Rendition continues

We all, of course, know that rendition (kidnapping) continues under the Obama administration. He told us he would do so. But he also promised to be extra careful about the rendition prisoners and make sure that they were treated properly, and if sent to another country, get ‘diplomatic assurances’ that were would be no torture. He promised more oversight.

That last promise has not held up. No surprises there. More about that later.

But, even if it had, why does this Constitutional scholar think it is okay to kidnap people from around the world and take them into detention? This is a violation of the Geneva Convention, which means it is a violation of the US Constitution. Human rights groups, and all people of conscience, have condemned this decision by Obama to continue this odious and immoral practice that was started by Clinton and used extensively by Bush. It has been condemned as illegal by the European Parliament.

Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

US says rendition to continue, but with more oversight

In an article in Foreign Affairs in the summer of 2007, Mr. Obama wrote, “To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people.” Mr. Obama continued, “This means ending the practices of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law.”

That was what Obama said then, and this apparently does not apply in the year 2009.

Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard. The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the United States is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.

"Obviously you need to preserve some tools -- you still have to go after the bad guys," said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing the legal reasoning. "The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."

It is not acceptable to me.

As far as I know, there has been only one case of rendition by the Obama administration so far. (Of course, how would we know? It’s a secret!) Surprisingly, it was not a terror suspect at all, but rather a fraud suspect. And it is from this one case that we know the ‘promise of oversight’ is not being kept, because this man (who was never transferred to a foreign country or entity) was tortured. And if Obama cannot prevent torture to rendition subjects while in American hands, you can be sure he cannot prevent it in foreign hands. I will cover that story under a post called TORTURE CONTINUES. Here is the story of his rendition, or kidnapping:

Corruption charges lead to rendition

Azar was in Kabul on business. His company had signed contracts with the Pentagon worth $50 million (€34 million) for reconstruction work in Afghanistan. On April 8, Azar was placed onto a Gulfstream and flown to the US state of Virginia to face charges. He was accused of having bribed his US Army contact to secure military contracts for his company, and he was later found guilty of bribery.

It was a classic case of corruption, which is not the sort of crime for which a suspect is normally sent to a military prison. No one can explain to Azar why he was taken to Bagram, where the US military treated him like a terrorism suspect.

Here’s a bit more detail on his kidnapping (rendition).

Scott Horton said this:

Why such aggressive and dramatic techniques were used in connection with the apprehension of a man suspected of a small-scale white collar crime remains entirely unclear.

A Lebanese-American women was also seized at the same time, with little information on this rendition available.

According to court papers, on April 7, 2009, Azar and a Lebanese-American colleague, Dinorah Cobos, were seized by "at least eight" heavily armed FBI agents in Kabul, Afghanistan, where they had traveled for a meeting to discuss the status of one of his company's U.S. government contracts.

There is further information in this court document.

Of course, if you are going to have kidnapping, then you probably need to have ‘black sites’ to put your kidnapping victims into, even though this rendition that we know about did not involve a black site. I will have a post on SECRET PRIONS CONTINUE tomorrow and one on TORTURE CONTINES the day after.