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In the United States, extraordinary rendition is an extra-judicial procedure in which individual suspected terrorists or criminals are transferred to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation; suspects may be apprehended but are generally not placed before a court of law. Since the 1980s, the United States has increasingly turned to rendition as a judicial and extra-judicial method for dealing with foreign defendants. Although rendition for legal reasons is not a new concept, there are differences in the current nature and usage of US rendition policy as a tool in the US-led "war on terror."

The first well-known rendition case involved the Achille Lauro hijackers in 1985: while in international air space they were forced by United States Navy fighter planes to land at a European NATO base, in an attempt to place them within judicial reach of United States Government representatives for transport to and trial in the United States. The practice later expanded to include the deportation or expulsion into United States custody of persons in foreign countries deemed to be enemy aliens or terrorists. The CIA was granted permission to use rendition in a presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995. The practice has grown sharply since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now includes a form where suspects are taken into US custody but delivered to a third-party state, often without ever being on American soil. Because such cases do not involve the rendering country's judiciary, they have been termed extraordinary rendition.

According to Swiss councillor Dick Marty's January 2006 memorandum on "alleged detention in Council of Europe states," about a hundred persons had been kidnapped by the CIA on European territory and subsequently rendered to other countries. In a lengthy investigative report published by The New Yorker in February 2005, journalist Jane Mayer cited Scott Horton, an expert on international law who helped prepare a report on renditions issued by N.Y.U. Law School and the New York City Bar Association, as estimating that 150 people have been rendered since 2001. Although Egypt allegedly has been the most common destination, suspected terrorists have been rendered to other countries, such as Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan. Critics - some of whom dub the procedure "torture by proxy" - have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have also called this practice "torture flights". Defenders of the practice argue that culturally-informed and native-language interrogations are more successful in gaining information from suspects .

In a number of cases, suspects to whom the procedure is believed to have been applied later appeared to be innocent. In the cases of Khalid El-Masri and Maher Arar the practice of extraordinary rendition appears to have been applied to innocent civilians, and the CIA has reportedly launched an investigation into such cases (which it refers to as "erroneous rendition").

Usage by the Clinton Administration

The procedure was developed by Central Intelligence Agency officials in the mid-1990s who were trying to track down and dismantle militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East, particularly Al Qaeda. At the time, the agency was reluctant to grant suspected terrorists due process under American law, as the attendant disclosures of government information under the rules of disclosure could potentially jeopardize its intelligence sources and methods.

According to Clinton Administration official Richard Clarke,

"'extraordinary renditions', were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgement of the host government...The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: Lloyd says this. Dick says that. Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'"

In a New Yorker magazine interview with CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, an author of the rendition program under the Clinton Administration, writer Jane Mayer noted, "In 1995, American agents proposed the rendition program to Egypt, making clear that it had the resources to track, capture, and transport terrorist suspects globally—including access to a small fleet of aircraft. Egypt embraced the idea. "What was clever was that some of the senior people in Al Qaeda were Egyptian," Scheuer said. "It served American purposes to get these people arrested, and Egyptian purposes to get these people back, where they could be interrogated." Technically, U.S. law requires the CIA to seek "assurances" from foreign governments that rendered suspects won’t be tortured. Scheuer told me that this was done, but he was "not sure" if any documents confirming the arrangement were signed."

Thereafter, with the approval of President Clinton and a presidential directive (PDD 39), the CIA instead elected to send suspects to Egypt, where they were turned over to the Egyptian mukhabarat. This arrangement suited the Egyptians, who were trying to crack down on domestic Islamic extremists, and a number of the senior members of Al Qaeda were Egyptian. The arrangement also suited the US by enabling the interrogation of suspects without the intercession of the domestic legal process, using Egyptian methods.

The first known individual to be subjected to rendition under this order was Talaat Fouad Qassem, one of Egypt's most wanted terrorists, who was arrested with the help of US intelligence by Croatian police in Zagreb in September 1995. He was interrogated by US agents on a ship in the Adriatic Sea and was then sent back to Egypt. He disappeared while in custody, and is suspected by human rights activists of having been executed without a trial.

In the summer of 1998, a similar operation was mounted in Tirana, Albania. Wiretaps showed that five Egyptians had been in contact with Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy. During the course of several months, Shawki Salama Attiya and four militants were captured by Albanian security forces collaborating with US agents. The men were flown to Cairo for interrogation. Attiya later alleged that he had electric shocks applied to his genitals, was hung from his limbs, and was kept in a cell with dirty water up to his knees.

Post September 11, 2001

While extraordinary rendition was originally developed by the CIA, the Justice Department and the Defense Department also do renditions. Initially, the procedure was applied primarily to individuals for whom there were outstanding arrest warrants. After the 9/11 attacks the program appears to have been expanded and some believe it now encompasses individuals for whom there are but vague suspicions. Critics charge that the program has "spun out of control", and has been used against large numbers of individuals.

According to a December 4, 2005 article in the Washington Post by Dana Priest, "Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an enema and sleeping drugs. They outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA's own covert prisons – referred to in classified documents as "black sites," which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern Europe.

Following mounting scrutiny in Europe, including investigations held by Swiss senator Dick Marty who released a public report in June 2006, the US Senate was about, in December 2005, to approve a measure that would include amendments requiring the director of national intelligence to provide regular, detailed updates about secret detention facilities maintained by the United States overseas, and to account for the treatment and condition of each prisoner.

Controversy on torture

Proponents of extraordinary rendition, and the similarly controversial concept of unlawful combatant, argue that torturing terror suspects, however distasteful, is necessary to help prevent further terrorist attacks, which may only be a matter of hours or days away. Critics argue, however, that such practices are unethical, unconstitutional, and defy the Geneva Conventions. Even within the US government, opinions are divided; the State Department opposes ignoring the Geneva Conventions, and has warned the Bush administration that not only could US soldiers be denied protection of the conventions but that President Bush and other members of the administration could also be prosecuted for war crimes.

Aside from ethical issues, pragmatic reservations have also arisen about the practice. For one, it appears that while torturing a suspect frequently results in a confession, the confessions tend to be useless; many suspects will say nearly anything to end their suffering. Some investigators argue that better results are achieved by treating suspects with respect, allowing them due process, and arranging plea bargains with defense lawyers.

In addition, evidence obtained illegally or under duress is inadmissible in US courts, and this hampers court cases against suspected terrorists in the US. The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be indicted in the US in connection with the 9/11 attacks, was complicated because of Moussaoui's requests for access to confidential documents and the right to call al-Qaida members held in captivity in Guantánamo as witnesses, a demand rejected by government attorneys on the grounds that it would compromise confidential sources.

Responding to mounting European concerns, US Condoleezza Rice said: "Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives," and she explained rendition is not unlawful. While Rice denied that the CIA used torture, she refused to address the allegations of covert prisons that have caused consternation across Europe and not least in Romania. As to the legality of extraordinary rendition, this position is disputed by legal experts (see Treaty obligations, below).

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Physicians Committee for Human Rights and Veterans for America have sought access to presidential directives expressly authorizing extraordinary rendition. A story published in The NewStandard notes:

"To date, there have been no Congressional or other governmental inquiries into the CIA's use of extraordinary renditions, despite repeated calls for such investigations."

