[Marxism] HRW backs Obama's continuation of renditions

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/cia-secret-rendition-poli_b_162916.html
CIA Secret Rendition Policy Backed by Human Rights Groups?
by Tom Hayden

It is confirmed that one of the loopholes in the president's 
anti-torture orders allows the continuance of rendition by the CIA, 
which consists of secretly snatching suspects off the street without any 
due process and "rendering" them to jails in other countries. Rendition 
is at the heart of the state secrecy apparatus, and should be of concern 
to any civil liberties, human rights, or democracy advocates.

But Human Rights Watch and, apparently, other human rights groups signed 
off on renditions in talks with the Obama administration, saying 
publicly that there is "a legitimate place" for the practice.

That's not a position that represents most human rights advocates, and 
deserves to be reconsidered in the months of drafting the new 
administration's rules. Human Rights Watch could have celebrated Obama's 
presidential order while vowing to close the rendition loophole. 
Instead, according to the LA Times, the proposal "did not draw major 
protests" among human rights groups because of "a sense that nations 
need certain tools to combat terrorism." [see LA Times, Feb. 1, 2009]

"You still have to go after the bad guys", says an Obama spokesman in 
defense of renditions, which have been condemned by the European 
parliament. A Human Rights Watch representative, Tom Malinowski, says he 
urged the administration to guarantee public hearings in the countries 
to which they are rendered, as a protection against torture and 
disappearances. That would be an important corrective, but leaves 
unanswered the purpose of the secret abductions in which the CIA is the 
judge, jury, and in certain cases the executioner.

Italian politics were shaken when it was revealed that the CIA, in 
cooperation with the Berlosconi government, abducted an Egyptian cleric 
who was flown to Egypt and tortured in 2003. In another 2003 case, an 
Egyptian citizen, Khalid Masri, was grabbed by men wearing ski masks, 
stripped, blindfolded, placed in diapers, shackled and flown from 
Macedonia to Albania. He was released five months later as a case of 
mistaken identity. There perhaps have been hundreds of cases of 
rendition, tracked by European citizens as suspected CIA planes utilized 
landing rights in other countries. Despite causing an international 
uproar, the numbers of renditions may never be known.

If the Obama Justice Department wants to defend renditions as 
constitutional on "executive privilege" and "national security" grounds, 
human rights groups should perhaps meet them in court and seek a better 
outcome.

As the policy stands now, Jack Bauer would be pleased.