President OK'ed CIA torture tactics

While renditions were carried out before the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA has since flown 100 to 150 suspects to countries including Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan, The Times reported.

A separate report by CBS's "60 Minutes" quoted a former Swedish diplomat who said suspects were stripped, shackled and drugged by masked men before being flown to Egypt, where they were subjected to "electric torture."

'SOMEONE ELSE TO DO YOUR DIRTY WORK'

Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst who helped set up the rendition program during the Clinton administration, said officials understood what it meant to send suspects to those countries.

"They don't have the same legal system we have. But we know that going into it," he told CBS. "It's finding someone else to do your dirty work."

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador in Uzbekistan, told CBS that Uzbek citizens, captured in Afghanistan, were flown back to Uzbekistan, where torture techniques include boiling body parts. Tashkent denies it uses systematic torture.

One senior U.S. official told The New York Times that the program had been aimed only at those suspected of knowledge about terrorism operations and were transferred with promises they would not be tortured.
"We get assurances; we check on those assurances, and we double-check on these assurances to make sure that people are being handled properly in respect to human rights," the official said.

He did not dispute there had been mistreatment on some occasions, but said no one died.

The Bush administration has publicly said the United States did not hand over people to be tortured.

"At every step of the way, President Bush and his administration has made very clear that we abide by the laws of our land and the treaty obligations we have," Bartlett told CNN. "We will not torture here in America, and we will not export torture. That is unacceptable to this president, and something that we will not tolerate."

"Heil me! Kill the untermenschen, my white warriors!"

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said today the United States would never send terrorism suspects to countries where they would be tortured but admitted once they have been dispatched to nations like Saudi Arabia or Egypt the U.S. government has little control.
[...]
Gonzales would not say how many prisoners had been dispatched to other countries but he said in cases such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt which have poor rights records, "additional assurances" of proper treatment were sought.

After that, he admitted, the United States had little control. He also said he could not say whether any prisoners who been sent to other countries have been abused.

The evidence has been pretty much everywhere, Baldimo, if you paid more attention to world events and this corrupt administration.

Hey, word to the wise, they were doing this under the Clinton administration as well.

It is a practice that must stop immediately. What does it gain?

We also know too well that people who are tortured will say whatever in order to stop the torture.

Nothing but the pain and suffering of innocent victims accused of egregious acts that they never committed.

Of course, Alberto Gonzales would not admit how many prisoners had been dispatched to other countries. That would mean that they WERE sent to countries that have torture.

Robert Baer was a CIA case officer from 1976 to 1997. He is the author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism (New York: Crown Publishers, 2002)

Well this have got to be the first time I have seen someone admit to something Clinton did wrong.

Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria in 1970, came to Canada in 1987. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in computer engineering, Arar worked in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer.

On a stopover in New York as he was returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia in September 2002, U.S. officials detained Arar, claiming he had links to al-Qaeda. He was deported to Syria, even though he was carrying a Canadian passport and asked to be returned to that country.

Arar returned to Canada more than a year later, claiming he had been tortured during his incarceration. He accused U.S. officials of sending him to Syria knowing that it practices torture.

U.S. officials have confirmed that "Mr. Arar's name was placed on a terrorist lookout list based on information received from Canada ", and that "the decision to remove Mr. Arar ... was made by U.S. government officials based on our own assessment of the security threat."

Meanwhile, in Mr. Arar's home country, Canada, the case has taken on a high profile. Following extensive media interest, the government reluctantly agreed to a judicial inquiry into the case, which involves the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

According to the Toronto Globe, there is some suspicion that the government "is attempting to stall the inquiry into irrelevancy by tying it up in lengthy legal proceedings."

"Although the government asked a judge to conduct a public inquiry, it seems determined to retain control over what information will be made public about Mr. Arar, especially as it relates to the activities of the CSIS and the RCMP," the Globe said.

The U.S. State Department has refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry.

Arar was transported to Syria under a U.S. government program known as "extreme rendering" -- taking detainees to countries where prison authorities are known to practice torture.

The program has been used extensively by the CIA, which uses leased Gulfstream business jets for its flights. The U.S. government has acknowledged that it engages in "extreme rendering", but insists that countries to which its prisoners are taken provide "diplomatic assurance" that they will be treated humanely.

It is generally thought that the rendering practice may be responsible for some of the "ghost detainees" from Iraq and Afghanistan -- U.S. prisoners whose identities have been hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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Well this have got to be the first time I have seen someone admit to something Clinton did wrong.

It's called objectivity, Baldimo. But to be fair, the precendence set after 9/11 allowed Gonzales to draft a plan to step up the torturing of innocent victims by SENDING THEM TO OTHER COUNTRIES without trial, without reason whatsoever, period. I'd read up more on the history of this practice before reaching such blind assumptions...

And I meant Brandon, not you in my last post. My apologies...

Oh, and if torture is so effective, why has much of the information coming out of Guantanamo been false?

Watch your words. You provide no reliable evidence for the serious acussations you have made. An article in the NYT cannot be considered a good source-specially when matters as torture are concerned-it is one of the most biased American newspapers. I hope they will be intelligent enough to avoid following Dan Rather's way.

About your second post

Quote:

"Heil me! Kill the untermenschen, my white warriors!"

This infamous line tells us many things about you-too many and too bad, indeed. It reveals the totalitarian spirit which lies beneath your liberal "tolerance" which consists of insulting anyone who supports policies or ideas different from yours. You are led by hatred. Can you explain how Bush's policies and fascism are linked?

What part of 'boiling body parts' don't you understand?

This isn't a rumour, this is as real as Saddam's torture palaces.......

Mr Stillwater wrote:

What part of 'boiling body parts' don't you understand?

This isn't a rumour, this is as real as Saddam's torture palaces.......

The part where you accuse the president of approving it.