CIVIL LIBERTIES -- PENTAGON EXPANDS RENDITION

progressreport.org
3/15/05

CIVIL LIBERTIES -- PENTAGON EXPANDS RENDITION

A Feb. 5 memorandum from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld counsels support for a plan to transfer hundreds of suspected terrorists
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/11/politics/11detain.html?hp&ex=1110603600&en=312f0dddf79181fc&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and
Yemen. The transfers would be similar to the "renditions, or transfers
of captives to other countries, carried out by the Central Intelligence
Agency," a policy that exposes prisoners to abuse and violates the
international Convention Against Torture
(http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm) (Article 3). Reports
indicate the administration has already shipped prisoners off
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27826-2004Dec26.html)
to Syria
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A522-2003Nov4¬Found=true)
and Egypt, both of which are cited for their abuse of human rights and
poor treatment of prisoners in the State Department's Human Rights
Reports (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm) released
last month. Rumsfeld appears to be trying to convince officials from the
State and Justice departments to go along with the plan. Those agencies
have "resisted some previous handovers, out of concern that
transferring the prisoners to foreign governments could harm American security or
subject the prisoners to mistreatment
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/11/politics/11detain.html?ei=5094&en=312f0dddf79181fc&hp=&ex=1110603600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=)
."