"extraordinary rendition" -- outsourcing torture -- this is news to me....

[Bread and Circus]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp

"What we need is an effort to regain our good name. What we're getting instead is a provision, inserted by Congressional Republicans in the intelligence reform bill, to legalize "extraordinary rendition" - a euphemism for sending terrorism suspects to countries that use torture for interrogation. This would institutionalize a Kafkaesque system under which suspects can be sent, at the government's whim, to Egypt or Syria or Jordan - and to fight such a move, it's up to the suspect to prove that he'll be tortured on arrival. Just what we need to convince other countries of our commitment to the rule of law."

[Djinn]

1. Mamdouh Habib could fill you in

that is if he were allowed to talk to anyone. Habib, an Australian, was captured in Pakistan and then transferred to Egypt for 6 months, before being sent to Gitmo where he's been (incommunicado) for over 2 years.

"The Pakistani Government has said the US requested Mamdouh Habib, one of two Australians detained at Guantanamo Bay, be taken from Pakistan to Egypt for interrogation, where it has been claimed he was tortured.

The admission was made by Pakistan's Interior Minister, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, to SBS's Dateline, in a program to be aired tonight. "

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/06/1089000159649.html?oneclick=true

"Pakistani officials say Mr Habib was in United States custody when they passed him on to Egyptian authorities. But Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says it's not important whether the US administration asked for him to be transferred.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, he's a dual national, so he is an Egyptian citizen as well as an Australian citizen so my understanding about this has always been that the Pakistanis passed him to the Egyptians on the basis that he was an Egyptian citizen.

(snip)

TANYA NOLAN: Mr Habib's lawyer says his client renounced his Egyptian citizenship when he became an Australian citizen and he say the Federal Government knows this because authorities seized Mr Habib's Australian passport which contains two visas to enter Egypt, something an Egyptian citizen does not require.

(snip).

STEPHEN HOPPER: Well, he doesn't think it's important because he doesn't want to be exposed as being a person who may be involved in crimes against humanity. I believe that there should be a full Senate inquiry into this and Mr Downer's handling of it. If he's going to mislead the public by continuing to pedal this garbage that Mr Habib was a dual citizen, he should be made to account for it.
"

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1149481.htm

Just one more reason to travel on my UK passport NOT the Australian one.

[canuckforpeace]

2. Maher Arar could fill you in too...

He was detained at JFK and sent to Syria where he was tortured

Snip

"After being held apparently without access to legal representation, and despite being a Canadian citizen travelling with a Canadian passport, he was deported to Syria on October 7 or 8. After his arrival in Syria, he disappeared. The Canadian government was not contacted about Mr. Arar's case until October 10, 2002, after his deportation. He was later discovered to be in a Syrian jail."

Snip

"In Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP) pressured the government to do more to secure his return to Canada. The London-based Syrian Human Rights Committee (considered a credible source of information by Amnesty International) reported at this time that Mr. Arar was severely tortured after being imprisoned, and continued to receive physical abuse from time to time. The Syrian ambassador to Canada denied this."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar

[Djinn]

3. not to mention the god knows how many others

I sometimes feel a bit guilty about my focus on Hicks and Habib - it's soley due to my governments complete abdication of theri duty to two citizens but also because I know more about them.

How many people in Gitmo were conveniently sent to other nations?

[shraby]

4. That rendition provision will have to come

back out of that bill, because we signed the Geneva Convention and that makes it a part of our constitution. Too tired to look it up, but the entry is there.

[Bread and Circus]

5. Kick for the sake of changing course in this country.