Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights

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On Democracy Now! today:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/15/1342250

As President Bush admits the existence of secret overseas CIA prisons, we take a look at the U.S. government's shadowy program of extraordinary rendition with the authors of the new book: "Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights." The first book documenting the US government practice of extraordinary rendition has just been released. It's called "Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights." We speak with the book's authors, A.C. Thompson and Trevor Paglen.

* A.C. Thompson, staff writer at the San Francisco Weekly. In 2005 he won a George Polk Award for his investigative reporting.
* Trevor Paglen, an expert on clandestine military installations and is the author of the two-volume study "Secret Bases, Secret Wars."

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/15/1342246

Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror'

As Spain acknowledges its territory may have been used as a stopover for the CIA's transfer of prisoners known as extraordinary rendition, we excerpt a new documentary by the human rights group Witness. "Outlawed" tells the stories of two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide. A Senate committee defied President Bush on Thursday by rejecting his revised plan to interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects and approving alternative legislation that he strongly opposed.

The Senate Armed Services Committee passed the bill affirming Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits inhumane treatment. The White House wants military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay to maintain the right to use evidence obtained through coercion and to keep elements of prosecution cases secret from those accused.

Four Republicans, including Arizona's John McCain and committee chair John Warner, joined Democrats in approving the measure. The White House says it will fight the legislation because it would mean the end of the CIA's program of interrogating detainees.

Meanwhile in Europe, the Spanish government has admitted Spain may have been used as a stopover for secret CIA flights in the practice of transferring prisoners known as extraordinary rendition - what others call kidnapping. The news comes a week after President Bush acknowledged for the first time that the CIA has been operating a secret network of overseas prisons.

Today we turn to a new documentary that tells the stories of two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide. It's called "Outlawed" and it's produced by the international human rights organization Witness. The film highlights the cases of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed.

* Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the 'War on Terror' - an excerpt of the documentary produced by the international human rights group Witness.

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