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Obama Allows Rendition, Angers EU
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
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"Western liberals are totally deluded at the moment," Smith said. (Google)
CAIRO — European human rights groups and lawmakers are infuriated by the Barack Obama administration's intention to retain the right to render terror suspects to a third country for interrogation.
"Western liberals are totally deluded at the moment," Clive Stafford Smith, director of British human rights group Reprieve, told The Times on Monday, February 2.
"Like George Bush, who declared 'mission accomplished' on Iraq six years ago, they need to realize that the job is far from done."
Two days into the White House, Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo detention center and the secret CIA prisons abroad.
The order, however, allows the CIA to retain the right to render terror suspects as long as they are not held for long periods.
The instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis," reads the order.
"Obviously you need to preserve some tools -- you still have to go after the bad guys," a senior Obama administration official told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, February 1.
"The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."
Renditions were first authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and used by the Clinton administration to transfer drug lords and terrorists to the US or other countries for military or criminal trials.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration widely used the controversial tool, rendering more than 100 people from one country to another, usually with well-documented records of abuse.
Policy Voice
European rights activists and lawmakers urged Obama to keep his promise of reversing Bush's controversial anti-terror measures.
"I believe that Obama's heart is in the right place but he is surrounded by people in the US intelligence and military who don't want either themselves or their policies subjected to too much scrutiny," said Smith.
Claude Moraes, a British member of the European parliament, agrees.
"We should be pleased he has closed Guantanamo and acknowledged the existence of the secret CIA prisons," he said.
"But if he's going to complete the change, he must see that rendition is part of the package."
A 2007 European investigation into the CIA rendition found that the CIA had operated more than 1,200 flights in European airspace since 9/11.
"I have heard testimony from people who have clearly been tortured in Egypt and Jordan," said Moraes, who was a member of the European committee investigating the CIA renditions.
"To deposit people in those prisons still speaks volumes about American foreign policy."
Obama Allows Rendition, Angers EU
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
Image
"Western liberals are totally deluded at the moment," Smith said. (Google)
CAIRO — European human rights groups and lawmakers are infuriated by the Barack Obama administration's intention to retain the right to render terror suspects to a third country for interrogation.
"Western liberals are totally deluded at the moment," Clive Stafford Smith, director of British human rights group Reprieve, told The Times on Monday, February 2.
"Like George Bush, who declared 'mission accomplished' on Iraq six years ago, they need to realize that the job is far from done."
Two days into the White House, Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo detention center and the secret CIA prisons abroad.
The order, however, allows the CIA to retain the right to render terror suspects as long as they are not held for long periods.
The instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis," reads the order.
"Obviously you need to preserve some tools -- you still have to go after the bad guys," a senior Obama administration official told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, February 1.
"The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."
Renditions were first authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and used by the Clinton administration to transfer drug lords and terrorists to the US or other countries for military or criminal trials.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration widely used the controversial tool, rendering more than 100 people from one country to another, usually with well-documented records of abuse.
Policy Voice
European rights activists and lawmakers urged Obama to keep his promise of reversing Bush's controversial anti-terror measures.
"I believe that Obama's heart is in the right place but he is surrounded by people in the US intelligence and military who don't want either themselves or their policies subjected to too much scrutiny," said Smith.
Claude Moraes, a British member of the European parliament, agrees.
"We should be pleased he has closed Guantanamo and acknowledged the existence of the secret CIA prisons," he said.
"But if he's going to complete the change, he must see that rendition is part of the package."
A 2007 European investigation into the CIA rendition found that the CIA had operated more than 1,200 flights in European airspace since 9/11.
"I have heard testimony from people who have clearly been tortured in Egypt and Jordan," said Moraes, who was a member of the European committee investigating the CIA renditions.
"To deposit people in those prisons still speaks volumes about American foreign policy."