[DEBATE] : US - Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions

[Riaz K Tayob]

[Must be a US thing this - even Human Rights Watch is soft on 
renditions...in some circumstances... indivisible my foot!]

Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions

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By Stephen C. Webster

Published: May 7, 2009
Updated 1 day ago



Under fire from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, 
Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that he had approved of rendition 
— essentially, legalized kidnapping — apparently more than once during 
his tenure as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general.

Cautioning Holder that any potential investigation into the Bush 
administration's torture program could result in Democrats being roped 
in, "Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed 
Holder on the CIA's 'rendition' program that moved terrorism suspects 
from one country to another," reported Domenico Montanaro with MSNBC.

"Didn't that happen during the Clinton administration?

"Yes, Holder said.

"'How many did you approve?' they asked.

"Holder said he'd check the record."

Despite frequent condemnation of the practice around the world, 
rendition — the secret capture, transportation and detention of 
suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with 
the U.S. — remains in the CIA's playbook, thanks to a Jan. 22 executive 
order issued by President Obama.

Under President George W. Bush, renditions became "extraordinary 
renditions," in which suspects were handed over to nations where torture 
was not illegal. Rendition under Presidents Clinton and Obama has not 
been linked to torture.

Holder has been, at least in public, an opponent of the torture program.

"Waterboarding is torture. My justice department will not justify it, 
will not rationalize it and will not condone it," Holder said in a 
speech to the Jewish Council of Public Affairs in March.

"The use and sanction of torture is at odds with the history of American 
jurisprudence and American values. It undermines our ability to pursue 
justice fairly, and it puts our own brave soldiers in peril should they 
ever be captured on a foreign battlefield."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was briefed in 2002 on the torture 
tactics the Bush administration wanted to use against terror war 
prisoners. At the time, she did not object. In April of 2009, she denied 
knowing the techniques would ever be applied to prisoners.

"[They] did not tell us they were using that," she said. "Flat out. And 
any — any contention to the contrary is simply not true."

RAW STORY was the first news outlet to identify the exact location of 
one of the sites in the CIA's secret prison network, used in conjunction 
with Bush-era extraordinary renditions. RAW STORY identified a prison in 
northeastern Poland, Stare Kiejkuty, that was used as a transit point 
for terror suspects.

According to filings, the CIA has over 7,000 documents related to 
Bush-era renditions.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said that "no one is above the law" and 
that his office would "follow the evidence." He has not appointed a 
special prosecutor.

President Obama said Holder will be the person who ultimately decides 
whether to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who wrote opinions 
providing a legal basis for interrogation techniques widely denounced as 
torture.

President Obama also said CIA agents who tortured prisoners will not be 
prosecuted.

Raw Story » Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions (8 May 2009)

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/07/holder-says-he-approved-clinton-era-renditions/