British ambassador Craig Murray 2003 revelations and consequences

In 2003, the United Kingdom's Ambassador for Uzbekistan, Craig Murray made accusations that information was being extracted under extreme torture from dissidents in that country, and that the information was subsequently being used by the UK and other western, democratic countries which disapproved of torture. In March 2003 he was informed in the London offices of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) by Sir Michael Wood, chief Legal Adviser, that it was not illegal under the UN Convention Against Torture for the UK to obtain or to use intelligence gained under torture, provided the British government itself did not use torture or request that a named individual be tortured.

The unanimous Law Lords judgment on December 8, 2005 confirmed this position. They ruled that, under English law tradition, "torture and its fruits" could not be used in court. But the information thus obtained could be used by the British police and security services as "it would be ludicrous for them to disregard information about a ticking bomb if it had been procured by torture." The Law Lords thus dismissed concerns about the validity of information obtained under torture, which have been expressed by various security agents and human rights activists.

Murray's accusations did not lead to any investigation by his employer, the FCO, and he resigned after disciplinary action was taken against him in 2004. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office itself is being investigated by the National Audit Office because of accusations that it has victimized, bullied and intimidated its own staff.

Murray later stated that he felt that he had unwittingly stumbled upon what has been called "torture by proxy". He thought that Western countries moved people to regimes and nations where it was known that information would be extracted by torture, and made available to them.

Murray states that he was aware from August 2002 "that the CIA were bringing in detainees to Tashkent from Bagram airport Afghanistan, who were handed over to the Uzbek security services (SNB). I presumed at the time that these were all Uzbek nationals – that may have been a false presumption. I knew that the CIA were obtaining intelligence from their subsequent interrogation by the SNB." He goes on to say that he did not know at the time that any non-Uzbek nationals were flown to Uzbekistan and although he has studied the reports by several journalists and finds their reports credible he is not a firsthand authority on this issue.

The Guardian reported on December 5, 2005, that the British government is "guilty of breaking international law if it knowingly allowed secret CIA "rendition" flights of terror suspects to land at UK airports, according to a report by American legal scholars."

Public revelations concerning the extraordinary renditions

Furthermore, Amnesty International mentions Muhammad al-Assad, Salah Nasser Salim ‘Ali and Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah. The three, all nationals of Yemen, had "disappeared" in 2003, and had been kept in complete isolation – even from each other – in a series of secret detention centres apparently run by US agents.

Based upon statements by current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents, the Washington Post reported that captives might be subject to techniques of interrogation illegal in the United States. Since it might violate US law these suspects are flown to facilities around the world. Eight countries have been implicated, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The CIA and the White House strongly resist any in-depth investigation into the details of rendition, refusing to release information on the subjects detained and the facilities used throughout the world. Critics think this procedure might be kept from scrutiny as it could result in legal challenges to the U.S. government, inside the U.S. as well as in those countries used for detention. (For a more detailed discussion on these possible violations of U.S. and international law please see below and unlawful combatant.)

Call-signs

In February 2007 it was reported that the JGO (Juliet Golf Oscar) former call sign assigned to defunct airline Jetsgo was allegely used for planes going in and out of the Balkans, including Learjet 35 executive jets, C-130 transport planes and MC-130P Combat Shadows. A Sunday Times analysis of flight plans and radio logs has placed these aircraft at locations including Tuzla in Bosnia, Pristina in Kosovo, and Aviano Air Base in Northern Italy, as well as Ramstein, headquarters fo the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). On December 11, 2004, USAFE in Ramstein filed a flight plan for a Learjet 35 to fly from Tuzla to Aviano. USAFE changed its registration in flight, while keeping its humanitarian, diplomatic and governmental status. While on ground at Tuzla in Bosnia, an Ilyushin 76 left Tuzla 55 minutes before, with 45 tons of surplus weapons and ammunitions which were sold off by the Bosnian military (at the time member of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and destined to Rwanda. The latter country was subjected to a UN embargo on arms-trade. An Amnesty International report quoted by the British newspapers suggested that "US security authorities were engaged in a covert operation to ferry arms to Rwanda in the face of political opposition from the European Union".

Another strange convergence of flights happened in February 2004, according to the Sunday Times. An MC-130P Combat Shadow using the call sign JGO 50 took off from Aviano to an unknown destination on February 24. Two days later, he left Pristina for Tuzla. A short time after, a Gulfstream 5 executive jet (call sign JGO 47) flew from Tuzla to Aviano. The next day, a Learjet 35 left Aviano for an unknown destination, using call sign SPAR 92.

SPAR is short for Special Air Resources, a US military aircraft service that transport civilians VIP and senior military officers. But SPAR 92 has been identified as the aircraft which was used to transport Hassan Nasr (aka Abu Omar), the cleric kidnapped in Italy in 2003 and for which CIA agents have been indicted in Italy (See below).

The US military denied the reports and stated that aircraft using the call sign were involved in a programme called "Joint Guard Operations" for the NATO-European peacekeeping mission in the Balkans (which established the SFOR). However, "Joint Guard" ended in 1998. Inquiries also show that none of the US aircraft deployed in it match ones using the JGO call-sign.

Extraordinary renditions and black sites in Europe

Following the Washington Post and Human Rights Watch's 2005 revelations concerning CIA flights and "black sites", the European Union (EU) has said it will examine whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has set up Black sites (secret jails in foreign countries operated by the CIA) for terror suspects in Europe. Such detention centers would violate the European Convention on Human Rights and the international Convention Against Torture, treaties that all EU member states are bound to follow.

In January 2005, Swiss senator Dick Marty, representative at the Council of Europe in charge of the European investigations, concluded that a hundred persons had been kidnapped by the CIA in Europe - thus qualifying as ghost detainees - and then rendered to a country where they may be tortured. Dick Marty qualified the sequestration of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka "Abu Omar") in Milan in February 2003 as a "perfect example of extraordinary rendition"

In addition to their own investigation the European countries will formally request an answer from the Bush administration on the matter. (See below: The European investigation and its June 2006 report)

Criticisms of the Washington Post's decision to withhold locations of the black sites

A comment by FAIR on the Washington Post's decision, to withhold the locations of these secret prisons, was that since the revelations "could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad," the Post did its part to minimize these risks. Yet, according to FAIR, "the possibility that illegal, unpopular government actions might be disrupted is not a consequence to be feared, however — it's the whole point of the U.S. First Amendment. Furthermore, by not disclosing these locations it would make it impossible to have them closed and thereby the Post is enabling the rendition, secret detention, and torture of prisoners at these locations to continue. Another consequence might be that U.S. soldiers and civilians are put at risk."

Boeing Jeppessen International Trip Planning

On October 23rd, 2006, the New Yorker claimed that Jeppesen International Trip Planning, a subsidiary of Boeing, handled the logistical planning for the CIA's extraordinary rendition flights. The allegation is based on information from an ex-employee who quoted Bob Overby, managing director of the company as saying "We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights—you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way." The article went on to suggest that this may make Jeppesen a potential defendant in a law suit by Khaled El-Masri.

UN report by Manfred Nowak

Manfred Nowak, a special reporter on torture, has catalogued in a 15-page U.N. report presented to the 191-member General Assembly that the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Sweden and Kyrgyzstan are violating international human rights conventions by deporting terrorist suspects to countries such as Egypt, Syria, Algeria and Uzbekistan, where they may have been tortured.

