U.N. report says U.S. rendition policy broke international law

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

* Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009

U.N. report says U.S. rendition policy broke international law

By Julie Sell | McClatchy Newspapers

LONDON — A U.N. expert is accusing the United States and some of its allies of breaching international law for the so-called extraordinary renditions and subsequent alleged torture of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration's global war on terrorism, and is launching a probe into the detention of suspects.

Martin Scheinin, a U.N. special rapporteur and expert on international law, issued his annual report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday. While it identifies a U.S. role in masterminding a "comprehensive system" of rendition and detention of suspects as well as creating "an international web" of intelligence sharing, his report notes that it was possible only through collaboration with many other countries.

Scheinin cites "consistent, credible reports" that countries involved in facilitating extraordinary renditions in various ways included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia and Pakistan. Suspects then were transferred to "mostly unacknowledged" detention sites in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan "or to one of the CIA covert detention centers, often referred to as 'black sites,' " according to the human rights report.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said it was "a fairly major black mark" for any country to be targeted in such a report.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/255/story/63693.html

[dcindian]

1. US says we don't prosecute our leaders for things like torture and rendition.

So piss off with your laws and stuff. We got some real criminals getting blow jobs and such.

[Mnemosyne]

2. I am stunned, really. KnR n/t

[SpiralHawk]

3. "You'll never catch me, ya dirty rotten UN cops. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[SpiralHawk]

4. "We're republicons, so we're 'special." Sneer." - xVP Dick 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney

"Americans may be subject to basic human decency and Christian morality and International Law and shit like that, but me and xCommander AWOL & our occult Cabal O' Chickenhawk Cronies are Republicons. So fuggedaboutit. Sneer."

- xVP Dick 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney

[rfranklin]

5. The Bush Crime Family has turned this nation into a criminal...

enterprise. They have profited from their phoney wars as well as real ones (Grampy Prescott Bush was a Nazi enabler.)

[LynnTheDem]

10. Funny how not a word of that FACT of Prescott Bush's Nazi enabling was ever

spoken of by the "LIBERAL MEDIA" during the 2000 campaign. Or since.

Imagine if Kerry's or Obama's grandfather had been indicted for dealing with Hitler during WWII! Holy fuck, the screeching rage would be deafening for years.

[No Elephants]

12. Yep. Pretty doggone amazing. But the Swiftboat ad was on a frickin' loop at every TV news show.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. And if we don't clean house

the bloody floor belongs to us.

[Christa]

7. There is overwhelming evidence

and no one is above the law, as you said, Mr President.

[Zhade]

8. ARREST BUSH NOW

DO IT

[LynnTheDem]

9. We know. Just like the illegal invasion of Iraq.

George W. bUsh; war criminal.

Now we're just waiting for someone to do something about it.

[bvar22]

11. The problem is that "Renditions" started under Bill Clinton.

"The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) controversial "rendition" program was launched under US president Bill Clinton, a former US counter-terrorism agent has told a German newspaper.

Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned from the agency in 2004, has told Die Zeit that the US administration had been looking in the mid-1990s for a way to combat the terrorist threat and circumvent the cumbersome US legal system."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1539284.htm

[No Elephants]

13. So?

[bvar22]

14. That will be a problem....

...for anyone who wants to hang "Renditions" on the Bush Administration, or still expects the Democratic Party to pursue the Bush administration for Torture and War Crimes.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. Actually, I think exploring publicly how it was used pre and post Sept. 11, 2001 is needed

I think it may be enlightening for many to see how what was once an extremely limited program became so wide spread under the Bush administration. It will show why we should not accept such changes to our policy ever, lest it become even worse under a future administration. Also, a side-by-side comparison will take a great deal of the wind out of the sails of the Republicans who are trying to say that Clinton used it the exact same way as Bush. Which is an exaggeration of epic proportions.

Perhaps when all is said and done we could finally see a real and permanent end to such renditions.