Obama Resuming G.W. Bush's "Extraordinary Renditions" by Sherwood Ross

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sent by Sparrows since 19 days 8 hours 6 minutes, published about 18 days 21 hours 19 minutes
Even though Barack Obama, the candidate, pledged to end "the practice of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries," his FBI has been rendering kidnap victims to the U.S. The practice is still kidnapping, however; and it's still illegal. Unlucky victim No. 1 was Raymond Azar, 45, flown from Afghanistan to Alexandria, Va., not to a foreign country. The construction manager for Sima International, a Lebanese outfit that did work for the U.S. military, Azar said he was tortured by his abductors. He might just as well have been flow to Egypt under the Bushies. Interestingly, Azar was never charged as a dangerous terrorist, only with conspiracy to commit bribery for wiring $106,000 in kickbacks to a U.S. employee's bank account in hopes of getting $13 million in unpaid bills okayed. For this comparatively trivial white collar crime, Azar's lawyers said when arrested he was stripped naked, hooded, and subjected to a body cavity search. What's more, according to an article by Scott Horton, writing on "Common Dreams," Azar claims a federal agent showed Azar a photo of his wife and four children and told him to confess or else he might "never see them again." Azar confessed, and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.
tags: obama, extraordinary renditions, us, tortur
8 commentscategory: Abuse of Power/Corruption karma: 172

comments

  1. #1    International law professor Philippe Sands of London University is quoted by Horton as terming Azar's allegations "deeply troubling" in that they indicate "clear violations of international norms on due process and detainee treatment."

    Under "extraordinary rendition," alleged terror suspects in the past have been abducted by the CIA and flown to be tortured (and/or murdered) to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco, Jordan and Uzbekistan, among other venues. The practice was started in 1996 under President Bill Clinton, who is said to have rendered 80 suspects, and was vastly expanded by President George W. Bush after 9/11.

    Rendition on its face is a violati...

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    written by Sparrows since 19 days 8 hours 3 minutesSparrows
  2. #2    Rendition started under the GHW Bush administration. It's not a violation of any code or article. It is the means to apprehend a person in one country to put that person under trial for crimes against another country. Due process is preserved. It's supported by the UN.

    W expanded that to other means, and that violated countless laws. Part of a reichwing plot to misdirect the blame, they are now trying to associate extraordinary rendition upon Clinton and Obama and your nextdoor neighbor's grandma, too, if she ain't a repug.

    This article is written by some socialist playing sucker for the repugs.
    written by regroce since 18 days 22 hours 44 minutesregroce
  3. #3    "Rendition started under the GHW Bush administration."

    Wrong, according to George Tenet, Richard Clarke, PBS's "Frontline," Jane Meyer in "The Dark Side" and the New Yorker, Stephen Grey in "Ghost Plane," the Brookings Institute, HRW, Amnesty International, the WP, NYT, the international press...just about everyone except fanatical DP loyalists.

    "...supported by the UN..."

    Wow! Got a cite for that extraordinary claim?

    "a reichwing plot..."

    Yeah, those folks at HRW, Amnesty International, Clinton appointees, Obama appointees are all noted reichwingers. And the WP, NYT, PBS etc are all secret supporters of "socialist" critics of US leadership...who are actually supporting the R faction of Wall Street's War Party. And history is a plot -- didn't Orwell write something about that?

    Whew. Doesn't such wild spinning make you dizzy?
    written by nasrudin since 18 days 21 hours 22 minutesnasrudin
  4. #4    actually, nasty, rendition was first practiced by Reagan. It was given a presidential practice class under HW. And it was Clinton who issued a reformation to its practice that allowed the CIA to do it only under presidential orders. And Clarke and Tenet all acknowledged the same thing, and while they were doing their media-sucking duties and got paid to redirect the focus away from extraordinary rendition and to plain ol' internationally recognized rendition. Media did a lot of that, too, after Obama wrote presidnetial order to STOP extraordinary rendition on his first day in office, trying to make a misdirection of that by promoting this "obama approves rendition!" fluke in order...

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    written by regroce since 18 days 17 hours 13 minutesregroce
  5. #5    You have 2 of us to bite regroce. You don't read and that has consistently been your problem. If you did, you would know that just b/c you are a dem it does not make you democratic or an angel.

    If you can't read, then please don't join the debate. B/C while you are calling others a troll, you become one also.

    PLEASE READ!!!
    written by Sparrows since 18 days 15 hours 57 minutesSparrows
  6. #6    oh, i'm an angel and you know it, you scrambled egg you
    written by regroce since 18 days 10 hours 43 minutesregroce
  7. #7    "...of blaming Obama and Clinton for Bush did."

    Anyone who commits crimes ought to be held accountable, without regard their titles, credentials, wealth, or any other consideration irrelevant to justice, obviously including Party affiliation.

    The CheneyBush administration isn't absolved of responsibility because Obama is continuing some of their crimes; their crimes are not excused because other criminals have done the same things in the past. ALL of them belong in prison, their wealth seized and distributed to their victims.
    written by nasrudin since 17 days 22 hours 18 minutesnasrudin
  8. #8    there's been no continuation of extraordinary rendition, as of presidential order on the day obama took the office
    written by regroce since 16 days 13 hours 55 minutesregroce
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