Republicans Anonymous

Can you say "War Crimes Tribunal?"

Lawyers say US "renditions" on shaky legal ground
Tue Dec 6, 2005 10:25 AM ET

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

BERLIN (Reuters) - Secret U.S. transfers of terrorist suspects are open to challenge under several statutes of international law, despite Washington's most robust defense yet of their legality, human rights lawyers said on Monday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the practice of "rendition", which she defined as transporting terrorist suspects from one country to another "to be questioned, held or brought to justice".
...
Human rights lawyers said some of the cases which have come to light amounted to "disappearing people", a practice recognized as illegal for decades since its widespread use by Latin American governments in the 1970s.

"If we're actually taking people, abducting them and then placing them in incommunicado detention, which appears to be the case, we would be actually guilty then of a disappearance under international law, in addition to a rendition," said Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law.

Too bad they're reverting to a "dueling talking heads" style in reporting this - but at least they're reporting it.

Meanwhile, George Bush just told a big lie. He said the United States does not secretly move terrorism suspects to foreign countries that torture to get information. Condoleeza Rice is a bit more accurate:

"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," Rice said.
(Source: Reuters, supra.)

Reuters was nice enough to present the counter-argument:

(Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law noted) "It's kind of absurd to say that we don't know that they're at a risk of torture, or that we believe that X or Y government would not torture this individual, when we know through our own State Department reports that myriad people have been tortured in the same facilities, same locations."