"The United States is holding at least 26 persons as “ghost detainees” at undisclosed locations outside of the United States," Human Rights Watch said on December 1, 2005, as it released a list naming some of the detainees. The detainees are being held indefinitely and incommunicado, without legal rights or access to counsel.

Closing of two facilities

According to ABC News two of the facilities, in countries mentioned by Human Rights Watch, have been closed following the recent publicity. CIA officers say the captives were relocated to the North African desert. All but one of these 11 high-value al Qaeda prisoners were subjected to the harshest interrogation techniques in the CIA's secret arsenal, the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" authorized for use by about 14 CIA officers.

"Erroneous rendition"

An article published in the December 5, 2005, Washington Post reported that the CIA's Inspector General was investigating what it calls erroneous renditions. The term appears to refer to cases in which innocent people were subjected to extraordinary rendition.

Khalid El-Masri is the most well-known person who is believed to have been subjected to the process of "extraordinary rendition," as a result of mistaken identity (see Extraordinary rendition#The Khalid El-Masri case). Laid Saidi, an Algerian detained and tortured along with El-Masri, was apparently apprehended because of a taped telephone conversation in which the word tirat, meaning "tires" in Arabic, was mistaken for the word tairat, meaning "airplanes."

The Post's anonymous sources say that the Inspector General is looking into a number of similar cases — possibly as many as thirty innocent men who were captured and transported through what has been called "erroneous renditions."

A December 27 2005 story quotes anonymous CIA insiders claiming there have been 10 or fewer of such erroneous renditions. It names the CIA's inspector general, John Helgerson, as the official responsible for the inquiry.

The AP story quotes Tom Malinowski, Washington office director of Human Rights Watch who said:

"I am glad the CIA is investigating the cases that they are aware of, but by definition you are not going to be aware of all such cases, when you have a process designed to avoid judicial safeguards. "

Examples and specific cases

• A Pakistani newspaper reported that in the early hours of October 23, 2001 a Yemeni citizen, Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a 27-year-old microbiology student at Karachi University, was spirited aboard a private plane at Karachi's airport by Pakistani security officers.

• In October 2001, Mamdouh Habib, who lives in Australia and has both Australian and Egyptian nationality (having been born in Egypt), was detained in Pakistan, where he was interrogated for three weeks, and then flown to Egypt in a private plane. From Egypt, he was later flown to a US airbase in Afghanistan. He told the BBC that he did not know who had held him, but had seen Americans, Australians, Pakistanis, and Egyptians among his captors. He also said that he had been beaten, given electric schock, deprived of sleep, blindfolded for eight months and brainwashed After signing confessions of involvement with al-Qaeda, which he has now retracted, Mr Habib was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He was released without charge in January 2005 . Former Pakistani Interior Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Sawleh Hayat told in an interview by the Australian current affairs programme Dateline that Mr Habib was linked with the "terrorist element" operating at that time. But he contradicted him a few minutes after, in the same interview, saying that Mamdouh Habib had been assumed guilty just because he was in the restricted province of Baluchistan without proper visa documents .

• In 2002, captured Al Qaeda leader Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was rendered to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. The information he provided to his interrogators formed a fundamental part of the Bush administration case for attacking Iraq, alleging links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. Al-Libi later recanted his story and it is generally believed that his stories of contact between the Saddam Hussein regime and Al-Qaeda were fabricated to please his interrogators.

• Mohammad Al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza, two Egyptians who had been seeking asylum in Sweden, were arrested by Swedish police in December 2001. They were taken to an airport and put on an executive jet with American registration N379P with a crew of masked men. Within hours, they were flown to Egypt, where they were imprisoned, beaten, and tortured. A Swedish diplomat visited them several weeks later. Agiza was charged with being an Islamic militant and he was sentenced to 25 years. Al-Zery wasn't charged, and after two years in jail he was sent to his village in Egypt.

• In February 2003, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka "Abu Omar") was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan (Italy), and deported to Egypt. His case has been qualified by Swiss senator Dick Marty to be a "perfect example of extraordinary rendition".. Italian justice has since issued arrest warrants against CIA agents (See Extraordinary rendition#The Abu Omar case).

• In 2003, Khalid El-Masri, a Kuwait-born citizen with German nationality, was detained by Macedonian agents in Republic of Macedonia, then turned over to the CIA (See Extraordinary rendition#The Khaled Masri case)

• In 2003, an Algerian named Laid Saidi was abducted in Tanzania and taken to Afghanistan, where he was imprisoned and tortured along with Khalid El-Masri. His detention appears to have arisen through a mistranslation of a telephone conversation, in which U.S. officials believed he was speaking about airplanes (tairat in Arabic) when he had in fact been speaking about tires (tirat in Arabic).

• Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, 34 in 2005, was detained at Kennedy International Airport on 26 September, 2002, by US Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. He was heading home to Canada after a family holiday in Tunisia. After almost two weeks, enduring hours of interrogation chained, he was sent, shackled and bound, in a private jet to Jordan and then Syria, instead of being extradited to Canada. There, he was interrogated and tortured by Syrian intelligence. Maher Arar was eventually released a year later. He told the BBC that he was repeatedly tortured during 10 months' detention in Syria - often whipped on the palms of his hands with metal cables. Syrian intelligence officers forced him to sign a confession linking him to Al Qaeda. He was finally released following intervention by the Canadian government. The Canadian government lodged an official complaint with the US government protesting Arar's deportation. On September 18 2006, a Canadian public enquiry presented its findings entirely clearing Arar of any terrorist activities. In 2004 Mr Arar filed a lawsuit in a federal court in New York against senior US officials, on charges that whoever sent him to Syria knew he would be tortured by intelligence agents . US Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller are all named in the lawsuit .

• Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian student who lived in London, was apprehended in Pakistan in April 2002. He allegedly spent three years in "black sites," including in Morocco and Afghanistan. He was supposed to be part of a plot involving José Padilla. The Observer reported: He went to Pakistan in June 2001 because, he says, he had a drug problem and wanted to kick the habit. He was arrested on 10 April at the airport on his way back to England because of an alleged passport irregularity. Initially interrogated by Pakistani and British officials, he told Stafford Smith: 'The British checked out my story and said they knew I was a nobody. They said they would tell the Americans. He was deprived of sleep by having heavy rock music played loudly throughout the day and night.

• In late 2001 Saddiq Ahmad Turkistani was freed by US forces from a Taliban prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. At a news conference he told reporters and U.S. officials he had been wrongly imprisoned for allegedly plotting to kill Osama bin Laden. He was then taken to a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, where he was stripped, bound and thrown behind bars. According to U.S. lawyers who represent him, in January 2002 he was sent to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Nearly four years later, Turkistani remains there, despite being cleared for release early 2005 after a government review concluded he is "no longer an enemy combatant." It is unclear exactly when that determination was made, but Justice Department lawyers gave notice of it in an October 11 court filing. According to a June 26, 2006 press release from the Saudi Arabian embassy, Turkistani was released from Guantanamo to Saudi custody

• On 5 April 2006, Amnesty International released details of the United States' system of extraordinary rendition, stating that three Yemeni citizens were held somewhere in Eastern Europe.

The Khaled Masri case

In 2003, Khalid El-Masri, a Kuwait-born citizen with German nationality, was detained by Macedonian agents in Republic of Macedonia. While allegedly on vacation in Macedonia, local police, apparently acting on a tip, took him off a bus, held him for three weeks, then took him to the Skopje airport where he was turned over to the CIA.

