Extraordinary Rendition

Extraordinary Rendition

What is extraordinary rendition? Rendition usually means to transfer someone from one country to another, outside all judicial or administrative due process. Under this practice, the CIA is delivering terror suspects into the hands of foreign intelligence services without extradition proceedings. It has been practiced and will continue to be practiced between countries that do not have extradition agreements to cover such accusations of torture. Suspects have been sent to Syria, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, countries whose abusive practices have been documented and condemned by the State Department 's annual human rights report. Along with the prisoner, the CIA provides the foreign intelligence services a list of questions it wants answered. The purpose in many cases appears to have been to transfer those people to a place where they can be tortured in hopes that the information wanted is given at any cost. Whether this is due to moral cowardice or practicality is not crucial. The point is that U.S. democracy is failing to control the executive while President Bush restates the words the “war on terrorism” and does as he pleases without consequences. Many Americans have been appalled by the horrific tales that have occurred at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Others have questioned whether the U.S. refusal to accept the International Criminal Court pertains to the idea that some Americans may be guilty of war crimes. On top of that, others have wonder why it took so long for President Bush to endorse Senator John McCain’s resolution against the use of torture. More so, some have questioned how the Bush’s legacy continues their impunity. Torture is illegal in the United States, by law, Constitution and international convention. Not only may the United States not engage in the practice, even in wartime, the law explicitly prohibits sending a person to another nation where there is good reason to believe he might be tortured. All these presumption have led to the perceptions that the U.S. has become one of the terrorists, or at least on the same playing ground . The secretiveness behind the operations, the evidence of U.S.’s selfishness, the point that the U.S. has a sense of hypocritical behavior, and the fact that there is a history of extraordinary rendition, does not portray Americans in a good light As The Japan Times journalist Hugh Cortazzi explains in his article published December 26, 2005, U,S, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was questioned on her visit to Europe. She denied that the U.S. government was not doing anything illegal or breaking any international conventions. Also, in cases of “extraordinary rendition”, the U.S. did not send prisoners anywhere where it knew they would be tortured. This implies to the possibility that prisoners might have been shipped to places where they might have been tortured. The president claims to be in control of a human rights effort to extinguish torture. But how certain is that of the U.S.? Does Bush have such clean hands that he can lecture the rest of the world? No, not even close. In the name of the "war on terrorism," the Bush administration is condoning and even facilitating the torture of terrorist suspects. Binyam Muhammad serves as an example of extraordinary rendition, which brings to the perception that the U.S. is exporting their dirty laundry in which gives way to the idea of see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. Muhammad, an Ethiopian captured in 2002 was detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2004, made his appearance in a U.S. military courtroom to testify that he was an innocent man. He was charged of conspiring to attack U.S. civilians. He claims that not only he is innocent, but also he endured torture sessions overseen by Americans after the U.S. delivered him to Morocco. Even if Muhammad is charged of conspiring, detaining him without charge and torturing him would be seen as a defiance of international human rights protections. As Gwendolyn Albert of The Prague Post argues on April 12, 2006, “the Bush family legacy of impunity is bearing far uglier fruit today.” It is the history the Bush family has inflicted themselves with. In the 1980’s, President George Bush Sr. was in office during the Iran-Contra scandal, in which CIA agents in Nicaragua were illegally trafficking drugs and weapons. Those who were involved in the crimes were subsequently pardoned President Bush. It seems that history has a common thread as President George Walker Bush is the current occupant of the U.S. presidency. The secretive nature that other nations have correlated with the U.S. has taken shape from many past incidents. The fact that the U.S. calls the whole operation “extraordinary rendition” to fool the public in believing that its purpose is meant to be good. In the article written in The Age on January 10, 2006, Salman Rushdie argues that the whole idea of the U.S. having a need to mask the concept of torturing with the phrase “extraordinary rendition” is just another way to “avoid using other words whose meanings would be problematically over apparent”. In the article, he uses examples of other clean words that mask dirty deeds such as “ethnic cleansing” and “final solution”. Another contributor of the secretive perception is the fact that the U.S. has blatantly denied the whole idea of torture on supposed terrorists. From Condoleezza Rice in her press conference to Vice President Dick Cheney recently being quoted of saying “When the American people look at this, they will understand and appreciate what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.” The next aspect of the perception brought towards the U.S, globally is the fact that the government is too self-interested. In The Japan Times, author Cortazzi illustrates this idea in which he mentions how fiercely opposed Vice President Dick Cheney and his supporters “who seem to believe that evil means can be justified if the results benefit America.” This point can be evaluated as the U.S. can do as it please, so the rest of the world must get used to it. Episodes such as extraordinary rendition affects the world’s perception of how I and other Americans are seen in public view. Although the torturing is not on American soil, the fact that the planning out of these crimes are, brings to the conclusion that Americans are terrorists. It also lends to what other secrets is the government hiding not only from it’s citizens, but also, what does the U.S. have under it’s sleeves? It alters how people of different nations perceive the U.S, Once, we were seen as the superpower of the world, and now we are seen as on the same level as Al Qaeda. Overall, it is not needed to say that extraordinary rendition is a negative aspect of the U.S. The change that needs to be brought is towards the executive branch and how to handle accused terrorists. The reality is when extraordinary rendition works, when do we as citizens step in and say it is inhumane. It is as if American is playing the role of the bad guys.

Work Cited
1.) Albert, Gwendolyn. "With Impunity." The Prague Post. April 12, 2006. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F2%2F34%2F1841%3A61057342%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=With_impunity_The_Prague_Post_April_12%2C_2006&jobHandle=1841%3A61057342>

2.) Cortazzi, Hugh. "Amazing grace toward torture." The Japan Times. December 26, 2005. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F0%2F19%2F1823%3A61056190%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=_Amazing_grace_toward_torture_The_Japan_Time&jobHandle=1823%3A61056190>

3.) Rushdie, Salman. "The outsourcing of evil." The Age. January 10, 2006. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F7%2F10%2F1823%3A61058107%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=The_outsourcing_of_evil_The_Age_%28Melbourne%2C_&jobHandle=1823%3A61058107>

Cited: 1.) Albert, Gwendolyn. "With Impunity." The Prague Post. April 12, 2006. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F2%2F34%2F1841%3A61057342%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=With_impunity_The_Prague_Post_April_12%2C_2006&jobHandle=1841%3A61057342> 2.) Cortazzi, Hugh. "Amazing grace toward torture." The Japan Times. December 26, 2005. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F0%2F19%2F1823%3A61056190%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=_Amazing_grace_toward_torture_The_Japan_Time&jobHandle=1823%3A61056190> 3.) Rushdie, Salman. "The outsourcing of evil." The Age. January 10, 2006. Lexis Nexis. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/us/lnacademic/delivery/DownloadDoc.do?dnldFilePath=%2Fl-n%2Fshared%2Fprod%2Fdiscus%2Fqds%2Frepository%2Fdocs%2F7%2F10%2F1823%3A61058107%2Fformatted_doc&delFmt=QDS_EF_WORD60TYPE&fileSize=5000&dnldFileName=The_outsourcing_of_evil_The_Age_%28Melbourne%2C_&jobHandle=1823%3A61058107>