Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns

[Wehrwolfen]

Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns​

By By Craig Whitlock
January 1, 2013



The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial. . .

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(Excerpt)

Read more:
Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns - The Washington Post

 

[JustTheFacts]

Good, I hope he's waterboarding them as we speak.

 

[Freemason9]

Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns​

By By Craig Whitlock
January 1, 2013



The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial. . .

Continued 1 2 3


(Excerpt)

Read more:
Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns - The Washington Post

I have an honest question. Would you be equally opposed to this under a Republican presidency? Or is this just partisan whining?

 

[JustTheFacts]

Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns​

By By Craig Whitlock
January 1, 2013



The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial. . .

Continued 1 2 3


(Excerpt)

Read more:
Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns - The Washington Post

I have an honest question. Would you be equally opposed to this under a Republican presidency? Or is this just partisan whining?

fair question to him.

Now I have one for you. Don't you find it at all disturbing that Obama was adamantly opposed to rendition as a candidate and in fact all but called it a crime, and now that he's President Obama they are suddenly a ok?

 

[Wehrwolfen]

Good, I hope he's waterboarding them as we speak.

Weren't you the whiner and crier of the extremes of Rendition by President Bush ?

 

[Freemason9]

Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns​

By By Craig Whitlock
January 1, 2013



The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial. . .

Continued 1 2 3


(Excerpt)

Read more:
Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns - The Washington Post

I have an honest question. Would you be equally opposed to this under a Republican presidency? Or is this just partisan whining?

fair question to him.

Now I have one for you. Don't you find it at all disturbing that Obama was adamantly opposed to rendition as a candidate and in fact all but called it a crime, and now that he's President Obama they are suddenly a ok?

Yes, it is immensely disturbing for me. I only supported the re-election of Obama because the alternative was so horrible, and I honestly wish the GOP would get away from the right wing radical elelment that apparently runs that party these days. I would consider myself as a working-class conservative; I'm no neocon (I don't like the "sacred cow" of military spending), I'm pro-labor, I'm opposed to welfare that discourages work, I'm for a higher minimum wage.

I don't fit in well; go figure. Obama was my best choice, but he disappoints me every day.

 

[BlindBoo]

In 2009, a White House task force on interrogation and detainee transfers recommended that the government be allowed to continue using renditions, but with greater oversight, so that suspects were not subject to harsh interrogation techniques, as some were during the George W. Bush administration.

So to recap the difference is torture, or lack thereof to the Bush era renditions.

But then again Bush didn't have the kewl Killer Drones to use like Obama does either.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - if ya can't torture `em to get `em to talk here, take `em where dey can be...

Rendition gets ongoing embrace from Obama administration
January 2, 2013 - The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial. The secret arrests and detentions came to light Dec. 21 when the suspects made a brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom. The men are the latest example of how the Obama administration has embraced rendition — the practice of holding and interrogating terrorism suspects in other countries without due process — despite widespread condemnation of the tactic in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Renditions are taking on renewed significance because the administration and Congress have not reached agreement on a consistent legal pathway for apprehending terrorism suspects overseas and bringing them to justice. Congress has thwarted President Barack Obama's pledge to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and has created barriers against trying al-Qaida suspects in civilian courts, including new restrictions in a defense authorization bill passed last month. The White House, meanwhile, has resisted lawmakers' efforts to hold suspects in military custody and try them before military commissions.

The impasse and lack of detention options, critics say, have led to a de facto policy under which the administration finds it easier to kill terrorism suspects, a key reason for the surge of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Renditions, though controversial and complex, represent one of the few alternatives. "In a way, rendition has become even more important than before," said Clara Gutteridge, director of the London-based Equal Justice Forum, a human rights group that investigates national security cases and that opposes the practice.

Because of the secrecy involved, it is not known how many renditions have taken place during Obama's first term. But his administration has not disavowed the practice. In 2009, a White House task force on interrogation and detainee transfers recommended that the government be allowed to continue using renditions, but with greater oversight, so that suspects were not subject to harsh interrogation techniques, as some were during the George W. Bush administration.

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Congress OKs bill to grow rewards for terrorism justice program
January 2, 2013 WASHINGTON — Congress has approved legislation that would expand the U.S. State Department's rewards for justice program to target the world's most serious human rights abusers, with African warlord Joseph Kony a top target.

The House passed the bill Tuesday night and sent it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The State Department strongly backed the legislation. The program, established in 1984, gives the secretary of state the authority to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits or attempts international terrorist acts. The amount of the reward would be at the secretary's discretion.

The bill would expand the program to target individuals involved in transnational organized crime or foreign nationals wanted by any international criminal tribunal for war crimes or genocide. "This bill responds to the need to develop more tools to pursue the world's worst," said Rep. Ed Royce, sponsor of the legislation and the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Kony and his guerrilla group, the Lord's Resistance Army, are responsible for a nearly three-decade campaign of terror in Central Africa marked by child abductions and widespread killings. The United States designated the LRA a terrorist organization in 2001. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for attacks in multiple countries.

In 2010, Obama dispatched 100 U.S. troops — mostly Army Special Forces — to Central Africa to advise regional forces in their hunt for Kony. "U.S. military advisers working in Central Africa consider a reward offer on Kony as critical to their effort," Royce said. "This action bolsters the hunt." In the Senate, the bill had the strong support of John Kerry, Obama's pick to be the next secretary of state when Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to step down early this year.

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