CIA sends terrorism suspects overseas
March 8, 2005 
The CIA has been secretly transferring terrorsim suspects overseas for interrogation, according to a former US official. A White House spokesman has already denied that the United States used the practice to “export torture.”
As if the amount of jobs being shipped overseas from America wasn’t enough, now the Bush Administration is outsourcing the interrogation of terrorists?
Its interesting to try and figure out what the possible benefits of sending terror suspects overseas would be. Someone that is a pessimist might lean towards the possibility of using torture to elicit information from the prisoners. An optimist would probably be stuck with just hoping there was some strategy with using multiple interrogation locations.The official, who asked not to be named because there are classified issues involved, emphasized that the process — known as “rendition” — is conducted with strict government oversight and with approval from the White House and the Department of Justice.
The practice had existed for years, but President Bush expanded it after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, The New York Times reported Sunday.
“This program of renditions is fully authorized, so the CIA is not doing anything illegal that has not been authorized by the president,” the former official said. He said both the chairmen and ranking Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees are entitled to know about it or have been briefed on it. […]
Those officials said the CIA has gone to “great lengths” to ensure that prisoners were not tortured. But some of those seized and shipped to third countries have said they were drugged, beaten and electrocuted while in custody overseas, and human rights groups have questioned the legality of the practice.
It will be interesting to see what further information comes forth about these secret interrogations of prisoners in the next few days and weeks. With the interrogation methods employed at the Abu Gharib prison in Iraq and the allegations of abuse at Guantanamo Bay, let’s hope there is a really good strategy being employed here. Although the alleged suspects’ claims of being drugged, beaten and electrocuted certainly need to be investigated.
April 10th, 2005 at 11:46 PM
You might be glad to know that students at your alma mater recently halted a CIA recruiting event on campus, by organizing to protest the event.
Story: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=35&ItemID=7609