Reply #18: Guradian: US Defence of Tactic Makes No Sense Says Legal Expert

[understandinglife]

US Defence of Tactic Makes No Sense Says Legal Expert

By Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian UK

Tuesday 06 December 2005

The robust defence of rendition offered yesterday by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, marks the export to a European audience of a position on torture that is becoming increasingly uncomfortable for the Bush administration.

<clip>

However, her assurances that spiriting terror suspects away to clandestine prisons is a legitimate tactic did not carry much weight with human rights organisations or legal scholars yesterday.

They argued that the sole use of extraordinary rendition was to transport a suspect to a locale that was beyond the reach of the law - and so at risk of torture.

"The argument makes no sense unless there is an assumption that the purpose of rendition is to send people to a place where things could be done to them that could not be done in the United States," said David Luban, a law professor at Georgetown University who is presently a visiting professor at Stanford University.

More at the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1659153,00.html

A crime is a crime is a crime ....


Peace.