recent story on this by CNN...

Former hostage: I was shamed by western use of torture

If the dreadful events of 11 September 2001 could so easily dismantle the bulwarks of free, just and open societies which had taken us centuries to build, then, yes, our claims to a higher moral standard were in fact a sham, and surely there were no effective limits to what we were prepared to visit upon our enemies, or merely anybody who got in our way.
No, these were not made-in-Canada practices, justifications and facilities, but how easily we in our country and our friends throughout Europe abandoned our much-vaunted principles and meekly, often enthusiastically, went along. The bulk of our usually vocal human rights advocates and politicians were muted or stunned into silence when the need to avenge the insult and atrocity of 9/11 was allowed to pervert the law and sully the reputation of our friends and neighbours; perversions which have done and continue to do the West incalculable harm throughout the world. We are clearly guilty by such association. And Louis and I were reaping the consequences.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/world/opinion-fowler-kidnap/index.html?iref=allsearch

[Arctic Dave]

5. Wait! We sent people to Syria, Libya and Egypt to be tortured and now we have the

balls to say we are outraged by what their leaders were doing?

I made the comment a while back that all these "uprisings" in these countries were like the end of the movie Goodfellas when Robert D was getting rid of all his accomplices in the heist they pulled off because he didn't want to get caught. Now I even more certain of it.

[JDPriestly]

6. Republicans so strongly defend torture as a means of obtaining reliable information.

No wonder. They would look like fools if they didn't believe or at least pretend to believe that from torture reliable information can be obtained. Think about this:

Extraordinary rendition was also a factor in one of the greatest intelligence blunders of the Bush years. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan national and top al Qaeda operative who was detained in Pakistan in late 2001, was later sent by the U.S. to Egypt. There, under the threat of torture, he alleged that Saddam Hussein had trained al Qaeda in biological and chemical warfare. He later withdrew the claim, but not before the U.S. invaded Iraq in part based on his faulty testimony.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/extraordinary-rendition-torture-report_n_2617809.html?ref=topbar

We have known that torture extracts a lot of erroneous information, but a war fought in reliance on allegations obtained by torture? Even if those allegations weren't the entire basis for the war, how stupid can you get? Of course, Republicans don't want to admit just how bad it is.

[Judi Lynn]

7. CIA rendition report author believes UK could face human rights court

CIA rendition report author believes UK could face human rights court

British and 24 other European governments accused by OSJI of co-operating in global kidnap, detention and torture operation

Ian Cobain
The Guardian, Tuesday 5 February 2013 14.47 EST

Up to two dozen European countries including the UK could face proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights from their involvement in the CIA's extraordinary rendition operations after 9/11, according to a human rights organisation that has documented worldwide secret support for the programme.

At least 54 different governments – more than a quarter of the world's total – were covertly engaged with the global kidnap, detention and torture programme, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), a New York-based NGO. The greatest number – 25 – were in Europe, while 14 were in Asia and 13 in Africa.

Among the European participants, Macedonia has been found guilty by the European Court of the illegal imprisonment and torture of a German national. Proceedings are being brought against Poland, Lithuania and Romania after they permitted the CIA to operate secret prisons on their territory. Italy is facing proceedings in the European court over the state's involvement in the abduction of a Muslim cleric, who was kidnapped in Milan and flown to Egypt to be tortured. Last week an Italian appeal court upheld the conviction of the CIA's local station chief and two other Americans involved in the kidnap.

Amrit Singh, the author of the OSJI report, said she believes that other European countries that were involved in the CIA's rendition could also find themselves before the European Court. "The moral cost of these programs was borne not just by the US but by the 54 other countries it recruited to help," she said.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/cia-rendition-report-uk-court

[struggle4progress]

9. Ireland offered ‘covert support’ to CIA renditions

Wednesday, February 06, 2013
By Seán McCárthaigh
Irish Examiner Reporter

... It cited a 2007 report by the European Parliament which expressed concern about 147 stopovers by CIA-operated aircraft at Irish airports, mostly at Shannon ...

The report noted US court records showed at least 13 extraordinary rendition flights landed in Ireland between 2002 and 2004 ...

The OSJI recommended that countries like Ireland should refuse to participate in the use of extraordinary rendition by the CIA. It also urged the Government to disclose information on associated human rights violations, and that Ireland conducts an investigation and provides compensation to those subjected to secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations in which it had participated.

Amnesty International Ireland’s executive director, Colm O’Gorman ... called for an independent probe into the use of Shannon to highlight who was aware that Ireland was complicit in torture and why they failed to act.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ireland-offered-covert-support-to-cia-renditions-221803.html

[Solly Mack]

10. When I make "mistakes" no one ends up tortured or kidnapped to foreign countries.

"Mistakes"...a term meant to minimize the war crimes committed by the U.S.

What a lie. ("Bush administration officials said they never intentionally sent terrorism suspects abroad in order to be tortured.&quot

There is only ONE reason to send anyone to a country known for torture. So-called assurances are little more than people lying to themselves and others. Pretending otherwise makes people fools or liars.

[Celefin]

11. The List

(from MotherJones, as trying to download the report only results in a damaged pdf for me: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/report-54-countries-helped-cia-torture-detain-transport-suspects-after-911)


Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Canada
Croatia
Cyprus
The Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Egypt
Ethiopia
Finland
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Iceland
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Italy
Jordan
Kenya
Libya
Lithuania
Macedonia
Malawi
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Pakistan
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Syria
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
Uzbekistan
Yemen
Zimbabwe

As a Dane, I can only wonder what my country has become. A sad day in such illustrious company