El-Masri says he was injected with drugs, and after his flight, he woke up in an American-run prison in Afghanistan containing prisoners from Pakistan, Tanzania, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. El-Masri said that he was held five months and interrogated by Americans through an interpreter. He declared thet he had been beaten and kept in solitary confinement. Participating in some of these interrogation sessions was an officer of the German foreign intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) using the pseudonym "Sam", who has reportedly been identified by al-Masri as Gerhard Lehmann. Lehmann served on the UN Mehlis commission into the Rafik Hariri assassination before he was withdrawn in early February 2006, possibly to prevent the repercussions of his identification .

Then, after his five months of questioning, he was simply released. "They told me that they had confused names and that they had cleared it up, but I can't imagine that," El-Masri told ABC News. "You can clear up switching names in a few minutes." Khalid el-Masri had allegedly been confused with Khalid al-Masri, wanted for contacts with the Hamburg Cell involved in the September 2001 attacks.

Khalid el-Masri was then flown out of Afghanistan and dumped on a road in Albania, from where he made his way back home in Germany. Using a method called isotope analysis, scientists at the Bavarian archive for geology in Munich subsequently analyzed several strands of his hair and verified his story. During a visit to Washington, German Interior Minister Otto Schily was told that American agents admitted to kidnapping El-Masri, and indicated that the matter had somehow got out of hand. Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "believed he was someone else," one former CIA official said. "She didn't really know. She just had a hunch."

Khalid el-Masri's case has been given as an example of so-called "erroneous renditions," meaning extraordinary renditions of completely innocent people. Although the "confusion" was admitted to Germany's then-Interior Minister Otto Schily, the CIA tried to keep the specifics of Masri's case from becoming public. The German government was requested by the CIA not to disclose what it had been told (even if el-Masri went public), on fears that this might expose the covert extraordinary rendition program, and thereby open up legal challenges. Some CIA officials have argued that Guantanamo Bay has become, as one former senior official put it, "a dumping ground" for CIA mistakes.

A German prosecutor works to verify or debunk Masri's claims of kidnapping and torture, yet that part of the German government which was informed has remained silent on the subject. Masri's attorneys have filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts. On January 31, 2007, Munich Prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld said he had issued 13 arrest warrents connected with rendition of Khalid El-Masri from Macedonia .

The Abu Omar case

Main article: The Imam Rapito affair

On 17 February 2003, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka "Abu Omar") was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan (Italy), and deported to Egypt. His case has been qualified by Swiss senator Dick Marty to be a "perfect example of extraordinary rendition".. In June 2005, Italian prosecutor Guido Salvini issued a warrant for the arrest of 13 persons said to be agents or operatives of the CIA. In December 2005, an Italian court issued an European arrest warrant against 22 CIA agents suspected of this kidnapping (including Robert Seldon Lady, Eliana Castaldo, Lt. Col. Joseph L Romano, III, etc. ). The CIA hasn't commented on the case, while Berlusconi's government has denied any knowledge of a kidnapping plot. Just after the 2006 Italian general elections, Roberto Castelli (Lega Nord), outgoing Justice Minister, declared to Italian prosecutors that he had not passed the extradition request to the US.

Furthermore, Marco Mancini, the SISMI director of anti-terrorism and counterespionage, and Gustavo Pignero, the department's director in 2003, have been arrested, on charges of complicity in a kidnapping with the aggravating circumstances of abuse of power. There are now 26 EU arrest warrants for U.S. citizens in connection to this event. A judge also issued arrest warrants for four Americans, three CIA agents and an Air Force officer who commanded the security forces at Aviano Air Base at the time of the abduction.

On February 17, 2003 CIA agents allegedly kidnapped Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers. Omar was flown to Egypt for interrogation in the frame of the US extraordinary rendition program. His family and friends claim that he has been tortured. At the time of his disappearance, Italian police were investigating allegations that Nasr had tried to recruit jihadists. Prosecutor Guido Salvini said the abduction was illegal because it violated Italian sovereignty and that it disrupted an ongoing police investigation.

On December 6, 2005, the Washington Post reported Italian court documents showed the CIA tried to mislead Italian anti-terrorism police who were looking for the cleric. Robert Seldon Lady, the CIA's substation chief in Milan, has been implicated in the abduction. In a written opinion upholding the arrest warrant, judge Enrico Manzi wrote that the evidence taken from Lady's home "removes any doubt about his participation in the preparatory phase of the abduction." Robert S. Lady however, alleged that the evidence has been gathered illegally, and has denied involvement in the abduction.

On February 12 2007 Mr Nasr's lawyer said he had been released and was back with his family.

The Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmad case

A story in the Los Angeles Times on December 8, 2005, seems to corroborate the claims of "torture by proxy." It mentions the attorneys for Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmad, a detainee held by the Pentagon at Guantanamo Bay, filed a petition to prevent his being transferred to foreign countries. According to the petition's description of a redacted classified Defense Department memo from March 17, 2004, its contents say "officials suggested sending Ahmad to an unspecified foreign country that employed torture in order to increase chances of extracting information from him."

Mr Falkoff, representing Ahmad, continued: "There is only one meaning that can be gleaned from this short passage," the petition says. "The government believes that Mr. Ahmad has information that it wants but that it cannot extract without torturing him." The petition goes on to say that because torture is not allowed at Guantanamo, "the recommendation is that Mr. Ahmad should be sent to another country where he can be interrogated under torture." In a report, regarding the allegations of CIA flights, on December 13, 2005, by the rapporteur and Chair of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Swiss councillor Dick Marty, it was concluded: "The elements we have gathered so far tend to reinforce the credibility of the allegations concerning the transport and temporary detention of detainees - outside all judicial procedure - in European countries." In a press conference in January 2006, he stated "he was personally convinced the US had undertaken illegal activities in Europe in transporting and detaining prisoners."

The Muhammad Bashmila case

Muhammad Bashmila, a former illegally arrested prisoner, now free in Yemen, gave an interview to the BBC Newsnight programme, where he spoke of being transferred from Afghanistan to a detention center where it was cold, where the food appeared European and where evening prayers were held at the late hour of 2045. Somewhere in Eastern Europe is suspected .

Investigations in Europe

Shannon Airport, Ireland

The government of the Republic of Ireland has come under internal and external pressure to inspect airplanes at Shannon Airport to investigate whether or not they contain extraordinary rendition captives.

July 2005 opening of investigations in France concerning CIA flights

The French attorney general of Bobigny opened up an instruction in order "to verify the presence in Le Bourget Airport, on July 20, 2005, of the plane numbered N50BH." This instruction was opened following a complaint deposed in December 2005 by the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH) NGO ("Human Rights League") and the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) NGO on charges of "arbitrary detention", "crime of torture" and "non-respect of the rights of war prisoners". It has as objective to determine if the plane was used to transport CIA prisoners to Guantanamo Bay detainment camp and if the French authorities had knowledge of this stop. However, the lawyer defending the LDH declared that he was surprised that the instruction was only opened on January 20, 2006, and that no verifications had been done before. On December 2, 2005, conservative newspaper Le Figaro had revealed the existence of two CIA planes that had landed in France, suspected of transporting CIA prisoners. But the instruction concerned only N50BH, which was a Gulfstream III, which would have landed at Le Bourget on July 20 2005, coming from Oslo, Norway. The other suspected aircraft would have landed in Brest on March 31, 2002. It is investigated by the Canadian authorities, as it would have been flying from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, via Keflavík in Iceland before going to Turkey .

