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• Monday, January 5, 2009 01:41 PM

  Scott Horton, again

  6. Apologists for the Bush Administration’s program of extraordinary renditions regularly claim that the program existed and was developed under the Clinton administration. How was the program different under Bush? - Horton

  Beginning with the George Washington Administration, it was always understood that the transfer of an individual from this country to another could not be done unilaterally by the President. Authority was needed either by an extradition treaty or by statute. There are cases of the United States going to another country and forcibly abducting someone and bringing them here, but the purpose was always bringing the individual for trial with all the procedural safeguards available. As late as 1979, the Office of Legal Counsel stated: “The President cannot order any person extradited unless a treaty or statute authorizes him to do so.”

  During the Clinton administration, FBI Director Louis Freeh and other executive officials testified about the use of force to abduct terrorist suspects for the purpose of bringing them to trial. Rendition was used to return suspected international terrorists to stand trial in the United States. Other officials, including CIA Director George Tenet, spoke of rendition as bringing suspects “to justice.” It was unclear whether that meant return to the United States or to other countries for trial. Michael Scheuer, who supervised the abduction of suspected terrorists, testified that the purpose was to take men off the street and seize evidence. The men were not brought to the United States. They were transferred to other countries only if charges had been brought against them.

  The purpose of extraordinary rendition under the Bush Administration was quite different. It was not to bring someone to trial. It was to interrogate them first under CIA custody and then transfer them to another country for interrogation and torture. The Bush Administration said it would seek “assurances” from the countries that torture would not be used but conceded that it could not control what other countries did. In lawsuits challenging extraordinary rendition, the administration regularly invokes the state secrets privilege. - Fisher

  —bystander Read bystander's other letters
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