Extraordinary rendition is a euphemistically named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during the war on terror, which circumvented the source country's laws on interrogation, detention, extradition and/or torture. Extraordinary rendition is a type of extraterritorial abduction, but not all extraterritorial abductions include transfer to a third country.
Extraordinary rendition began under the administration of President Bill Clinton and continued under the administration of President George W. Bush, which abducted hundreds of "illegal combatants" for U.S. detention and transported them to U.S.-controlled sites as part of an extensive interrogation program that included torture.Bush administration increased renditions
"Senate Panel's Report Links Detainees' Murders to Bush's Torture Policy" The Public Record, 30 April 2009. Barnes, Greg and Miller, Julian. "Senate Report Says Rumsfeld to Blame for Detainee Abuse" Los Angeles Times, 12 September 2008. Extraordinary rendition continued under the Obama administration, with targets being interrogated and subsequently taken to the U.S. for trial.Obama administration renditions
A 2018 report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament found the United Kingdom, specifically MI5 and MI6, to be complicit in many of the renditions carried out by the U.S., by helping to fund them, by supplying intelligence, and by knowingly allowing the abductions to happen.
In July 2014, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government of Poland for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering Poland to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, taken to a CIA black site in Poland, and tortured. Torture is banned under the European Convention on Human Rights, which 46 nations, including Poland, have pledged to uphold.
Background By 2004, critics alleged that torture was used against subjects with the knowledge or acquiescence of the United States, where the transfer of a person for the purpose of torture is unlawful. In addition, some former detainees, such as the Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib, claimed to have been transferred to other countries for interrogation under torture. In December 2005, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted:
The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.
Between 2001 and 2005, CIA officers captured an estimated one hundred fifty people and transported them around the world.
Under the Bush administration, rendered persons were reported to have undergone torture by receiving countries. Journalists, civil and constitutional rights groups, and former detainees have alleged that this occurred with the knowledge or cooperation of the administrations of the United States and the United Kingdom.
Such revelations prompted several official investigations into alleged secret detentions and unlawful interstate transfers involving Council of Europe members. A June 2006 report estimated that 100 people had been kidnapped by the CIA on European Union soil with the cooperation of Council of Europe members and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centers ("black sites"), some located in Europe. According to the separate European Parliament report of February 2007, the CIA has conducted 1,245 flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face torture, in violation of Article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.Resolution 1507 (2006). Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states A large majority of the European Union Parliament endorsed the report's conclusion that many member states tolerated illegal actions by the CIA, criticizing several European governments and intelligence agencies for their unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation.
Within days of his 2009 inauguration, Barack Obama signed an executive order opposing rendition torture and established a task force to provide recommendations about processes to prevent rendition torture. His administration distanced itself from some of the harshest counterterrorism techniques but permitted the practice of rendition to continue, restricting transport of suspects to countries with jurisdiction over them for the purpose of prosecution after diplomatic assurances "that they [would] not be treated inhumanely" had been received. Panetta's clarification of current US "Rendition policy".
Definitions Rendition, in law, is a transfer of persons from one jurisdiction to another, and the act of handing over, both after legal proceedings and according to law. "Extraordinary rendition," however, is a rendition that is extralegal, i.e. outside the law (see: kidnapping). Rendition refers to the transfer; the apprehension, detention, interrogation, and any other practices occurring before and after the movement and exchange of extrajudicial prisoners do not fall into the strict definition of extraordinary rendition. In practice, the term is widely used to describe such practices, particularly the initial apprehension. This latter usage extends to the transfer of suspected terrorists by the US to countries known to torture prisoners or employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture.Michael John Garcia, Legislative Attorney American Law Division. "Renditions: Constraints Imposed by Laws on Torture", 8 September 2009; link from the United States Counter-Terrorism Training and Resources for Law Enforcement web site
The Bush administration freely admitted to this practice; stating, among other provisions, that they have specifically asked that torture not be used. However, torture can still occur despite these provisions, and much documentation exists alleging that it has happened in many cases."Mystery surrounds former customs agent in Arar case", CBC.CA In these instances, the initial captor allows the possibility of torture by releasing the prisoner into the custody of nations that practice torture.
The next distinction of degree is that of intent, where much of the search for evidence continues. It has been alleged that some of those detainees have been tortured with the knowledge, acquiescence, or even participation of US agencies. A transfer of anyone to anywhere for torture would be a violation of US law. New York attorney Marc D. Falkoff stated that such evidence, i.e. transfer for the purposes of torture, was an operational practice. In a court filing, Falkoff described a classified prisoner transfer memo from Guantanamo as noting that information could not be retrieved, as torture could not be used, and recommending that the prisoner be sent to a nation that practiced torture.
Historical instances Historical cases
The American Civil Liberties Union alleges that extraordinary rendition was developed during the Clinton administration. CIA officials in the mid-1990s were trying to track down and dismantle militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East, particularly Al Qaeda.
According to Clinton administration official Richard Clarke:
Both the Bush and Clinton cases involved apprehending known terrorists abroad, by covert means if necessary. The Bush administration expanded the policy after the 9/11 attacks.
In a New Yorker 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.
Scheuer testified in 2007 before Congress that no such assurances were received."I have read and been told that Mr. Clinton, Mr. Berger and Mr. Clarke have said, since 9/11, that they insisted that each receiving country treat the rendered person it received according to U.S. legal standards. To the best of my memory, that is a lie." Extraordinary Rendition in U.S. Counter terrorism Policy: The Impact on Transatlantic Relations , House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Subcommittee on Europe, 17 April 2007, p. 12. He acknowledged that treatment of prisoners may not have been "up to U.S. standards":
This is a matter of no concern as the Rendition Program's goal was to protect America. The rendered fighters delivered to Middle Eastern governments are now either dead or in places from which they cannot harm America. Mission accomplished, as the saying goes.Extraordinary Rendition in U.S. Counter terrorism Policy: The Impact on Transatlantic Relations. , House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Subcommittee on Europe, 17 April 2007, p. 14.
Thereafter, with the approval of President Clinton and a presidential directive (PDD 39), the CIA elected to send suspects to Egypt, where they were turned over to the Egyptian Mukhabarat. (→ Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim)
20th century The CIA was granted permission to use rendition of indicted terrorists to American soil in a 1995 presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton, following a procedurePresidential directive PDD 39, 1995 established by George H. W. Bush in January 1993.
The United States has since increasingly used rendition as a tool in the "war on terror", ignoring the normal extradition processes outlined in international law. Suspects taken into United States custody are delivered to third-party states, often without ever having been on United States soil, and without involving the rendering countries.
Critics have accused the CIA of employing rendition for the purpose of circumventing American laws mandating due process and prohibiting torture, labeling the practice "torture flights". Sociological comparisons have been drawn between extraordinary rendition and the death flights implemented, most notably, by Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s.Austin, Jonathan Luke., 2015. "We have never been civilized: Torture and the Materiality of World Political Binaries." European Journal of International Relations, doi:10.1177/1354066115616466 Defenders of the practice argue that culturally informed and native-language interrogations are more successful in gaining information from suspects. (link is to text of article on Craig Murray's website)
Hundreds of documents retrieved from Libyan foreign ministry offices in Tripoli following the 2011 Libyan civil war show that the CIA and MI6 rendered suspects to Libyan authorities knowing they would be tortured.
In a number of cases, such as those of Khalid El-Masri and Maher Arar, suspects caught up in the procedure suffered lengthy detentions, despite ultimately being found innocent. The CIA reportedly launched an investigation into such incidents of "erroneous rendition".
21st century