November 2005 opening of investigations in Spain concerning CIA flights

In November 2005, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that CIA planes had landed in the Canary Islands and in Palma de Mallorca. An attorney opened up an investigation concerning these landings which, according to Madrid, were made without official knowledge, thus being a breach of national sovereignty.

Germany

Business daily Handelsblatt reported November 24, 2005, that the CIA still uses an American military base in Germany to transport terrorism suspects without informing the German government. The Berliner Zeitung reported the following day there was documentation of 85 takeoffs and landings by planes with a "high probability" of being operated by the CIA, at Ramstein, the Rhein-Main Air Base and others. The newspaper cited experts and "plane-spotters" who observed the planes as responsible for the tally.

Kosovo

In 2002, the Council of Europe's Human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles witnessed 'a smaller version of Guantanamo', he told France's Le Monde newspaper. Gil-Robles told the daily he had inspected the centre, located within the US military's Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, in 2002, to investigate reports of extrajudicial arrests by NATO-led peacekeepers.

The Council of Europe investigation and its June 2006 report

On November 25 2005, the lead investigator for the Council of Europe, Swiss lawmaker Dick Marty announced that he had obtained latitude and longitude coordinates for suspected black sites, and he was planning to use satellite imagery over the last several years as part of his investigation. On November 28, 2005, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini asserted that any EU country which had operated a secret prison would have its voting rights suspended. In a preliminary report, Dick Marty declared that it was "highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware" of the CIA kidnapping of a "hundred" persons on European territory and their subsequent rendition to countries where they may be tortured .

The report from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe directed by Dick Marty, and given public on June 7, 2006, was titled: "Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states."

Following the publication of this report, the Council of Europe published its draft Recommendation and Resolution document which found grounds for concern with the conduct of both the US and member states of the EU and expresses concern for the disregard of international law and the Geneva Convention. Following a 23 point resolution the document makes 5 recommendations.

• 1 refers to its Resolution on alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states.
• 2 recalling its previous recommendation on the legality of the detention of persons by the United States in Guantanamo Bay
• 3 urges the Committee of Ministers to draft a recommendation to Council of Europe member States containing:

common measures to guarantee more effectively the human rights of persons suspected of terrorist offences who are captured from, detained in or transported through Council of Europe member States; and a set of minimum requirements for "human rights protection clauses", for inclusion in bilateral and multilateral agreements with third parties, especially those concerning the use of military installations on the territory of Council of Europe member States.

• 4 urgently requests that: an initiative be launched on an international level, expressly involving the United States, an Observer to the Council of Europe, to develop a common, truly global strategy to address the terrorist threat. The strategy should conform in all its elements with the fundamental principles of our common heritage in terms of democracy, human rights and respect for the rule of law. Also, a proposal be considered, in instances where States are unable or unwilling to prosecute persons accused of terrorist acts, to bring these persons within the jurisdiction of an international court that is competent to try them. One possibility worth considering would be to vest such a competence in the International Criminal Court, whilst renewing invitations to join the Court to the United States and other countries that have not yet done so.
• 5 recommends improving the Council of Europe’s ability to react rapidly and effectively to allegations of systematic human rights abuse involving several member States.

Several months before the publication of the Council of Europe report directed by Dick Marty, Gijs de Vries, the EU's antiterrorism coordinator, asserted in April 2006 that no evidence existed that extraordinary rendition had been taking place in Europe. It was also said that the European Union's probe, and a similar one by the continent's leading human rights group had not found any human rights violations nor other crimes that could be proven to the satisfaction of the courts. This denial from a member of the executive power of the EU institutions has been flatly denied by the European Parliament report, which was accepted by a vast majority of the Parliament in February 2007 (See below:The European Parliament's February 14, 2007 report).

On the other hand, Dick Marty explained the difference of approach concerning terrorism between the EU and the US as following:

While the states of the Old World have dealt with these threats primarily by means of existing institutions and legal systems, the United States appears to have made a fundamentally different choice: considering that neither conventional judicial instruments nor those established under the framework of the laws of war could effectively counter the new forms of international terrorism, it decided to develop new legal concepts. This legal approach is utterly alien to the European tradition and sensibility, and is clearly contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

However, despite Marty's claims, the European Parliament investigations uncovered cooperation between European secret services and governments and the extraordinary renditions programs, making such a clear-cut distinction over-simplistic (see below). Dick Marty himself has not accepted such a dualistic approach, as he showed that for the British government also, the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism was alleged to be so grave that the balance of liberties had to be reconsidered . Marty's report stated that:

"The compilation of so-called "black lists" of individuals and companies suspected of maintaining connections with organisations considered terrorist and the application of the associated sanctions clearly breach every principle of the fundamental right to a fair trial: no specific charges, no right to be heard, no right of appeal, no established procedure for removing one's name from the list."

June 27, 2006 Council of Europe resolution

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) calls for EU. regulations governing foreign intelligence services operating in Europe, and demands “human rights clauses” in military base agreements with the USA.

In a resolution and recommendation approved by a large majority, the Assembly also called for:

• The dismantling by the US of its system of secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers.
• A review of bilateral agreements between Council of Europe member states and the US, particularly on the status of US forces stationed in Europe and on the use of military and other instrastructures, to ensure they conform to international human rights norms.
• Official apologies and compensation for victims of illegal detentions against whom no formal accusations, nor any court proceedings, have ever been brought
• An international initiative, expressly involving the United States, to develop a common, truly global strategy to address the terrorist threat which conforms to democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

2007 Investigations in Portugal concerning CIA flights

Portugal opened up an investigation concerning CIA flights in February 2007, on the basics of declarations by Socialist MEP Ana Gomes and by Rui Costa Pinto, journalist of Visão review. The Portuguese general prosecutor, Cândida Almeida, head of the Central Investigation and Penal Action Department (DCIAP), announced the opening of investigations on February 5, 2007. They will be centered on the issue of "torture or inhuman and cruel treatment," and instigated by illegationsn of "illegal activities and serious human rights violations" made by MEP Ana Gomes to the attorney general, Pinto Monteiro, on January 26, 2007 .

One of the most critic voice against the scarce collaboration provided by the Portuguese government to the European Parliament Commission which investigated CIA flights, Ana Gomes declared that, although she had no doubt that permission of these illegal flights were frequent during Durão Barroso (2002-2004) and Santana Lopes (2004-2005)' governments, "during the government of José Sócrates , 24 flights which passed through Portuguese territory" are registered . Active in the TDIP commission, Ana Gomes complained about the Portuguese state's reluctance to provide information, leading her to tensions with the Foreign minister, Luís Amado, member of the same party. Ana Gomes declared herself satisfied with the opening of the investigations, but underlined that she had alwa&ys claimed that a parliamentary inquiry would be necessary .

On the other hand, journalist Rui Costa Pinto was heard by the DCIAP, as she had written an article, refused by Visão, about flights passing by Lajes Field, a Portuguese airbase used by the US airforces, in the Azores Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)..

The European Parliament's February 14, 2007 report

The European Parliament's report, adopted by a large majority (382 MEPs voting in favour, 256 against and 74 abstaining) passed on February 14, 2007 concludes that many European countries tolerated illegal actions of the CIA including secret flights over their territories. The countries named were: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The report...

