WEIRDLAND: Shutting down Guantanamo, Rendition

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Shutting down Guantanamo, Rendition

"Barack Obama has granted the CIA permission to continue carrying out the controversial Bush-era practice of extraordinary rendition, it has emerged.

And he did so just two days after becoming president and vowing to dismantle his predecessor's war on terror.

As the new U.S. President issued orders shutting down the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay and fought to show the Muslim world that 'America is not your enemy', it was revealed that the renditions programme may even be expanded.

Under executive orders signed by Mr Obama on January 22, two days after his inauguration, the CIA still has the authority to carry out renditions - secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States. It even became the subject of a Hollywood film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon.But despite the controversy surrounding the secretive practice, Mr Obama appears to have decided it was the one component of Mr Bush's war on terror that it must keep.

'Obviously you need to preserve some tools - you still have to go after the bad guys,' an Obama administration official told the LA Times.

'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.' Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

"Rendition and temporary detention are tools in that effort - tools that now need to be as closely monitored and assessed as they were once recklessly abused".
Source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

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