US tries to assure allies that extraordinary renditions are over

[sabra]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b0ab3116-954e-11db-a911-0000779e2340.html

US tries to assure allies that extraordinary renditions are over

The US is telling its overseas allies that it has stopped "extraordinary renditions" and needs their help to empty Guantánamo's prison cells. But human rights groups dispute this assertion and a question mark hangs over 200 "war on terror" detainees who could be held indefinitely without trial.

European diplomats say Washington is reacting to pressure from parliamentary investigations, lawsuits from former prisoners, and calls by friendly governments, including the UK, to close Guantánamo, the prison camp at a US naval base in Cuba.

However, the administration's response is seen as confused and inadequate. Analysts attribute this to internal divisions over how far to roll back controversial counter-terrorism practices - including torture, secret prisons, detention without trial, and renditions - as the price for rekindling transatlantic relations.

Washington was particularly stung by a report last month by a committee of the European parliament that condemned the alleged complicity of governments in the CIA's illegal detention and transportation of prisoners.

[saigon68]

1. Maybe Sabrina can help with the "OVERCROWDING PROBLEM"

[hayu_lol]

2. All the reports coming in now concerning the Iranians we are...

picking up in Iraq(freedom fighters perhaps?)seem to indicate that rendition is alive and well. It isn't like this misadministration has not lied a time or two before.

The powers that be in Iraq and Washington DC have got to be doing something with the Iranians caught in Iraq...what better place than out of theater in one or another obscure camps?

Ought to take all those detainees, of all countries, and send them home, perhaps with $500 or so each to soften their return to their home countries.

[EST]

3. Yeah-just like the "we do not torture" bullshit.

Reminds me of a movie I saw as a kid where this paranoid e.t. civilization of human refugees had as their mantra "we are not thieves." Maybe it was a Rod Serling thing-don't recall exactly but their guilt had driven them into space and total isolation.

I wish this crew had the benefit of a conscience or even a tiny pinch of guilt.

[damntexdem]

4. Why, yes indeed, extraordinary renditions are over:

now, they're just business as usual.

[Supersedeas]

5. ah...nothing unusual about it

[xxqqqzme]

6. wait just a f*cking minute

Wasn't there great blusterings and denials that the US did that sort of thing. I seem to recall kindasleazy being outraged @ even the suggestion. So after the hollow protestations - NOW they are promising not to do it again? There is a major credibility problem that this administration will not address or to even admit.

[gratuitous]

7. We never did it, it wasn't wrong if we did, and . . .

We're never doing it again. Which we didn't. And it wasn't wrong if we did.

Honestly, would you credit this kind of excuse-making from an eight-year-old? And yet, the administration putatively in charge of our country is using this kind of juvenile argument to excuse itself for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.