"denounces the lack of co-operation of many member states and of the Council of the European Union with the investigation," "Regrets that European countries have been relinquishing control over their airspace and airports by turning a blind eye or admitting flights operated by the CIA which, on some occasions, were being used for illegal transportation of detainees; Calls for the closure of Guantanamo and for European countries immediately to seek the return of their citizens and residents who are being held illegally by the US authorities; Considers that all European countries should initiate independent investigations into all stopovers by civilian aircraft the CIA; Urges that a ban or system of inspections be introduced for all CIA-operated aircraft known to have been involved in extraordinary rendition."

In April 2006, MEP in charge of the investigations had already expressed concerns that the CIA had conducted more than 1,000 secret flights over European territory since 2001, some to transfer terror suspects. Agents' names repeatedly came up in the investigation — which was said to suggest a pattern of operations, and flight configurations were highly suspicious.

The report criticized a number of European countries (including Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the UK) for their "unwillingness to co-operate" and the action of secret services for lack of cooperation with the Parliaments' investigators and acceptal of the illegal abductions. The European Parliament voted a resolution condemning member states which accepted or ignore the practice. According to the report, the CIA had operated 1,245 flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face torture. The Parliament also called for the creation of an independent investigation commission and the closure of Guantanamo camp. According to Italian Socialist Giovanni Fava, who drafted the document, there was a "strong possibility" that the intelligence obtained under the extraordinary rendition illegal program had been passed on to EU governments who were aware of how it was obtained. The report also uncovered the use of secret detention facilities used in Europe, including Romania and Poland. The report defines extraordinary renditions as instances where "an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention and torture".

Treaty obligations

The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) Article 3 states:

1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

Any state that is a signatory of the UNCAT and passes an individual to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture would be in breach of their treaty obligations, which most Western governments would be reluctant to do.

The United States Senate, however, ratified the treaty with certain reservations, declarations, and understandings, which may alter the nature of their treaty obligation with regard to UNCAT Article 3. Congressional Record S17486-01 II.3 reads "the United States understands the phrase, 'where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture,' as used in Article 3 of the Convention, to mean 'if it is more likely than not that he would be tortured.'" This "understanding" with regard to U.S. ratification perhaps increases the difficulty of proving a treaty violation.

Secret detention is prohibited under international human rights standards. Principle 6 of the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions states that "governments shall ensure that persons deprived of their liberty are held in officially recognized places of custody, and that accurate information on their custody and whereabouts, including transfers, is made promptly available to their relatives and lawyers or other persons of confidence."

"Forced disappearances" are crimes under international law, involving multiple human rights violations. In certain circumstances they are crimes against humanity, and can be prosecuted in international criminal proceedings. The defining characteristic of a "disappearance" is that it puts the victim beyond the protection of the law, while at the same time concealing the violations from outside scrutiny, making them harder to expose and condemn, and allowing governments to avoid accountability. The United Nations General Assembly has said that enforced disappearance "constitutes an offence to human dignity, a grave and flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms ..." The ICRC has said of "disappearances", that "no one has the right to keep that person's fate or whereabouts secret or to deny that he or she is being detained. This practice runs counter to the basic tenets of international humanitarian law and human rights law."

The 1992 UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances states that "any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity", which "places the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life".

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the crime against humanity of "enforced disappearance of persons" as "the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time."

On May 19, 2006, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (the U.N. body that monitors compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Torture), recommended that the United States cease holding detainees in secret prisons and stop the practice of rendering prisoners to countries where they are likely to be tortured. The decision was made in Geneva following two days of hearings at which a 26-member U.S. delegation defended the practices.

Bibliography

• Grey, Stephen (2006). Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-36023-1.
• Thompson, A. C., and Trevor Paglen (2006). Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights. Hoboken, New Jersey: Melville House. ISBN 1-933633-09-3.

See also

• Aero Contractors - one of several companies that are reported to provide air transport in extraordinary rendition cases.
• Black site
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Command responsibility
• Criticisms of the War on Terrorism
• Enemy combatant or Unlawful combatant
• Erroneous rendition
• Extrajudicial punishment
• Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Forced disappearance
• Ghost detainee
• Jeppesen - a Boeing subsidiary that is reported to provide navigation and logistical support.
• Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castrist Cuban wanted by Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, which the US has refused to extradite in 2006 to Venezuela, on claims that he was not sufficiently enough protected from risks of torture in this last state.
• Rendition aircraft
• Rendition (2007 film, US) - an upcoming movie directed by Gavin Hood, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep
• Rendition (2007 film, UK) - an upcoming movie directed by James Threapleton, starring Omar Berdouni and Andy Serkis
• USS Bataan
• USS Peleliu
• Unitary Executive
• War on terror

