Bin Laden son-in-law says he was victim of U.S. 'rendition'

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A former spokesman for al Qaeda says he was the subject of an extrajudicial transfer to U.S. custody via three Middle Eastern countries this year, an allegation that suggests President Barack Obama's administration is still carrying out controversial "rendition" operations.

Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a close associate and son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was victim of "an absolute rendition ... an extrajudicial rendition," said Stanley Cohen, a New York lawyer who is representing Abu Ghaith.

The Kuwaiti cleric has pleaded not guilty in Federal Court in Manhattan to charges of conspiring to kill Americans.

The use of "rendition" was a counterterrorism tactic begun under President George W. Bush when suspected al Qaeda figures were grabbed by CIA teams around the world and transferred without judicial process to third countries or to secret prisons that the U.S. spy agency maintained overseas.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/19/uk-usa-militant-idUKBRE96I14P20130719

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"an allegation that suggests President Barack Obama's administration is still carrying out controversial "rendition" operations".

Nothing ever really changes. Makes me wonder exactly what else it is that Snowden has got ready for future publication.

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Well if he says so, must be true.

[cstanleytech]

2. Hmmmm well its only an "allegation" atm though about the Obama administration and I just

hope that his administration isnt involved in that still as I really dont approve of torture or even the outsourcing of it.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Well the US should easily be able to counter the claim

by simply declaring what route he did take.

[cstanleytech]

4. Looks like he took a long route sure

and it could mean it was the rendition program being reused but it also could just be those countries involved questioned him on their own for their own reasons and he just eventually was captured in one who was willing to ship him to the US.
I mean one of the countries involved in this is Iran after all and I really doubt they would be willing to work with the US for any reason.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Iran didn't work with the US : they released him.

Its Turkey onward that renditioning appears to have occurred.

[cstanleytech]

9. Oh I agree it doesnt look good dips but its always possible that

Turkey and the other countries acted on their own for their own reasons, time will tell.

[MADem]

14. After they held him for a decade--it's not like he was living large there, either.

This guy is a troublemaker. That's why Iran snatched his ass up; I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was proselytizing in a manner objectionable to shi'a Islam.

If they were actually letting him go, they wouldn't have shoved him out the door through Turkey. They would have let him take any old flight out of Mehrabad, or even put him on a bus--he'd be in Kuwait inside of a day had they done that. The road to Kuwait is most definitely not through Turkey. You can even take a ferry from Iran if you'd like.

If I had to guess, Turkey had some questions for him too, and they made a deal with Iran to get him. And when they were done, they sent him on to Jordan, where he was extradited to face 911 charges.

[Tx4obama]

6. Kick n/t

[geek tragedy]

7. Um, renditioning was when the US had the guy and sent him somewhere else.

That's not what happened here--quite the opposite.

If he'd feel safer in the custody of the Jordanian secret police, I'm sure that could be arranged.

[MADem]

15. +1...it "sounds good," I'm sure his lawyer thought.... nt

[Maedhros]

8. Here is a corroborating story from August 2011

by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation regarding ongoing renditions at a black site in Somalia:

http://www.thenation.com/article/161936/cias-secret-sites-somalia#

Among the men believed to be held in the secret underground prison is Ahmed Abdullahi Hassan, a 25- or 26-year-old Kenyan citizen who disappeared from the congested Somali slum of Eastleigh in Nairobi around July 2009...

According to the former fellow prisoner, Hassan told him that his captors took him to Wilson Airport: “‘They put a bag on my head, Guantánamo style. They tied my hands behind my back and put me on a plane. In the early hours we landed in Mogadishu. The way I realized I was in Mogadishu was because of the smell of the sea—the runway is just next to the seashore. The plane lands and touches the sea. They took me to this prison, where I have been up to now. I have been here for one year, seven months. I have been interrogated so many times. Interrogated by Somali men and white men. Every day. New faces show up. They have nothing on me. I have never seen a lawyer, never seen an outsider. Only other prisoners, interrogators, guards. Here there is no court or tribunal.’”

After meeting the man who had spoken with Hassan in the underground prison, Gutteridge began working with Hassan’s Kenyan lawyers to determine his whereabouts. She says he has never been charged or brought before a court. “Hassan’s abduction from Nairobi and rendition to a secret prison in Somalia bears all the hallmarks of a classic US rendition operation,” she says.

It appears the President has continued our rendition program, but has done a better job than Bush at keeping it low-profile. It helps that the media has a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" policy when it comes to extralegal activity to keep us "safe" from "terror."

[karynnj]

16. "bears the earmarks" does not mean the US had anything to do with this.

[Maedhros]

19. If you read the entire article Scahill puts it together very well. [n/t]

[OnyxCollie]

10. He's racist!

This never happened!

Where's the proof!

He gave money to Rand Paul!

[idwiyo]

11. K&R

[forestpath]

12. K&R

[KinMd]

13. If he's looking for sympathy he's SOL

[karynnj]

17. Iran is now helping us with rendition?

This looks like the lawyer trying to drum up sympathy for someone truth doesn't create sympathy for.

[dipsydoodle]

18. No

See reply #5.

[pnwmom]

21. +1. n/t

[pnwmom]

20. I remember when DUers when outraged because the Bush administration let bin Laden relatives

quickly leave this country after 9/11.

I, for one, am happy that we got this one back, and that he'll be subject to the trial he wanted to avoid.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Back ?

When was he previously in the US ?

btw - Iran wasn't involved in rendition to the US. They released him into Turkey. Rendition occurred Turkey onwards despite lame promises from the US administration post GWB.

[pnwmom]

23. You're right, he wasn't here. But he's been a very public spokesman for al Queda.

I don't have any problem with the way he was brought here.

[msanthrope]

24. Iran held him for a decade...blame them. We are giving him a trial. nt

[dipsydoodle]

25. Well at that helps settle issues

concerning your current admistration fairy tales about Iran supporting al Qaeda.