Next Revolution: The Second American Revolution

Panetta: Obama won't OK 'extraordinary rendition,'

ap, 2-5-09

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will not conduct the kind of "extraordinary rendition" that the Bush administration allowed, CIA Director nominee Leon Panetta assured senators on Thursday.

Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee that President Barack Obama forbids what Panetta called "that kind of extraordinary rendition — when we send someone for the purpose of torture or actions by another country that violate our human values."

CIA Director Michael Hayden has said that the Bush administration moved secret prisoners between countries for interrogations and imprisonment, separate from the judicial system, fewer than 100 times.

Rendition has been used by U.S. presidents for several decades, and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said the Clinton administration used it 80 times. However, Panetta said the difference is whether the prisoner is transferred to another government for prosecution in its judicial system or for secret interrogations that may cross the line into torture.

"I think renditions where we return individuals to another country where they prosecute them under their laws, I think that is an appropriate use of rendition, Panetta said.

"Having said that, if we capture a high-value prisoner, I believe we have the right to hold that individual temporarily, to debrief that individual and to make sure that individual is properly incarcerated so we can maintain control over that individual," he said.

While the Obama administration is turning its back on some Bush administration practices, Panetta said there is no intention to hold CIA officers responsible for the policy they were told to carry out. CIA interrogators who used waterboarding or other harsh techniques against prisoners with the permission of the White House should not be prosecuted, he said.

"Those individuals ought not to be prosecuted or investigated if they acted pursuant to the law as presented by the attorney general," Panetta said.

The Bush White House approved CIA waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, for three prisoners in 2002 and 2003. The CIA banned the practice internally in 2006. Obama has prohibited harsh interrogation techniques going forward.

But Panetta said if interrogators went beyond the methods they were told were legal, they should be investigated.

Obama's Policy: Preserve Bush Criminal Powers in Executive Branch

Alex, 2-5-09

Leon Panetta's testimony before the Senate intelligence committee is quite disturbing, if you believed that the Obama Administration had moved away from Bush's criminal  Renditon and Torture poliicies. Panetta's testimony indicates the Obama Administration has preserved and intends to use illegal rendition and torture.

Panetta stated in his Senate testimony that "the kind" of "extrodinary renditions" that the Bush Administration employed for the extra-legal secret transfer of secret prisoners between secret prisons, for the purpose of torture, would not be continued. Yet in the same breath, Panetta said that secret transfers of secret prisnors is ok as long as it does not involve transportation for the purpose of torture. Well, nobody that orders or carries out illegal renditions ever admits that renditions are for the purpose of torture, even when the redition was clearly for the purpose of torture.

As Panetta must know, we have a legal, lawful procedure for transfering prisnors to foreign jurisdictions. It's call extradition. Panetta is playing games with us when he claims illegal renditions are an appropiate subsitution for extradition. Rendition is an extra-judicial tool of the secret police state, is illegal, and is completely unacceptable for a society that claims to operate by democratic principals under the rule of law. Which makes it clear that the Obama Administration will continue to claim the right to secretly "render" secret prisnors to our allied dictators and police states.

Let's be perfictly clear on this: "extraordinary  renditions" are completely illegal under every circumstance. Extraordinary rendition is a crime against our domestic laws and international treaties. Understand that "renditions" are only carried out on kidnap victims who are secretly held beyond the rule of law. Panetta's position on renditions indicates that the Obama Administration has assumed, rather than rejected, the criminal powers that Bush (and Clinton) used to justify kidnapping, secret imprisonment, and secret, extra-judicial transportation of their victims.

Panetta's position on CIA torture is also very disturbing. First, torture is very clearly defined and prohibited in all cases by international law. Panetta's intention not to prosecute torturers "who were just following orders" flies in the face of decades of international law, which specifically prohibits the "following orders" defense. We Americans hung Japanese and Germans who waterboarded prisnors "under orders." 

Combined with published reports that AG Holder made promises that he would not prosecute agencies or political appointments who participated in torture, we are confronted with an Obama Administration that is not only protecting the previous administration's crimes and criminals, but has configured its appointments and policies to preserve these illegal powers in his administration.

As I pointed out in Torture, the UK, and Obama: A chance for "Change we can Believe in?" , when Obama signed his Exec Order "ending" torture, he included reservations allowing secret detentions and torture at the discression of the president. When Obama's Executive Order, Holder's statements on torture, and Panetta's promise to preserve rendition and protect torturers are combined, we are faced with the fact that our government has developed criminal powers that have passed successfully between Administrations/

Something has changed with the election of Obama. Bush's extrodonairy claims to criminal presidential powers to kidnap, secretly imprison, secretly transport, and torture anyone they decide is "bad" have now become regular presidential powers under Obama's Democratic Party.