Notes

1. "Rendition" and secret detention: A global system of human rights violations, Amnesty International, 1 January 2006
2. Lila Rajiva: The CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons. CounterPunch, 5 December 2005
3. Raymond Bonner: The CIA's Secret Torture. The New York Review Of Books, January 11, 2007
4. Presidential directive PDD 39, 1995.
5. Information memorandum II on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe state, reported by Dick Marty, 22 January 2006
6. Mayer, Jane. The New Yorker, February 14, 2005. ""Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America's 'extraordinary rendition' program."". Retrieved 2007-02-20.
7. According to former CIA case officer Bob Baer, "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear — never to see them again - you send them to Egypt." The CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons: The Torture-Go-Round By Lila Rajiva in CounterPunch, 5 December 2005
8. Google Books search
9. Christopher H. Pyle: Torture by proxy - How immigration threw a traveler to the wolves. San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 2004
10. "Torture flights: what No 10 knew and tried to cover up". Retrieved 2006-01-23.
11. 'Rendition' Realities by David Ignatius Washington Post, March 9, 2005; Page A21
12. Outsourcing Torture: The Secret History of America's "Extraordinary Rendition" 17 February 2005
13. Richard Clarke, Enemies pp. 143-144
14. Cite error: The named reference mayer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
15. ^ Dana Priest (December 4 2005). "Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake". Washington Post. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
16. "Guardian Unlimited : Special reports : CIA's secret jails open up new transatlantic rift". The Guardian. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Senate Is Set to Require White House to Account for Secret Prisons". December 15 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |mirror= ignored (help)
18. "Opinion: Condi's Trail of Lies - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News". Der Spiegel. December 8 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
19. "'Renditions save lives': Condoleezza Rice's full statement". The Times. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
20. "Keep quiet about secret flights to secret jails, Rice tells Europe". The Times. December 6 2006. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
21. "Tough words from Rice leave loopholes". The Times. December 6 2006. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
22. Louise Arbour (December 7 2005). "No Exceptions to the Ban on Torture". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |mirror= ignored (help)
23. CIA Self-investigation Only Known Renditions Inquiry, The NewStandard, December 28 2005
24. ^ CIA Probes Renditions of Terror Suspects, Associated Press, December 27 2005
25. The envoy silenced after telling undiplomatic truths, The Daily Telegraph 23 October 2004
26. Torture evidence inadmissible in UK courts, Lords rules by Staff and agencies in The Guardian December 8, 2005
27. Torture ruling's international impact by Jon Silverman BBC 8 December 2005
28. "Foreign Office faces probe into 'manipulation'" by Robert Winnett, The Sunday Times 20 March 2005
29. Q & A: Torture by Proxy Jane Mayer answers question asked by Amy Davidson The New Yorker on 14 February 2005
30. EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION On Craig Murray website dated July 11,2005
31. "Special Reports : UK 'breaking law' over CIA secret flights". The Guardian. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
32. "Democracy Now! : British Tory MP Blasts Extraordinary Rendition, Says Britain Broke International Law and "Complicit in Torture" if Flights Passed Through UK". Democracy Now. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
33. "United States of America / Yemen: Secret Detention in CIA "Black Sites"". Amnesty International. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
34. "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
35. "Mike Whitney: the United States of Torture". Counter Punch. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
36. "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons (See above)". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
37. "t r u t h o u t - Bob Herbert : Secrets and Shame". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
38. US military planes criss-cross Europe using bogus call sign February 17 2007 The Sunday Times.
39. "Europeans Probe Secret CIA Flights". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
40. "Europe : EU to look into 'secret US jails'". BBC. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
41. "U.S. Faces Scrutiny Over Secret Prisons". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
42. ^ "Europe 'knew about' CIA flights". BBC. January 24 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
43. "World : Europe : EU to query US 'secret prisons'". BBC. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
44. "Europe in Uproar Over CIA Operations - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
45. "CIA Flights in Europe: The Hunt for Hercules N8183J - Spiegel Online - url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,387185,00.html". Der Spiegel. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
46. "Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
47. "The Consequences of Covering Up". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
48. Mayer, Jane. The C.I.A.'s Travel Agent. The New Yorker. 2006-10-23.
49. "RIGHTS: U.N. Blasts Practice of Outsourcing Torture (See above)". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
50. "List of "Ghost Prisoners" Possibly in CIA Custody". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
51. "U.S. Holding at Least Twenty-Six "Ghost Detainees"". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
52. "EXCLUSIVE: Sources Tell ABC News Top Al Qaeda Figures Held in Secret CIA Prisons". ABC News. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
53. Dana Priest, Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake: German Citizen Released After Months in 'Rendition', Washington Post, December 4, 2005
54. ^ Algerian Tells of Dark Odyssey in U.S. Hands, New York Times, July 7 2006 - - mirror Cite error: The named reference "NyTimes060707" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
55. "Jet Is an Open Secret in Terror War". The Washington Post. December 27 2004. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
56. ^ Renditions:tales of torture, BBC News, December 7, 2005
57. "'Tortured' Australian speaks out". BBC. December 7 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
58. Profile: Mamdouh Habib, BBC News, December 7, 2005
59. "Prewar claims 'sourced from rendition detainee'". The Guardian. December 9 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
60. http://www.ararcommission.ca/eng/AR_English.pdf
61. Canadian sues US over deportation, BBC News, 23 January 2004
62. "MI6 and CIA 'sent student to Morocco to be tortured'". The Guardian. December 11 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
63. "t r u t h o u t - Detainee Cleared for Release Is in Limbo at Guantanamo". December 15 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |mirror= ignored (help)
64. http://www.saudiembassy.net/2006News/News/TerDetail.asp?cIndex=6331
65. "Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and 'disappearance'". Retrieved 2006-04-05.
66. "Vertuschung mit System", Junge Welt, February 23, 2006 Template:De icon
67. "The CIA in Europe: Berlin's Silence for Washington - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News". Der Spiegel. December 5 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
68. Germany issues CIA arrest orders, BBC, January 31, 2007
69. http://www.statewatch.org/cia/documents/milan-tribunal-19-us-citizens-sought.pdf
70. "EU-wide warrant over 'CIA kidnap'". BBC. December 23 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |acces-date= ignored (help)
71. bbc.co.uk: Italians held over 'CIA kidnap', last retrieved on 2007-01-27
72. Italian Spies Arrested, Americans Sought for Kidnap, July 5, 2006 REUTERS cable mirrored by Commondreams
73. ^ "Former CIA Agent to Fight Italian Warrant". New York Times mirrored by Truthout. December 9 2005. Retrieved 2006-09-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "NyTimes051209" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
74. "CIA Ruse Is Said to Have Damaged Probe in Milan: Italy Allegedly Misled on Cleric's Abduction". Washington Post. December 6 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
75. BBC story on Nasr
76. "Pentagon Memo on Torture-Motivated Transfer". December 8 2006. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |publishers= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
77. "CIA abduction claims 'credible'". BBC. December 13 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
78. "Swiss Government Cites Evidence of Secret CIA Prisons, Transfers". Associated Press mirrored by Truthout. December 13 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
79. "Europe 'complicit over CIA jails'". BBC. January 14 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
80. ^ Rendition and the rights of the individual, BBC News, June 7, 2006
81. "US 'torture flights' stopped at Shannon". The Times. November 14 2004. Retrieved 2005-09-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
82. "Investigations into CIA 'torture flights'". The Village. November 25 2005. Retrieved 2006-09-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
83. Template:Fr"La France enquête sur les avions de la CIA". Le Figaro. February 2 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
84. "El Gobierno canario pide explicaciones sobre vuelos de la CIA en Tenerife". El Pais. 16 November 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
85. "La Fiscalía de Canarias investigará las escalas de vuelos de la CIA en Tenerife y Gran Canaria". El Mundo. 18 November 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
86. "Un supuesto avión de la CIA aterriza en la base portuguesa de Azores". Canarias 7. 28 November 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
87. "CIA Uses German Bases to Transport Terrorists, Paper Says : Europe : Deutsche Welle : 25.11.2005". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
88. "Watching America". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
89. "Une "prison secrète" américaine a existé dans un camp de l'OTAN au Kosovo". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
90. "US ran Guantanamo-style prison in Kosovo - Council of Europe envoy - Forbes.com". Forbes. Retrieved 2005-12-18.
91. Ames, Paul (November 28, 2005). "EU May Suspend Nations With Secret Prisons". ABC News. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
92. Information memorandum II on the alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe state, rapported by Dick Marty, January 22 2006
93. June 2006 Council of Europe report available here: HTML and PDF formats.
94. EU official: No evidence of illegal CIA action: Antiterror chief advises committee, Boston Globe, April 21, 2006
95. "PACE calls for oversight of foreign intelligence agencies operating in Europe". Council of Europe. June 27 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
96. ^ "Portugal: Renditions: Judicial investigation into CIA flights begins", Statewatch News Online, February 5-6, 2007 (available here) Template:En icon
97. Portugal/CIA.- La Fiscalía General abre una investigación sobre los supuestos vuelos ilegales de la CIA en Portugal, Europa Press, February 5, 2007 Template:Es icon
98. "EU endorses damning report on CIA". BBC. February 14 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
99. EU rendition report: Key excerpts, on the BBC News website
100. European Inquiry Says C.I.A. Flew 1,000 Flights in Secret, New York Times, April 27 2006
101. "United States of America / Yemen: Secret Detention in CIA "Black Sites" - Amnesty International (See above)". Retrieved 2005-12-18.
102. William Fisher, US Groups Hail Censure of Washington's "Terror War, Inter Press Service on May 20, 2006
103. PDF file of report

External links

• EU to vote on CIA flights report, BBC News, February 14 2007
• CIA Rendition Flights, The Guardian, ongoing coverage
• Rendition: legal news and resources, JURIST
• Secret Prisons Timeline
• Britain accused over CIA's secret torture flights, by Stephen Grey and Andrew Buncombe, The Independent & The Independent on Sunday, 10 February 2005 (original)
• Richard Clarke, Against all Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, Free Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7432-6024-4
• An Open Letter to George Bush partly on this issue
• International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance

