Outsourcing torture

Seems like Bush has greatly expanded the use of torture by means of getting around US laws on torture. By flying people all over the world, people can be "rendered" at will.

While this is not a breaking story, the New Yorker provides new insights and greater detail into this horrible government practice. Well worth the read.

Rendition was originally carried out on a limited basis, but after September 11th, when President Bush declared a global war on terrorism, the program expanded beyond recognition--becoming, according to a former C.I.A. official, "an abomination." What began as a program aimed at a small, discrete set of suspects--people against whom there were outstanding foreign arrest warrants--came to include a wide and ill-defined population that the Administration terms "illegal enemy combatants." Many of them have never been publicly charged with any crime. 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, estimates that a hundred and fifty people have been rendered since 2001. Representative Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, said that a more precise number was impossible to obtain. "I've asked people at the C.I.A. for numbers," he said. "They refuse to answer. All they will say is that they're in compliance with the law."

more: http://dailydraftdispatch.org/05-02/07_outtor.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/7/175454/2803