2006

• Stop Rendition and Secret Detention!, Amnesty International
• Protest at US Embassy, London, against CIA 'torture flights', Liberty, 25 June
• "Rendered Meaningless: The Rule of Law in the US 'War on Terror'", JURIST, March 27
• "Torture flights landed in UK, admit air controllers" by Marie Woolf, The Independent, 19 February
• "House Committee Squashes Torture Queries", Associated Press, February 8
• A Torturing Topic Pocono Record, February 18, 2006, discussing lecture by Matthew McNabb
• "Report: U.S. 'Outsourced' Torture", Associated Press, January 24
• "Rendition: the cover-up", New Statesman, January 23
• "Ugly phrase conceals an uglier truth", Salman Rushdie, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 10
• Maher Arar:The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: A Personal Account, CounterPunch, 27/29 October

2005

• Exporting Torture: US Rendition and European Outrage, JURIST, December 13, 2005
• Documentary about 'extraordinary renditions', Dispatches: The Real War on Terror - Kidnap and torture, American style. Aired on Channel 4 (UK), November 23, 2005
• Spanish police expose more CIA links to secret flights of detainees, The Guardian, November 15, 2005
• Torture flights: our role in US brutality shames Britain Sunday Herald, October 16, 2005
• Torture Flights: The Inside Story Neil Mackay, Sunday Herald, October 16, 2005
• Police to probe US ‘torture flights’ landing in Scotland, Neil Mackay, Sunday Herald, October 23, 2005
• Europeans eye CIA secret jails claim--WHAT THE MEDIA WON'T TELL Clayton Hallmark, Chiapas IMC, November 5, 2005
• Navy Secretly Contracted Jets Used by CIA, The Boston Globe, September 24, 2005
• Rendition Cindy Sheehan? CIA Fugitive From Italy Justice Is Located
• Benyam Mohammed, The Guardian, August 2, 2005, 'One of them made cuts in my penis. I was in agony'
• New Swedish Documents Illuminate CIA Action: Probe Finds 'Rendition' Of Terror Suspects Illegal, Washington Post, May 21, 2005
• "Flight to torture: where abuse is contracted out" by Tim Reid, The Times, 26 March 2005
• Jet's Travels Cloaked in Mystery John Crewdson and Tom Hundley (Knight-Ridder), Common Dreams, March 20, 2005
• "Torture by Proxy", Editorial Los Angeles Times, 11 March, 2005
• "CIA given free hand for `rendition,' says official", Taipei Times, Source: NY Times news service and AFP, Washington, 8 March 2005
• "CIA Flying Suspects To Torture?", CBS News, March 6, 2005
• "It's Called Torture", Op-Ed by Bob Herbert, New York Times, February 28, 2005 (alternative site)
• "Hair used to verify Afghan abduction claim", Paktribune.com, February 4, 2005
• "They beat me from all sides", The Guardian, January 14, 2005

2004

• "Markey pledges battle on rendition practice", Boston Globe, November 30, 2004
• "Memo Lets CIA Take Detainees Out of Iraq", Washington Post, October 24
• "A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects", Washington Post, July 25
• Stephen Grey, 2004, "America's Gulag", New Statesman, May 17
• "Secret World of U.S. Interrogation", Washington Post, May 11

2003

• "Deported to Syria by U.S., Canadian tells tale of torture", Associated Press, November 5
• "Deported Terror Suspect Details Torture in Syria", Washington Post, November 5
• "Playing Offense: The inside story of how U.S. terrorist hunters are going after al Qaeda", US News & World Report, June 2
• "Questioning Terror Suspects in a Dark and Surreal World", New York Times, March 9

2002

• "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations", Washington Post, December 26
• "U.S. Behind Secret Transfer of Terror Suspects", Washington Post, March 11

2001

• "Broad Effort Launched After '98 Attacks", Washington Post, December 19

Terminology

Rendition

In law, rendition is a "surrender" or "handing over" of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another. For criminal suspects, extradition is the most common type of rendition. Rendition can also be seen as the act of handing over, after the request for extradition has taken place.

Extraordinary rendition

This term is not yet defined in international law. Its use is often criticized as euphemistic. For example, a New York Times editorial mentions the "practice known in bureaucratese by the creepy euphemism 'extraordinary rendition.'" Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote: "an American policy that is known as extraordinary rendition. That's a euphemism. What it means is that the United States seizes individuals, presumably terror suspects, and sends them off without even a nod in the direction of due process to countries known to practice torture." Author Salman Rushdie wrote in 2006 that "this phrase's brutalisation of meaning is an infallible signal of its intent to deceive," equating it to a form of newspeak. Gerard Baker of The Times commented that this "must rank as euphemism of the year. 2005 it became notorious as the term used by the US to describe what it does when it hands over terrorist suspects and other enemies to third countries that are rather less scrupulous about human rights than we are."

Rendition, extradition, and deportation

Legal scholar L. Ali Khan, a professor of law at Washburn University School of Law in Kansas, makes the following distinctions between rendition, extradition, and deportation:

Extradition is an open procedure under which a fugitive is lawfully sent to a requesting state where he has committed a serious crime. Rendition is a covert operation under which even an innocent person may be forcibly transferred to a state where he has committed no crime. It is like a bully dispatching a helpless prey to another bully in another town.

Rendition is not even deportation. A person may be deported under US immigration laws for a variety of reasons including charges of terrorism. Deportation however implies that the person is in the United States. Rendition is not territorial. US agencies can abduct a person from anywhere in the world and render him to a friendly government. In December 2003, US agents pulled Khaled El-Masri from a bus on the Serbia-Republic of Macedonia border and flew him to Afghanistan where he was drugged and tortured

Defying international treaties and US laws, rendition works on the dark fringes of legality. The Torture Convention specifies that no signatory state shall expel, return, or extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. The Convention is so strict in its prohibition of torture that it allows no exceptions under which any such transfer may be justified. Additionally, it is a crime under US laws to commit torture outside the United States. If the victim dies of torture, the crime is punishable with death. It is also a crime for US officials to conspire to commit torture outside the United States. Under both the Convention and US laws, therefore, rendition is strictly prohibited if the rendered person would be subjected to torture.

Reported methodology

Media reports describe suspects as being arrested, blindfolded, shackled, and sedated, or otherwise kidnapped, and transported by private jet or other means to the destination country. The reports also say that the rendering countries have provided interrogators with lists of questions.

1. Torture by Proxy. New York Times, March 8 2005 - - mirror
2. It's Called Torture, Der Spiegel, February 28 2005
3. "Ugly phrase conceals an uglier truth". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
4. Non! Enough renditions from an iPod generation with no sensitivity chip, The Times, December 30 2005
5. Friendly renditions to Muslim chambers of torture
6. Stephen Grey and Ian Cobain Suspect's tale of travel and torture The Guardian 2 August 2005. "He says he was flown on what he believes was a US aircraft to Morocco, while shackled, blindfolded and wearing earphones"

• Central Intelligence Agency
• CIA operations
• Civil rights abuses
• Emergency laws
• George W. Bush administration controversies
• Human rights abuses
• International law
• Kidnappings
• Torture
• Anti-terrorism policy of the United States
• Extraordinary rendition program